RAGE Robotics

For the second year in a row, RAGE’s robot and team members were pictured in the Journal Inquirer as part of its Suffield Shakedown coverage. Connie Eckstrom, Alex Arena, and Lindsey Davidson are shown working on the robot before one of the matches. The annual competition took place on February 19 and provides a venue for teams to try out their newly designed robots shortly before having to ship them to their first regional competition.

RAGE Robotics, based in East Hartford, took silver in the recent Chesapeake Regional FIRST robotics competition held March 11–13 in Baltimore, Maryland. During two days of matches, RAGE (Robotics And Gadget Engineering) advanced through the qualification rounds with a 6-5-0 record and was selected to compete in the elimination rounds.

Working together with Vulcan Robotics from Philadelphia and the Robo Doves from Baltimore, the alliance won its way through the quarterfinals and semifinals to make it into the final round. Though they lost the best-of-three final, the alliance was a force to be reckoned with. Fifty teams hailing from New Hampshire down through North Carolina participated in the event.

Beside the Chesapeake Regional, RAGE will be competing in the Northeast Utilities Connecticut Regional being held April 1–3 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.

This year’s robot was prototyped, designed, and built by the students working side-by-side with seasoned engineers. The mechanical details were developed with the aid of a professional CAD system and fabricated by local machine shops who donated both time and materials to the team. The control software was also done completely by student programmers who were responsible for all of the robot’s motion and behavior.

Students designed shirts, buttons, backpacks, signs, and other spirit items for use by the team to cheer on the drive team and to pass out to other teams during competitions. The team’s bulldog mascot can also be seen raising a ruckus from the sidelines.

Funding for the team’s activities comes completely from corporate sponsorships and team-based fundraising efforts. Major sponsors include United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), CNC Software, Nerac, JP Fabrication & Repair, and Trumpf.

Be sure to check out page 3 of the February 22 edition of the Journal Inquirer for several photos taken at the Suffield scrimmage on Saturday. Our own Bruce Hockaday, Lindsey Davidson, and Emily Tunila are featured in one of them (Andy was robbed!). Too bad there was no accompanying story like there was in Rochester.

Congratulations to Aces High (team 176) and all the teams who participated in this year’s Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage last Saturday. Many of the early rounds were pretty shaky as teams worked last-minute kinks out of their new designs, but by the finals, most teams had things pretty figured out.

Here are a few things our team learned from the day:

• Make sure the pneumatics are fully charged before putting the robot out on the field.
• You can’t driver over the bumps with the kicker deployed.
• Make sure you tighten all the bumpers so you don’t kick one of them off onto the ground during autonomous mode.
• A roller meant to control the ball will suck the ball under the robot when the roller is built too high off the ground.
• It’s very possible to score goals during autonomous mode, even with minimal programming and from the far zone.
• The Field Management System (FMS) is capable of locking you out of your own driver station if it thinks you’re supposed to be on the field competing.
• Carabiners on the four corners do indeed make it easier to pick up the robot.

The winning alliance was unstoppable to the end, and was made up of Team 3125, Pirates of the Pythagorean from Hartford; Team 177, Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor; and Team 178, 2nd Law Enforcers from Farmington. Great job everyone.

The coordinators of the Connecticut state FLL tournament are looking for judges to serve during the tournament on Sunday, December 13. Experienced judges are great but newcomers can be trained. The more they have the easier the day becomes. They could also use referees.

If you’re interested, contact Mike Gentry at gentrme@nu.com for more information or to sign up.

Registration for the Vernon FLL (FIRST Lego League) qualifying event is now open. Sponsored by RAGE Robotics and Team Paragon, teams must do well in this event in order to advance to the state-wide competition later in the year.

FLL introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by building Lego-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the process, learn to make positive contributions to society.

Elementary and middle-school students get to:

• Design, build and program robots using Lego Mindstorms technology
• Apply real-world math and science concepts
• Research challenges facing today’s scientists
• Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills 
• Participate in tournaments and celebrations

What FLL teams accomplish is nothing short of amazing. It’s fun. It’s exciting. And the skills they learn will last a lifetime.

The Vernon competition is scheduled for Saturday, November 21 at Vernon Center Middle School. Admission is free and all are encouraged to attend. Please come out and see how our students are preparing for their future while having loads of fun.

The board of directors and team have elected to attend the Chesapeake Regional competition in Baltimore during week 2 (March 11-13) and the Connecticut Regional, now in Hartford during week 5 (April 1-3). We won’t be attending the Championships in Atlanta (unless we win a regional) due to the expense and the uncertainty of sponsorships. Please come out to the Connecticut Convention Center in April and cheer us on. Admission is free.

FIRST has updated their web site with the dates and locations of the 2010 regional competitions. Go here to see them all. In summary, Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester is week 1, WPI in Worcester and New York City are week 2, Connecticut is week 3, and Boston and Philadelphia are week 4. Be thinking about which ones you’d like the team to go to and be ready to talk about it at an upcoming meeting.