Hey world!

The Divisions for the Championship event were released recently! We are in Archimedes, and we are really excited to be in that division! To check out where other FIRST teams are or who we get to be with, click here.

6 days until Championships! Hopefully we will be keeping you updated via Facebook, Twitter, and the website during the event! So stay tuned!

That is all!

-Leah

Salutations!

Yesterday night, Kristina Iodice from The Gazette posted an article about our team going to Championships! Kristina has been at numerous events that we have also attended, such as the STEM Boot Camp at USAFA and the presentation to Governor Hickenlooper, and she always mentions our team in the articles covering these events. I contacted her after the Colorado Regional, and she was gracious enough to put an article in the paper! It was posted online last night here, and it will be in the newspaper tomorrow. Thanks so much to Kristina and The Gazette for all of your support!!!!

-Leah and Cougars Gone Wired

Don’t you just hate it when you tell someone something and they think they understand but don’t and then they tell you you’re wrong when if they understood you would be right but they don’t want to be wrong so they think you’re wrong no matter what now they think you’re wrong but they’re wrong!? ugh! And don’t you just hate it what you get a book that is entitled “Don’t you just hate that?” and it has nothing in it that you hate or even understand!? And don’t you just hate it when- wait… wrong blog…

Anyway! New arm has been developed! And it looks a bit like a vacuum… but now it has an angle so we can complete our auto by backing up and tilting the bridge and get those balls! We’re going to champions which is very exciting and we were number one seed and won the Colorado Regional! Yay! We are still trying hard and trying to work as hard as we can so we can be the best we can be at Chapions! whether our hardest is enough, we won’t know till we get there! Either way it will be a fantastic experience none the less and I am so proud of everyone so far and very very happy to be a part of the team! (Sorry senior moment kicked in… Just realizing I’m about to depart and leave everyone! I’m so sad… But excited for college! Yay!) Either way we are proud and prepared!

Quotes of the Day:

Forest: *watching the main light blink*

Nathan: “Why are you watching the light flash? Do you like watching the light flash?”

Forest: “Yes I do.. it means everything is working.”

Mr. Mclean: “Why did you have to tell the students I have duct tape? You had to tell them we got tons of new duct tape? I’ve got like 15 kids asking me for some already!”

Mr. Hilty: “Well you should’ve made it clear that it was a secret!”

Mr. Murphy: *Hands Nathan a nut*

Nathan: “What is this for?”

Mr. Murphy: “You lost a nut.”

Nathan: “But I didn’t..? What..?”

Mr. Murphy: *Walks away giggling*

The Denver Regional was FANTASTIC!! With the help of FIRST team 3807 Blazer Bots and FIRST team 399, we FIRST team 2996 won the regional and will be advancing to the World Championship in St. Louis Missouri.

All of our compettors performed well and with GP which was part of what made the regional so much fun, everyone was just wonderful. We’d like to thank all of the voulenteers who worked so hard to make the Denver Regional a great time for all.

In Kansas City, we were ranked 30th. Through hard work and perservation, we managed to make a comeback in Denver-such as shooting 4 out of 6 balls in autonomous. In Denver, we also won the Entraprenewership Award.

We would also like to congratulate two of our team members for the awards they recieved in Denver. Our wonderful CEO Jasmine Kemble was awarded a place on the Dean’s List for all her hard work and success. Mr. Murphy, one of our outstanding mentors, won the Woody FLowers Award for being such an outstanding mentor.

http://youtu.be/h_f_AAqcJ9A

Go and watch it! You will not be sorry! :3

In preparation for Championships, we have been brainstorming different ways to improve our robot. We plan to modify our bridge arm, add an additional shooting position, and add a way for us to triple balance, even though our robot is oriented in the not ideal way for a triple balance.

SO! Triple balancing. We came up with an arm design, similar to what we saw on youtube on 599′s robot, that will go on our shooting side. This arm will be relatively small, and it will sit about 1 or 2 inches off the ground when extended out. Its purpose is to allow us to have our front wheels off the bridge without worrying about tipping. It will sit under the bumpers of the robot next to us, and so if we start tipping, it will hold onto the other robot to ensure anti-tippage.

