Leland Robotics Blog

Archive for the ‘Competitions’ Category

2012 Google Silicon Valley Regional Conclusion

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

After the success at the Sacramento Regional two weeks prior, FIRST Team 604 came home to compete at the Google Silicon Valley Regional ready for some intense competition. We made a few changes to our robot since Sacramento and they paid off. After ten qualification matches, we seeded 14th and later moved up to the 8th alliance captain out of 50 teams. Working with our scouters, we formed an alliance with FIRST Teams 2073, EagleForce, and 192, GRT. Although we narrowly lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions, FIRST Teams 971, 254, and 766, we gave them one of their closest matches.

The day before, Mr. Mori, our long time mentor since 2005, won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. He will go on to compete for the Woodie Flowers Award at the Championship Event in St. Louis. You can read his nominating essay here. This brings the number of Woodie Flower Finalist Award recipients on our team to three, including Mrs. Arrington (Sacramento 2010) and Mrs. Best (Sacramento 2011). Our team is so lucky to have such amazing mentors!

Mr. Mori was not the only person on our team to receive recognition. On Saturday, Kunal M., a senior on our team, was recognized as one of two Dean’s List Finalists at the Silicon Valley Regional for his passion and leadership in FIRST. He will go on to compete for the Dean’s List Award at the Championship Event in St. Louis.

The good news did not end here. Our team was honored to received the most prestigious award given at the event, the Regional Chairman’s Award. We will now compete against all of the other regional winners at St. Louis for the coveted Championship Chairman’s Award.

FIRST Team 604 would like to thank our sponsors, mentors, parents, and alumni for all of their support. None of this would be possible without them. We will see you all at the FIRST Championship Event in St. Louis in a few short weeks!

Sureshot scoring during quarterfinals

Cutting the net!

Our 5th RCA in 6 years!

Tags: FRC, Rebound Rumble, SVR
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2012 Google Silicon Valley Regional: Day 2

Friday, March 30th, 2012

After an exhausting day at the San Jose State Event Center, we were extremely excited to learn that our mentor, Jim Mori, won the Woodie Flower’s Finalist Award. Mr. Mori has been involved with the FIRST program since 1999 and with FIRST Team 604 since 2005. He has worked with FIRST Teams 254, 668, 1967, 2135, 3256 and even more as the Lead Robot Inspector at Silicon Valley. He now joins our other two WFFA recipients, Mrs. Arrington and Mrs. Best to complete the threepeat!

Adding on to the celebration was the fact that it was presented by Andy Baker, the 2003 Championship Woodie Flower’s Award recipient.

Andy Baker (WFA, 2003), Mr. Beck, Mrs. Best (WFFA 2011), Mr. Mori (WFFA 2012), and Mrs. Arrington (WFFA 2010)

Andy Baker (WFA, 2003), Mr. Beck (Regional Director), Mrs. Best (WFFA 2011), Mr. Mori (WFFA 2012), and Mrs. Arrington (WFFA 2010)

Congratulations to Mr. Mori!

Tags: FRC, Rebound Rumble, SVR
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2012 Sacramento Regional

Monday, March 19th, 2012

FIRST Team 604 started another successful competition season at the 2012 Sacramento Regional, held at the UC Davis ARC Pavilion. Originally faced with some technical issues, our team was able to overcome some of them and use our skill on the coopertition^(TM) bridge to our advantage. Completing a total of four coopertition^(TM) balances, we seeded 4th, and were the 3rd alliance captain. After picking FIRST Team 840, Aragon High School, we were able to complete the alliance with our close friends, FIRST Team 1323, Madera High School. However after lunch, we were plagued with more technical issues, and fell to the eventual finalists, composed of FIRST Teams 3669, 3256, and 3598. We are extremely proud of FIRST Team 3256, a team we have extensively worked with, for their stellar performance and their Entrepreneurship Award on Friday night.

The day ended with a pleasant surprise with the news that we had won the Engineering Inspiration Award. This award has officially qualified us for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, and NASA will be paying the $5,000 entry fee as a reward for our accomplishments.

We would also like to thank everyone who stuck with us through our difficulties with the webcast, we have fixed them for the Silicon Valley webcast. If you have any comments or feedback, please email us. The match videos will be split and uploaded to The Blue Alliance sometime this week. Stay tuned for updates!

Only two weeks until SVR! Go 604!

Balancing in our final prelim match with FIRST Team 971

FIRST Team 604 at the Sacramento Regional

Our Engineering Inspiration Trophies and Medals!

