inside this issue newsletter issue 2 wip-1 (1) (1).pdf · during the endgame: parking, getting...

Team 3641: The Flying Toasters Issue #2: Mid-Build Season — February 2020

www.theflyingtoasters.org

What’s FIRST?

Issue 2

2/29/2020

“The goal is to create

in the culture

passion among kids

to do something. I

think the trouble is

our culture does

create a passion for

kids, but their

passion is related to

one of two

industries:

entertainment or

sports.”

-Dean Kamen

Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and

technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-

school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.”

Under strict rules, limited time and resources, teams of students are challenged

to raise funds, design a team "brand," hone teamwork skills, and build and program

industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. It’s

as close to real-world engineering as a student can get. Volunteer professional mentors

lend their time and talents to guide each team. Each season ends with an exciting FIRST

Championship.

From: “www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/what-is-first-robotics-competition”

Mar. 13-14

April 3-4

April 9-11

Belleville

Alpena #2

States

(Saginaw)

UPCOMING COMPETITIONS

Robot Progress

New Robot Features to Us

2

The FRC Learning Curve

So What’s Bag & Tag?

3

The Force Around Us: The Field We Are

lsdkBuilding

4

Balancing the Force

Light Side or Dark Side? Alliances

5

Challenges and Overcoming Them

Transition from FTC to FRC

6

FIRST Badges

Why We Built a Full-sized Field

7

Sponsorship Spotlight 8

inside this issue

The Flying Toasters

Website:

www.theflyingtoasters.com

Email:

[email protected]

Twitter & Instagram: @Team3641

A Competitive High School

Robotics Team

https://www.firstchampionship.org

https://www.firstchampionship.org



For all my past robotics seasons, FIRST

announced the game and we had six weeks

to design and build our robot. At the end of

that, we were required to seal it in a bag

and stop all work on it. This was called the

“bag and tag” deadline. It was intended as a

way to compensate for teams that were

competing in different weeks - those with a

week one event had the same amount of

time to build a robot as those who had a

week five event. In addition, no team could

work on their robot between tournaments.

This year, however, there is no “bag and

tag;” we can work right up until our first

competition, and we don’t have to re-bag it

after we compete. This year, it is in

continuous development, just like the “real

world.”

Our team decided we still wanted to

finish our robot by the end of the 6 week

build period. This

strict deadline has

helped ensure that

we had ample time

to test and have drive practice with our

robot. In order to achieve this goal, we have

had a big digital clock constantly counting

down to our deadline.

We started out ahead of schedule, but

were slowed down by minor mishaps, like

they happen in the “real world.” We also had

to wait for parts and equipment.

Now, we have a working intake and

launcher, as well as a moving drivetrain. We

have machined many parts ourselves,

thanks to our CNC router and CNC mill.

We will definitely have the robot done in

time for our first competition, it’s just a

matter of how much drive practice time

we’ll have. Overall things are looking good

for our first competition!

This year The Flying Toasters are

including a lot of new features on our robot

to be more competitive.

One of these new features is a custom

drivetrain gearbox. This gearbox was

completely designed and machined by The

Flying Toasters, and it has solved some

problems we have had with off-the-shelf

drivetrain gearboxes. This includes things

like backlash in the gearbox, along with

limited gearing options.

On top of this, we are also building a

hooded turret shooter to shoot power cells

into the upper power port goals. The

hooded turret shooter allows us to control

the angle at which we shoot in both x and y

axes. This should help us score more points

because we can shoot more accurately.

Finally, another new feature on our robot

is the use of a telescoping lift instead of our

regular lifts. The telescoping lift extends

with tubes inside of each other which is a

better use of space than our previous lifts

which had tubes next to each other.

In general, we are including many new

features on the robot to help us do better in

competitions.

Robot Progress

By: Zachary M.

Sophomore

New Robot

Features to Us

By: Swaraj K.

Junior



Coming in as a freshman I had no idea

what robotics truly entailed, yet I was

determined to involve myself in the

electrical team when the build season

started. Since there weren’t any

upperclassmen with electrical

experience, I had to learn how to

overcome obstacles and teach myself

how to wire our robot for competition.

Numerous hours were spent researching

what the different components of the

electrical system were and how they all

came together to make our robot run.

With guidance from my mentors, one

of my peers and I wired an entire robot

with no prior experience. Although my

mentors could have given me all of the

answers, there is value in problem

solving and thinking through subjects

that you’ve never encountered before.

FIRST Robotics teaches us to be

innovators, to be creative, and most

importantly, to never stop striving for

excellence. Through FIRST, I have learned

that giving up is not an option. You must

persevere through the challenges and

obstacles that come your way. I believe

that this is a very important skill for

people to obtain before they enter the

workforce.

Yoda once said, “Do or do not, there is

no try.” My robotics team teaches us to

pour ourselves into everything we do,

and we will carry this skill with us

throughout our lifetime.

In the past, “bag and tag” was a set

date and time that all robotics teams had

to put their robot in a bag and could no

longer improve or test their robot after

that date until they were at a

competition.

