 Name: Sriram Krishnamoorthy
Title: Programming Team Member Years on Team: 4 Years Areas of Focus and Responsibilities: “Software, image processing, fine-tuning subsystems” Impact FIRST has had: “exposed me to a world of engineering, design, and helped me meet people that I never would have known otherwise. It inspired me to pursue software” Favorite 4909 memory: “Programming vision processing at 10 PM” Plans After High School: Become a computer engineer and start my own business Ideal Job: CEO of a huge tech company
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 Intake: For the Intake group this week was one filled with lots of learning and growth. The group continued to build a prototype. They focused on assembling a Versa Planetary Motor, which is a motor used to rotate an object. The older team members have been guiding some of the newer ones for assembly. Drive Train: Throughout the past week, the team manufactured the pieces needed to assemble the drive train. In order to get a precise cut, they used the Velox CNC — a machine used to cut materials, like wood, with great precision. In addition, they custom cut their own Gearbox plates. These plates were created so that they could mount Falcon 500 motors (brushless motor that spins objects) onto the drive train, allowing them to achieve a speed of 15 meters per second.  Shooter: This third week of build season, the shooter team designed and prototyped the indexer: the part of the robot that holds the power cells (balls) before they are shot out. They went through a few different ideas before finally deciding on one specific, improved design. The group is excited to create the final version to go on the robot in the coming weeks.  Software:
This week, the software team started to work on the PID, a program that helps the robot drive in autonomous mode and sense the distance the robot travels. They have also been working on controlling the velocity of the shooter mechanism. Lastly, the software team has finished writing the code for the sensor to detect which color the control panel (colored disk) should stop on to activate stages of the shield generator. In addition to working hard on the robot the team has been working on a few fundraisers to help raise money for upcoming expenses. The team is currently selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a brick of 300 $1.00 scratch tickets. Only 125 tickets will be sold for each set of scratch tickets. If you are interested in purchasing a ticket to be in the drawing you can email the team at [email protected]. We will also be selling tickets outside of local stores in Billerica, make sure to check out our social media for more details. The team is also working with Panera Bread to put on a restaurant night. The team will be hosting this event on Thursday February 13th, from 4-8 PM at the Panera Bread location in Billerica MA. In order for the team to raise money a photo of the flyer must be shown when the order is taken. It can be a physical copy of the flyer or a digital copy from our website or social media. We can't wait to see everyone there!  Name: Jeff Davis
Title: Co-Robot Lead Years on Team: 4 Years Areas of Focus and Responsibilities: “Team organization, meeting planning, and electrical” Impact FIRST has had: “ FIRST made me more confident in my leadership abilities. It helped me figure out my future career path and focus my passions” Favorite 4909 memory: “The team's snowball fight” Plans After High School: College (attending WPI) as a robotics major and working as an intern during his time there. Ideal Job: Disney Imagineer  Shooter: Throughout the past week, the team tested the accuracy of our shooter prototype from various distances (30 in, 10 ft, 35 ft). They changed the motors to more powerful ones as well as modified the shooter itself to optimize the shots. While testing, the team also mimicked possible robot heights for the shooter to run at. Climber: Initially, the team had decided on a short robot. Due to this presumption, they had decided to attach an arm onto the robot to climb. With various iterations of the other subsystems, the team decided that it would be best to have a taller robot design. This opened up many options for the climber design. The team is currently in the process of redesigning the climbing mechanism.  Intake: This week, a design was decided on for the intake. The team created a prototype and is currently putting prototype in CAD. The intake mechanism will extend over the robot’s edge and use wheels to spin “power cells” into its indexer. Indexer: The indexer functions as an intermediary between the intake and shooter components. When the short robot design was in play, the team created a “washing machine” type design where the balls would move in a circular motion until they need to be shot into a goal. Now, with a taller robot design, the team designed a CAD model for a conveyor-belt-type mechanism to feed balls from the intake up to the shooter.  Software:
The first week of this FRC build season was a week for the software team to experiment with sensors and technology that proved valuable this year. They started by experimenting with a color spinner, which will help us handle the color wheel in-game. We programmed the color sensor to recognize the four colors and alert them in the order they spin. We also continued coding subsystems such as the drivetrain. With the newer members learning and contributing, we created the basic framework for another drive system. The Limelight (the team’s primary robot vision tool) also received an update. The software team set it up to track the "power port," the place where the robot needs to shoot the "power cells," in 3D; it can also chart the robot's field position. As the week comes to a close, the subteam is fine-tuning the Limelight camera to track the target's angle and distance.  