Down to the final two!

Team 156 RPM has two meetings left before competition! We are hard at work making the final touches and finishing up details to make sure everything is ready to go. We are finishing up the Chairman's video preparing our Chairman's binder, and passing out T-shirts today. Downstairs, they are finishing up painting the bumpers and building spare parts. Tomorrow, we will be meeting to pack up our truck. Some students will be leaving after school on Wednesday, and the rest of the team Thursday morning. The next time this is updated, we will be at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional Competition! See you there!

AHHHH!

            Robotics is getting intense, like camping... Upstairs, we are finishing the Chairmen's video and the Presentation. Downstairs, we are hard at work with taking apart the work bench, taking in the final layouts for the robot. We will be heading out next Thursday morning for California, Pennsylvania. Don't forget we only have a couple of meetings left. Next Tuesday is our mandatory meeting to load the truck for the competition. Let's go out there and get some metal. Rev it up, rev it up, RPM!!! WHOA!!!

We have begun to work on the physical preparations to leave for competition. Gathering tools together, updating and preparing safety materials, preparing our tool box, and many other such things have kept RPM busy! Upstairs, we continue to work hard on completing our Chairman's video submission and presentation, both of which must be done before the competition. Busy, busy, busy!! A parent was generous enough to come in and take pictures of our whole team recently. A team picture will be posted tomorrow. Make sure to come back and see it!

2 more weeks!!!

With only just over 2 weeks left until our competition, we continue to work hard to prepare! We have begun scouting out teams from the first few competitions to give us an idea for who we want to ally with when we compete. We have also begun to watch videos and read articles about successes and failures, as well as loopholes that hadn't been considered. Finally, today we completed our photo collages that will act as visual representation of our chairman's information. Team 156 RPM is preparing to the best that we can do!!

Submissions

With our robot bagged and tagged, it may seem like there is nothing left for us to do. However, that is far from the truth. Downstairs, our build team is working hard on making spare components, cleaning up and organizing, and practicing driving with our demo bot. Upstairs, believe it or not, we are still working on awards. By working outside of our meetings, we have recently managed to complete a submission for an award that has never been offered before, the Media and Technology Innovation Award. Yay!! On Saturday, we were able to take a team picture and record all the components of our Chairman's video. This video is made to act as visual proof of the statements we made in our essay. Our visual people are working hard to splice the different sections together. Although not as much, RPM 156 is still busy, busy, busy!!!!

Six weeks is up! I am proud to announce that team 156's robot for this season is complete! We officially bagged our robot on February 18th at 11:15! Great job team! =D

Tomorrow is our last day to finish our robot! The pressure is on team 156!

3 days!!

Our robot has to be bagged up by 12 midnight on Tuesday, February 18th. We are under a lot of pressure to get the robot completed. Along with getting everything built, students are also preparing for an audition and a test. In order to drive the robot, work the appendage, or act as the human player during the competition, students must demonstrate their skills and abilities. A paper test is given to test understanding of rules and requirements for the game, and students must demonstrate their skills by driving the robot. Whichever student does the best in each category will be rewarded with the title of driver, appendage operator, or human player.

While all of this is happening downstairs, upstairs we are continuing to work hard as well. Our business plan was submitted for judging recently. We are also working towards submitting for the Media and Technology Innovation award. This award focuses on how our team uses technology to branch out and make ourselves known. As part of this, we have recently published our  new and improved website, Rpm156.com, created a Facebook page, Fairview High School FIRST Robotics Team 156: RPM,  and created this blog. We are also considering creating a You T
ube channel. In order to prepare for our competition, we are also working hard on preparing our mascot, our team uniform, our Chairman's speech, and our Chairman's video.

Great progress has been made in all parts of our team. Keep it up, Team 156: RPM!!!

FIVE MORE DAYS AND COUNTING!!!

HELLO!

First off.....yesterday... was a REALLY busy day! After finding out that the business plan was set up in a different format than last year, all of the upstairs people rushed to complete the business plan on time!

Thanks to all of the hard work of our members, the business plan is finally submitted!

Downstairs: The throwing mechanism is now all placed onto the robot. We just need some tweaking and soon the robot will be decorated to look fabulous! 

Here are some images as to what has been going on here at Team 156: RPM

Build season is almost over! Our team cannot believe how far we have come in the past 5 weeks. We are excited and pumped to go to the Greater Pittsburgh Regional  at the end of March. See you there!