This year, there is no bag and tag

cutoff, and we feared that without a solid

deadline, our robot would not be

finished. As a team, we set our own

deadline to complete the robot, using the

same six week “bag and tag” date,

leaving us time after that to work out the

bugs and make sure our drivers are

comfortable with the robot.

By keeping to the traditional “bag and

tag” cutoff date as a goal, our building

and planning were hardly affected.

With lots of “extra” time to develop

robots, I would expect to see many

spectacular robots during the

tournaments!

The FRC

Learning Curve

By: Taylor K.

Senior

So What’s

Bag & Tag? By: Samuel S.

Senior



The team decided that this year’s

practice field needed to be full sized

(approximately 53’ x 27’), instead of the

half sized fields that we have done in

previous years. We needed to do this

because of the way this game is played.

We can practice different strategies for

different scenarios to earn the most

amount of points possible.

In addition to needing a giant room

that could house the footprint of the field,

we also needed a room tall enough to

house the tallest objects, which are over

10 feet tall. We had to work around the

exposed electrical and mechanical

components in the room. This required

creative thinking in how to use the space

around us. It took a lot of great minds

working together to solve the problem!

Most of the field is comprised of

plywood, while some of it is metal. We

used our fabrication shop to create the

pieces needed for the field.

Another challenge we had was our old

carpeting. We were very fortunate to have

a sponsor give us a great deal to replace

it. (Thank you, Donald E. McNabb

Company!) Replacing the carpet was quite

a process that took the whole team to

complete!

Our field layout is very stable. It is still

being tweaked to this day, both to make it

look great and also to be very accurate as

compared to the CAD models that FIRST

provides.

The Force Around Us:

The Field We Are Building

By: Matt M.

Freshman



Similar to the need for balance in the

Force in the Star Wars universe -- where

light and dark must be in balance in order

for there to be peace -- the goal is to

balance the scale during the game. If it is

balanced, an alliance receives points and

can achieve a ranking point.

There are three ways to earn points

during the endgame: parking, getting

robots to hang, and balancing the scale

with one to three robots hanging. Surely

one could earn these points by simply

parking right? In the words of the great

Luke Skywalker to the person who states

that the points can be obtained by

parking: "Amazing, every word of what

you just said was wrong."

If an alliance parks and doesn’t hang,

or only has one robot hang and the other

robots park, it won’t have enough points

to make the shield generator operational.

Without the switch balanced between two

robots, there is no way to achieve a

ranking point in the endgame. The only

other way to achieve 65 points during

endgame is to have three robots hanging

from the generator switch. This means

that if an alliance is to achieve an

“operational shield generator” the teams

must work together to balance the scale.

I am a part of our strategy sub-

team, and I work on both our long term

and match-by-match game strategies.

Every year, game matches are played

by six robots: three on a red alliance, and

three on a blue alliance. Qualification

matches, matches that determine teams’

ranks, are played by a random selection

of teams on both sides. After

qualifications, the top eight teams draft

their two alliance partners, creating eight

alliances that will play in an elimination

bracket to decide the event’s winner.

Teams choose their partners primarily

on compatibility, then on performance

during qualifications. For example, we

would choose a poorer-performing

compatible partner over a higher-

performing partner that we wouldn't work

as well with. During both qualification and

elimination matches, teams meet before

each match to decide their strategy based

on who they are going to play against.

The interdependence necessary for a

functional and successful alliance requires

a great deal of communication between

all three alliance members. Due to the

cooperation needed to succeed, our

strategy team spends a vast majority of

its time gathering and analyzing data

about potential alliance partners.

In sum, the dynamic between alliances

is important to consider, because the

success of an alliance is dependent on its

ability to effectively work together.

Balancing the

Force

By: Ethan G.

Junior

Light Side or Dark

Side? Alliances

By: Cole T.

Sophomore



As fun and exciting it is to be a part of

The Flying Toasters, there are also many

challenges and obstacles that we have to

overcome.

One challenge was figuring out what the

robot should be able to do during a match.

During kickoff, the team talked about what

features we should include on this season’s

robot. We talked about what kind of

mechanisms to use for certain elements,

and made an analysis of everyone's ideas.

Based on the data we gathered, we chose

the best ideas.

Then, the team had to design what we

had brainstormed. We had to choose how to

make the robot operate. By making small

decisions, like deciding the height of the

robot, we affected our game plan as a

whole. So, anyone involved with strategy or

designing gathered together, discussed the

pros and cons, and voted to decide what

was better.

Another issue was deciding how to scout

other teams during tournaments in order to

make the perfect game plan for choosing

our alliance partners and playing the game.

As we came closer to completing the

robot, we realized our practice field needed

to be full sized in order to practice

effectively. We had to overcome building

the field elements with a small fabrication

lab.

Finally, though it may not seem like a big

deal, one of our biggest challenges is time.

We overcame that challenge by being

organized and making sure we have our

priorities set straight. This makes

everything quicker and easier to follow,

making up for the lost time.

