RAGE Robotics

By Frances Taylor – Staff Writer
East Hartford – posted Sun., Mar. 25, 2012

Fresh from a trip to Montreal, the RAGE Robotics team of East Hartford is getting ready for the regional championships that will take place March 30–31. This year, the students have constructed a basketball-shooting robot that will compete in the “Rebound Rumble” at the Hartford Convention Center.

RAGE, which stands for Robotics And Gadget Engineering, is a team made up of students from East Hartford, Manchester, Rockville and Tolland high schools; CIBA students; engineering mentors; teachers; and parents. The team, now in its 18^th year, designs and builds a robot that is used in competitions throughout the year.

During a recent meeting at East Hartford High School, the team talked about their Montreal trip and prepared for the upcoming competition. “We had six weeks to build a robot that can shoot a basketball into a hoops set at three different levels,” said William Champ, a member of the drive team for the robot. During the competition, teams shoot baskets at the ends of an eight-hoop field during a series of two minute, 15-second matches. The teams also compete for honors and recognition that reward their design excellence, competitive play and sportsmanship. Teams are also recognized for the partnerships they form with schools, businesses and communities.

The team was one of only four teams from the U.S. that participated in the Montreal event. The group placed seventh overall, and won an award from the judges for their graciousness and professionalism toward other teams. “We helped another team that was having problems with their equipment, and they ended up placing higher than we did,” said Alex Carr, the team treasurer.

Interest in robotics has grown in recent years, with new teams and national and international interest growing. Brook Jackson, the team’s vice president, has been on the robotics team for the past four years. “It’s very creative,” Jackson said. “You meet a lot of new people, people from across the country and even from other countries, and you can relate to them because you all have the same interest commitment.”

Northeast Utilities is the sponsor of the Connecticut Regional at the Hartford Convention Center. A live web cast of the event can be seen on the website www.shsrobotics.org/webcast.html. Visit www.ragerobotics.com for further information.

Reposted with permission, ReminderNews.

By Jennifer Coe – ReminderNews
Suffield – posted Thu., Feb. 23, 2012

Teams from all over Connecticut and as far away as Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., were prepared to battle it out on Feb. 18 at the 11th Annual Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage, a FIRST Robotics competition. FIRST Robotics is a national program high schools everywhere are plugging into which emphasizes the skills learned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Hosted by Team No. 176, otherwise known as “Aces High Robotics,” at Suffield High School, the gymnasium was throbbing with excitement as a D.J. blared dance music and teams assembled with their robots, each making last-minute adjustments to their creations. Each team was given a mere six weeks to assemble, prototype, and test their robot prior to bringing it to the Shakedown.

The goal? Be able to pick up and throw a basketball into a basket. That is easier said than done, and all the teams took a different approach to making it happen.

“Ours has a custom drive base with drop omni-wheels,” said team member Robert Hunt of South Windsor’s Bobcats. “We have a tower that pivots around its center.”  The team of about 34 students spent more than 120 hours on its robot.

“We’re using a catapult and pneumatics,” said Victor Hipolito, a member of “Buzz Robotics,” from Enfield. “Buzz” has 21 team members, and they were proud to say that they “make it the biggest that we can.” According to Hipolito, they have one adult mentor for every student, making it a very one-on-one learning experience.

“Our robot sucks up the ball on the front and then we have pneumatics that pop it up to the top rollers,” said Emily Davidson, of East Hartford’s “Rage Robotics.” “The challenge is to make it in the basket.” “Rage” has 30 students on its team.

All the teams were nervous about whether or not their robot would function as planned in the heat of battle.

The competition began with the first couple of match-ups of four bots, each controlled by a team of drivers. Extra points were given for being able to traverse the bridges in the center of the playing field. Only a few baskets were scored. Match number three met with some technical difficulties and after a few games of “rock, paper, scissors” and a spontaneous dance-a-thon, the robots were ready to roll again. Each battle for baskets only lasted 2 minutes and 15 seconds, barely enough time for some of the teams to find their bearings on the game field.

After several heats and a full day of competition, winners were chosen, and in the end the teams with the largest number of points were  No. 716 – The Who’sCTEKS of Falls Village; No. 176 – Aces High of Windsor Locks; and No. 2168 – Aluminum Falcons of Groton.  All three winners will be moving on to the FIRST CT Regional Competition to be held in Hartford on March 29.

Reposted by permission, ReminderNews.

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.