Sickness hasn't stopped RPM!

Flu season hasn't stopped RPM this season! Still meeting 6 days a week, with even longer meetings than usual on Saturdays, we are propelling forward. We are 8 days out from Stop Build, and we are crunching to get everything done. However, great progress was made today, as our shooter mechanism is almost complete. Upstairs, our business plan is almost complete. We are also continuing to progress on mascot ideas and uniform ideas for our competition. Finally, we are preparing photo collages to show what we have participated in in the past. With our due dates and competitions fast approaching, we are working hard!

Sparks Fly

Sparks flew at RPM's meeting today! Our frame came in a few days ago and they are fervently working to complete our robot. Today we were cutting aluminum and assembling the basic structure. With only 9 days remaining to complete the robot, our meetings getting longer and potentially more frequent, but that has not bothered us!Upstairs, great progress was made today when we submitted the Chairman's summaries and essay. The Mighty Mrs. Bacik is pleased with us, as we got the essay done 4 days in advance! Woo hoo! Crunch time is upon us for the builders, so see you next time!

Website!

So much has happened since we last post.......few days back? I think? Maybe?

Well, for starters....

yes, he IS adorable!

Now back to our program:

Downstairs, the builders finally chose a final design for the shooter. Since we are still waiting for our frame to come in, the builders are being productive by prototyping possible ways to pick up the ball.
Our programmers have also been busy as they work to design a basic program for the robot until it is fully built.


Upstairs (way upstairs), the website is being finally revised and hopefully published this week. Yep, that's right--the website has been completely remade once again! And this time, it looks very VERY snazzy and easy to use.
The Chairman's Essay is completed, with only a few minor grammatical errors to fix. The final copy will be reread and corrected and hopefully be ready to submit soon.
The CAD design is all set, up to a point. the basic frame is made (the model design was shipped out a couple days ago to be made) and all the components currently are on, besides the shooter and the pick up mechanism.
The safety manual is also complete, with only a few tweaks to make it look pretty.


We will continue to keep you up-to-date, so for now, stare deeply and ponder at the wonderful image below:
now aint he adorable!

Hey

Hey guys! Build season is almost halfway through. Just letting ya'll know. We currently have a steady stream of buttons being designed and pressed each day. Our website is close to being finished as well as organizational things and Chairman's. The unrelenting cold doesn't keep RPM 156 from working into the night (til' 9 pm of course, people got to sleep). Programming, building, tweaking, writing, drawing, designing, more tweaking, pressing, testing. All the time. Thus tomorrow, Friday, January 31st, we will be given the treat of a day off! So, RPM, we have one day to relax and brainstorm before returning to our task. But Saturday is party day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MRS.SARGENT!!!
So bring food and goodies to celebrate one of our mentor's birthday! (But we still have to work, because it is our noble duty as a FIRST member. But we love our mentors. Just sayin'. And food. And robots.)

Halfway!!

We are halfway through this year's build season already! We are steadily progressing towards a final robot design, as well as a final Chairman's award submission. We have completed designs of our robot frame, and sent it out for welding. Downstairs, our build team has succeeded in throwing the ball into the goal with our prototype. Upstairs, we are working hard on organizing all of our materials and getting our submissions together. The weather continues to be grueling and uncooperative, but it hasn't stopped Team 156 RPM!!!

Cold Weather

The weather in Erie is unrelenting, but that hasn't stopped team 156 from their hard labor. Pending approval, our chairman's award submissions are nearing completion. Button making has come a long way, as has our reinvented website design and safety manual. Downstairs we have our builders frantically welding and wiring away to complete our prototype and move into the final design. With only a little more than three weeks left of build, we've started to enter our crunch-time phase. We'll see you next time. Same place, same time.

2014 Season is under way!

Team 156 RPM's 2014 season is officially underway! Downstairs, our build team is working hard on prototyping mechanisms to pick up a 2-foot diameter ball, as well as mechanisms to throw this ball. As prototyping progresses, we have discovered one design that throws well, one design that doesn't work as well, and we have one more design in the process of being assembled. The first two designs involved pneumatic (air) cylinders and a rectangular frame for the ball to sit on. The third design involves a chain on a gear-type wheel. As the chain spins the wheel, an arm goes up. Upstairs, our chairmen's award essays and summaries are almost complete, and our website is almost ready to publish! As we prepare for the Greater Pittsburgh Regional, our team is busy, busy, busy!!