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.

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.

After 12 years located at 701 Main St., East Hartford, the award-winning robotics team that brought home a National Championship in 2002 and placed third in the world in 2005 and 2007 will have to find a new home. Thanks to the generosity of Mary Lee Stiegler, the RAGE team was given a home in the back of the old A&P grocery store on Main St. in East Hartford back in 1999. This approximately 9,000-square-foot donation allowed the team to build a full-size playing field to practice on when competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. It also allowed us to hold our regularly scheduled meetings there, teach classes in C++ and SolidWorks (CAD program), and have fun.

We were able to impact the lives of hundreds of students through the years and promote the values of gracious professionalism as they learned how to master the intricacies of robotics, team building, cooperation, and engineering. These STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields are critical components in today’s society. We wish to publicly thank Ms. Stiegler for her generosity as we search for a new home.

RAGE is a legally incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math through participation in the FIRST robotics program (www.usfirst.org).

In addition to designing, building, and competing with large 130-lb., five-foot-tall robots, the RAGE team also fosters the importance of community service. Each year, the RAGE team hosts a FIRST Lego League Tournament that provides the opportunity for 24 elementary school teams to compete with their Lego Mindstorms robots. The team also sorted, boxed, and stored over 40,000 toys collected during the State Police Stuff-a-Cruiser program. These toys were then distributed to patients and families undergoing treatment at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford. We have collected toys for the KIDSAFE CT Christmas party and provided lots of baby items, blankets, and so forth for My Sisters’ Place, a shelter for women and children.

The RAGE team (http://www.ragerobotics.com) is actively seeking a new benefactor that can provide a donated home for this award-winning team. Ideally, we need space that would have several rooms that could be set up as classrooms: one for computers (6–7 workstations), one for spirit , and a larger room capable of holding 40–50 people for our team meetings. We also need a workshop space where we can use our several small tools (drill press, sander, table saw, band saw, etc ) that allow us to build our field and robot. Ideally there would be space to build a playing field (30’ × 75’) where we could practice throughout the season.

We meet typically all year round with a short break in the summer. Our meetings are traditionally on Wednesday nights at 6:30 P.M. to allow for students from all the different high schools to attend. Though based in East Hartford, RAGE currently has high school students from East Hartford, Rockville, Tolland, Bolton, Manchester, and Ellington.

Please contact the president of our Board of Directors, Maire Cusson (maire@ragerobotics.com) with any information. You may also contact team leader Chuck Nystrom (chucknye@msn.com).

Not to be outdone by the Boy Scouts who can now earn a robotics merit badge, a team of Girl Scouts from Iowa has created a prize-winning prosthetic device to help a 3-year-old girl born without fingers on her right hand.

The Flying Monkeys robotics team developed the BOB-1 tool as part of the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition, an international kids’ robotics program.

The Monkeys are 11 to 13 years old, including one who has a limb difference that provided inspiration for the invention. The girls consulted a prosthetics maker and an occupational therapist and came up with a design that has a platform strapped to the arm as well as a cylindrical holder for writing implements or other tools.

The device helped 3-year-old Danielle hold a pencil with her right arm and write for the first time. It also netted the Flying Monkeys an FLL Global Innovation award of up to $20,000 to patent the invention, which they have applied for (PDF).

Danielle’s family has worked with the team to improve the device and would like another for a 5-year-old boy it adopted who also has a limb difference.

FLL is part of the Girl Scouts’ focus on STEM skills. The FIRST Championship, which just wrapped up in St. Louis, featured the Girl Scout GENIUS team, which installed a rear-view camera and sensor system on a wheelchair to improve visibility and navigation.

[CNET]

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.

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.

Come meet Agawam High School’s Rosie Robotics team and see this year’s challenge. The cost for the all you can eat buffet is $8 per person and includes pasta, meatballs, salad, bread, dessert, juice, coffee, and tea.

Friday, February 5, 2010
4 pm – 7:30 pm
American Legion Post 185, 478 Springfield St, Feeding Hills, MA