Tags: FRC, Rebound Rumble, Sacramento
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2012 Robot Unveiling — Introducing “Sureshot”

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

FIRST Team 604 will be competing this weekend at the Sacramento Regional. Remember to watch us on MadStream!

Here is our latest creation for the world to see! Many thanks to our sponsors and friends who helped make this happen.

Name: “Sureshot”

Dimension: 27″W x 36″L x 59″H

Weight: 118 lbs

Concept: Our team recognized early on in the season that with the limited number of balls on the field, acquiring balls quickly and making every shot count would be very important. These shots also need to be taken quickly without needing much time to line up, even if the robot is under heavy defense. Furthermore, a low center of gravity was desired for easier bump traversal and bridge balancing. With a full-width pickup, high speed elevator, and a software-automated turret, our robot achieves all these criteria and is able to make close range shots quickly with near 100% accuracy, even under heavy defense.

Features:

Custom two-speed shift-on-the-fly transmission: 6 and 17 feet per second
8wd “West Coast Drive” base: Light, robust, and easy to maintain
Full-width pickup: Easy ball acquisition, doubles as a bridge manipulator
Elevator/hopper: ~0.5 second lift to 84″ high, counterbalanced via constant force spring, holds 3 balls, very low center-of-gravity when retracted
Turreted shooter: ~0.5 second 360 degree rotation, 2 position hood
Software-assisted operation: Automatic pickup and shoot sequences, automated turret aiming, off-board image processing for maximum performance

FRC604's 2012 Robot -- "Sureshot"

FRC604's 2012 Robot Render

Tags: FRC, Rebound Rumble, Sacramento
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2011 Off-season Recap

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

With the 2011-2012 season just starting, FIRST Team 604 has already been hard at work, competing at two different off-season competitions — the WRRF CalGames and the MadTown Throwdown – running workshops, and demonstrating our robot throughout the community.

Working with NASA and FIRST Team 846, we showed off our 2010 FRC robot OverKill and introduced kids to robotics by letting them drive VEX robots at the 2011 San Francisco Fleet Week. You can find pictures from that demo and a few more this year on our website here.

For our off-season competitions, we chose to redesign our entire arm and minibot deployment. At CalGames, after some hard fought matches, we were chosen to be on the 6th seed alliance by FIRST Teams 1351 from Mitty HS, and 751 from Woodside Priory HS. Unfortunately, after losing the first quarterfinal against FIRST Teams 1868, 1678, and 256, our robot had communication issues with the field and was unable to move the entire next match, ending our CalGames tournament run. However we got some good news later on in the day when we found out we won the Entrepreneurship Award, as well as the first runner-up for the AMD CAD Award.

At the MadTown Throwdown, we were selected to be on the 6th alliance after winning 4 matches and losing 2 in the qualification rounds, joining FIRST Teams 3512, 1323B, and 3859. Unfortunately we lost in quarterfinals to the 3rd alliance, consisting of FIRST Teams 2073, 971B, 3256, and 362. It was a great learning experience for the team, and we look forward to going back next year!

Two Saturdays ago we hosted our annual FLL tournament, the Quixilver Qualifier. There were 16 teams in attendance with some action-packed rounds. We tried out a new system this year, having playoffs done with four alliances of two teams each, to try and mix up FLL and FRC. Looking at the feedback, it seems that all of the participants loved it! Congratulations to the champions, Team 1202, VulnifiSquidz. Our team was later recognized with the Volunteer Award! A big thanks to Jim Mori for directing the tournament, all the volunteers, and FIRST Teams 2643 and 2135 for their help.

Entreprenuership & Runner-Up CAD Award!

Our eliminations alliance at the Madtown Throwdown

Shooting t-shirts at the Quixilver Qualifier

Tags: CalGames, FLL, FRC, Lego, Logomotion, Madtown Throwdown, Outreach
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2011 Google Silicon Valley Regional

Monday, April 4th, 2011

After a successful Sacramento Regional, FIRST Team 604 competed at our home regional, the Google Silicon Valley Regional. While initially faced with some electrical and pneumatic issues, Quixilver made the necessary modifications on our robot, and passed inspection early Friday morning.