I was a member of the Robo Toasters

FTC team for two years while I was in

middle school. Now, I am working on the

electrical sub-team for The Flying Toasters.

Participating in FTC was a great

introduction to the world of robotics. While

FTC also builds robots, they are nowhere

near as big and complex as FRC

robots. Being part of an FTC team helps to

build the basics needed to get a jump start

in the FRC world. These basics include

teamwork, communication skills, basic tool

skills, design, simple electrical, CAD and

programming.

The transition from FTC to that of FRC is

difficult in that FRC has many more

complex skills that need to be expanded on

to be a successful, committed member of

the team. The biggest change has been

going from one excellent coach with no

mentors to a team that has many invested

coaches and mentors that provide

education and learning in multiple diverse

areas.

Challenges and

Overcoming Them

By: Ashrita D.

Freshman

Transition from

FTC to FRC

By: Ryan P.

Freshman



This is my first year on the team, and I

am doing electrical work on the robot.

FIRST Badges are the online virtual

badges our team members earn from

completing specific tasks and showing

knowledge in key areas.

Our team learns a great deal of

leadership and machining and many other

important concepts through FIRST

Badges. They are a great way to learn the

foundations of FIRST. The FIRST Badges

consist of Leadership and Participation,

Electronics, Safety, Programming, CAD,

Machining, Engineering Design, and

Communication.

All of these concepts are skills that a

FIRST team member needs to be highly

successful. Also, the FIRST badges can be

looked at by employers and can help

students in the future. Potential future

employers can see the badges as a

second resume of sorts; the badges are

an amazing opportunity to help students

obtain jobs in the future.

In order to condition the robot to

perform correctly at competitions, our team

tries to closely match the actual game field

with our own practice area. The goal is to

duplicate the environment that the robot

will eventually compete in. Otherwise, our

robot would be unprepared for the various

obstacles on the field. This is especially true

with the autonomous mode of this year's

game, as slight differences in our robot’s

movement would be apparent and could

easily cause chaos with other robots or

aspects of the field.

Our team has created a practice field in

years past. However, we typically have only

built a half field and this year the Flying

Toasters made the decision to work towards

an entire field instead.

It was a difficult process to fit an entire

field in our limited space, but the benefits

are clearly visible. For one, the scoring zone

this year is on the opposite side of where

the team is stationed, so our team felt that

this year’s game regularly requires teams to

maneuver robots around the entire field.

This also allows us to invite other teams

in our community to practice with us, which

is important when assisting younger teams

and ultimately growing our skills together.

In reality, the large space that our team

has pursued is indicative of our continuous

growth. It shows the team’s strong position

in the community and hopefully, it will lead

to more visibility within our schools.

FIRST Badges

By: Mason C.

Freshman

Why We Built a

Full-Sized Field

By: Ben K.

Junior



Listed below are our

Platinum, Gold, and Silver level

sponsors whose contributions

make this season possible:

Bosch

General Motors

FedEx

Nissan North America, Inc.

Ford Motor Company

FCA

DoD STEM

Roush Cleantech, LLC

Denso International America, Inc.

South Lyon Community Schools

SolidWorks

Pratt & Miller Engineering & Fabrication

State of Michigan

Golden Refrigerant

Chrysan Industries, Inc.

Cosma Body Assembly Michigan (Magna)

Executive Wealth Management

H. H. Barnum Company

Kawasaki Robotics (USA), Inc.

MacDermid Enthone

Magna Seating System Engineering

Magnum Consulting

Rohrscheib Sons Caissons, Inc.

Spectrum Automation Company

Victory Chevrolet Buick

Calo & Sons Construction, Inc.

Design Systems, Inc.

General Bearing Corporation

Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Inc.

Donald E. McNabb Company, Inc.

Lyon Area Rotary Club

Pfizer, Inc.

Recognition Robotics, Inc.

Sellers Buick GMC

SGS Advanced Testing & Engineering

Sharp Electronics Corporation

SW North America, Inc.

Doreen R. Bradley

Vishnu Chikondla

Katherine L. M. Ginman

Prasad Kokatam

Ronald Nevers

Subbarao Nimmala

Venkatachalam Somasundara

Sponsorship is essential for a team to

function, for without sponsorship, you

only have what team members can

provide and no further funding. And

competing in robotics gets expensive!

To develop sponsors, you have to go

out to a new company, or reconnect

with someone who sponsored your team

previously, and explain to them what

you do and why they should support

you.

While it can be stressful to meet new

people and be out of your element,

sponsorship helps us develop “people

skills.” You need to leave your comfort

zone and meet people with jobs you

may not even have considered. Each

potential sponsor is a one of a kind

experience.

Through sponsorship you can

understand a bit about how a company

actually functions and what their

business entails. There is a lot more to

most jobs than people realize; they all

encompass a wide variety of skills.

Sometimes, students even find work

at companies that sponsor our team!

By: Alex M.

Sophomore

STUDENT

&

SPONSOR

RELATIONS

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