Our seventh annual build season has kicked off! The team is now 33 members strong, and we have hit 30% female participation and 45% people of color. On the first day of build season, the team separated into groups to discuss designs for the four subsystems: intake, climber, shooter, and wheel spinner. Intake: The intake group’s responsibility is to capture power cells(balls) in the fastest way possible while holding the maximum amount of power cells. Some of the ideas included a vacuum system, two wheels spinning towards each other, and a horizontal bar spinning with wheels perpendicular to it. They looked at some of the intake systems on our older robots for reference. For now, they are committed to the spinning horizontal bar design and are currently in the prototyping phase.  Climber: The main task of the climber group is to design a mechanism for the robot to be able to climb the shield generator(structure to climb on) in order to score additional points. First, this group began brainstorming several designs, keeping in mind that the mechanism should be under 2 ft in order to navigate around the field. The mechanism would have to extend 6ft in order to hang on the shield generator. After a discussion, the group narrowed it down to two designs and will soon move on to the prototype designing stage.  Control Panels: This week, a section of the team worked on designing a mechanism that would be able to manipulate the control panels. This subsystem of the robot will be responsible for rotating the control panels(colored disks) a certain amount of times to activate stages of the shield generator(climbing structure). The software team is working on writing code that should be able to detect which color the control panel should stop on in order to activate the stages. This team is designing their top ideas in CAD(Computer Aided Design). The group is still on the CAD stage.  Shooter:
The main task of the shooter mechanism is to shoot power cells(balls) into the power port to score points. This group came up with six design ideas and narrowed them down to two using a pros and cons list. This allowed them to pick the best out of the two designs, start a CAD model, and build a functioning prototype. By testing it, this group has been able to make alterations to the prototype as well.  Name: Robert Lee
Title: Team Member Years on Team: 4 Years Areas of Focus and Responsibilities: “Inventory management and parts storage.” Impact FIRST has had: “An introduction to working with a team/work environment. It also taught me how to rely on other people and work alongside them.” Favorite 4909 memory: “Working with poly cord freshman year.” Plans After High School: Attend Fitchburg State for a masters degree in criminal justice Ideal Job: Law enforcement or working for FEMA/disaster planning  This past Saturday’s kickoff event marked the beginning of our Build Season journey. All the 40 high school students and many mentors eagerly watched the live stream of the new game animation that was to be released; we were even joined by many of our alumni to guide us through the process. We then analyzed the components of the 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition game, Infinite Recharge. The team did a group reading of the game manual, analyzed the field in which the game will be played, and discussed scoring and potential strategies to win with the most amount of points possible. This year’s game will require the robot to intake, score power cells (balls) into a “Power Port”, and manipulate control panels (colored disks which must be rotated a certain amount of times) to activate stages of the shield generator (structure to climb on). Here are links to the video of the game animation and the main web page which includes details about the game. Click here to access FIRST Web Page  Last year was a very successful year for Team 4909! After doing very well throughout their entire season, we qualified and attended the First World Championship in Detroit, MI. This year the team is excited to be working in BMHS’s high-tech robotics lab. The team has also recruited many new members from the 8th and 9th grades, as well as new students from upper classes. Last year, they had approximately 15 returning members and gained approximately 25 additional ones this year. It brings the team from under 25 members last season to over 40 this season! Currently, Team 4909 is training the newer members for the upcoming season, “Infinite Recharge”, which kicks off on January 4th. To help them prepare, the team attended Battle of the Bay in Alton, NH. We made it all the way to the finals as the seventh seed alliance competing against the first seed alliance. Unfortunately, our alliance team did not win but it was a great experience for everyone who attended. The event allowed all new members to feel the thrill of being at a FIRST event. In addition to competitions, the team had been hard at work to finish the calendar raffle fundraiser. Drawings began on November 1st and went throughout the entire month. The team posted all the winners on their social media accounts. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to everyone who supported us by buying tickets! Team Operations is currently working on the Woodie Flowers Award, this upcoming season’s business plan, updating our website, and finance reports. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more updates and information on the team's success and ways to support us.  The mechanical team has successfully built a T-Shirt launcher for the school's annual Thanksgiving Game Pep Rally. It was very popular among the students and was an exciting addition. It was also a great way to train new members and give them tons of hands-on experience before the start of the build season. The team has been working on preseason-design-challenges similar to last year. The leads put the members into groups and gave them a design challenge. With guidance from the upperclassmen, all of the groups have to design, CAD, and present their ideas to the rest of the team. They received both positive and negative feedback on their designs to get them into the FIRST mindset. We are really looking forward to the kickoff this Saturday and the rest of the year! We are holding another fundraiser: a scratch ticket raffle! Dates, times, and locations for where tickets will be sold are coming soon. Keep your eye out!  Kickoff Schedule:
Monday: no meeting Tuesday: 5:30 - 9:30 Wednesday: 2:30-5:00 Thursday: no meeting Friday: 2:30-9:00 Saturday: 8:00-2:30 Sunday: no meeting |