Having considerably more experience, our drivers were able to consistently put up one to two logos per match as well as play strong defense. During alliance selections, we were invited to join the second seeded alliance, comprised of FIRST Team 1323, Madtown Robotics, and FIRST Team 1868, the Space Cookies. Our alliance was able to breeze through the quarterfinals and semifinals, before narrowly losing both finals matches to the tournament champions, FIRST Teams 254, 1538, and 751. The finals were so close, in fact, that the match could have gone either way up until the last second. Thank you 1323 and 1868 for being great alliance partners and becoming the 2011 Google Silicon Valley Regional Finalists.

We would also like to give a shout-out to one of the teams that we helped start, who were just rookies last year – FIRST Team 3256 the WarriorBorgs — for winning the Engineering Inspiration Award, as well as having one your members being recognized as a Dean’s List Award Finalist. You guys have come such a long way in a short time.

Another shout-out goes to one of our former members, James Best, for mentoring FIRST Team 3473, Team Sprocket, to a Regional Win at the Los Angeles Regional! See you in St. Louis!

3 weeks until the FIRST Championship!

Our Drivers

The GSVR Finalist Alliance

Tags: FRC, Logomotion, SVR
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2011 Sacramento Regional Conclusion

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

This past weekend, FIRST Team 604 attended our first regional competition of the season. After three days of exciting and intense competition, we received several awards recognizing our hard work.

On Friday, our mentor Mrs. Best was awarded the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. She will go on to compete for the Woodie Flowers Award at the Championship Event against all previous Woodie Flowers Finalist Award winners, including another one of our mentors Mrs. Arrington who was a finalist last year as well. That same day, another of our mentors, Mrs. Zafiropoulos, was named the Bret Harte Teacher of the Year. Congratulations to our amazing mentors!

On Saturday, after ten qualifying matches, we were selected to be on the 7th seeded alliance, compromised of FIRST Team 3013, the Zombots from Vallejo High, and FIRST Team 114, Eagle Strike from Los Altos High. Unfortunately, we were knocked out in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions, FIRST Team 1678, the Citrus Circuits from Leonardo Da Vinci High, FIRST Team 1868, the Space Cookies from the Girl Scouts of America, and FIRST Team 766, M-A Bears from Menlo-Atherton High.

Later, four of our members were recognized for their invention of a secondary container for battery transportation, winning the Runner-Up Abbott Inventor Hall of Fame Award.

Finally, our team was awarded the Regional Chairman’s Award (RCA), the most prestigious award given at a Regional competition, for our outreach within the community and the nation — our fourth RCA in the last five years. This award qualifies our team for the Championship Event in St. Louis, which will be held mid-April.

Photos and videos from the competition will be on our website shortly.

Two weeks ’till the Silicon Valley Regional!

Congratulations to Mrs. Best!

Our Abbott Inventor Hall of Fame Team

Our fourth Chairman's in five years!

Tags: FRC, Logomotion, Sacramento
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Sacramento Day 2

Friday, March 18th, 2011

The Sacramento Regional has certainly had many ups and downs. Starting the day with a semi-non functional robot, FIRST Team 604 worked its way back up the rankings, ending the day with only one loss in the last five matches. One of our mentor’s, Mrs. Best, was recognized for her efforts today with the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. She joins our teacher/advisor, Mrs. Arrington (Sacramento ’10), as our second distinguished mentor.

But the good news didn’t stop there. Today another of our mentors, Mrs. Zafiropoulos, was named the Bret Harte Middle School Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations to both of our mentors for their achievements!

Go 604!

Tags: FRC, Logomotion, Sacramento
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Live from Sacramento! (And a teaser!)

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Starting tomorrow, FIRST Team 604 will be competing in our first regional for the 2011 season, the Sacramento Regional held at UC Davis. We will be posting updates on our Facebook and Twitter pages: facebook.com/frc604 and twitter.com/frc604

And our second teaser is finally here:

Stop by our pit to find out what this is!

Tags: FRC, Logomotion, Sacramento, Teaser
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One Month Till Build Season!

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

The 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition season is quickly arriving. Team 604 is currently holding safety workshops to prepare all members for the upcoming build season, so we can have an injury-free one. There will also be other workshops over winter break in final preparation for the season.

We have also been helping out on the FIRST Lego League scene. Team 604 has volunteered at six tournaments so far, and run our very own tournament, the Quixilver Qualifier on November 13. Congratulations to the champions, Team 455: The Los Altos Geek Squad. Full results and more information can be found here. Team 604 also mentored four different FLL teams, with two advancing to the 2nd Tier regional level, and one advancing to the state championships. More information on their achievements can be found here.