PROBLEM: We have no room on the power distribution board for another motor for this arm.

SOLUTION: Rat Replaced Motor (RRM). This solution uses Robby, who is a rat, and Roberta, who has a mutual interest in Robby. There will be a hamster wheel enclosed by lexan (with air holes, of course) with laser pointers on each side of the lexan. The lasers, commonly referred to as the LPDC (Laser Pointer Direction Control), will be turned on and off by the drivers, controlling the direction the rat runs on the hamster wheel. The wheel has a string on it that connects to this arm, and as the hamster runs one way or the other, the arm will either go down or up. The two rats allow for breaks to be taken when necessary, as well as a way to provide incentives, since they are interested in each other. The rats will try to impress each other as they move the arm when told to do so. When the arm is completely placed down, a piece of metal will slide off, distributing a treat to the rats. We at Cougars Gone Wired do not believe in animal cruelty.

NOTE: no rats have been or will be harmed in the making of this device.

We will keep you updated on the process of this device.

Signed,

The Triple Balance Team

(Abby, Sami, Cassie, Alicia, Leah, Gabe. Special thanks to Jenna, Lindsey, Dr. Wood and Murphbomb for their contribution to this plan of action.)

It’s been almost a whole week- I believe more- since the Denver Regionals ended, and the experience was certainly unforgettable. In all the excitement, I presume we all just forgot to post on the results of the competition. 

This year was a fair success, placing 1st in qualifying and being first and last pick in choosing our alliance; Consisting of the wonderful Eagle Robotics, FIRST Team 399, and the equally fabulous Blazer Bots, FIRST Team 3807. The competition was fun and every team there deserves a hearty handshake for their work at the competition and their gracious professionalism throughout- It was a pleasure talking to and hanging out with various teams in the stands, and the retaining and new members of the coming year should look forward to seeing these teams again at the next Denver Regionals.

As for our results, in qualifying we surprisingly placed 1^st, more surprisingly ending the first day of competition undefeated (Although our last two matches of the 11 of qualifying were loses- but were fun nonetheless), and we accumulated a fair number of Coopertition point throughout the matches. More stats on such can be found here: http://www2.usfirst.org/2012comp/Events/CO/rankings.html

After qualifying, we went into the quarter-finals, and then after two straight wins moved to the Semi-finals, and then finally came to the finals. The three matches of the finals were tense and exciting, and I myself am glad to have been there- Not as glad to have been in the pit witnessing it on screen instead of watching the field myself, but it was still exciting. After the matches, we came out the victors, and won the regionals competition.

Although we won, I’d still like to thank every team, once again, for being graciously professional, and I only hope that we were equally as gracious to you. Good Job Everyone, and see you all next year :)

That’s correct! Our animation is completely done, and submitted. Thank goodness! We were having some difficulty with sound editting, but we were able to get it all together in the end!

SO why is it that in all of the series of pokemon, Ash doesn’t age!? And how is it that these three kids can just WANDER around by themselves at the ages of 10, 12 and 13!? Who let’s their child wander around the world at the age of 10!? That’s ridiculous! I believe in the “Coma” Theory. Basically the very first episode, Ash steals Misty bike and basically eats it and then wakes up later. I think when he wakes up he is actually just dreaming in a coma and that’s why he can just wander around and is still 10! Makes sense, huh!? And the only reason why Misty is there is because he liked her and Broc is just his ageing self in the real world. That’s why Broc likes EVERY- Wait… wrong blog….

ANYWAY! Guess what 2996 stalkers!? The arm is done!!! Yay!!! Now the robot is in the loving hands of the programmers and they will treat it well and make the robot do what it needs to do. Sadly, we could not do the 2 arm system and we just went with the one arm system. We designed the arm to pick up the bridge so we can lift off the bridge up and get the balls out from under it. It’s been a good day. Good work team.

Best Quotes of the Day:

Eleanor: “Lena!”

Lena: “Oh you remembered my name? Are you sure I’m not Jasmine?”

Eleanor: “No you can’t be Jasmine. She’s the mean one..”

So, KC went, interestingly. Some things went well, some didn’t. Somethings need to be changed, some things don’t. Luckily, no major chagnes (i.e. new holes, shafts, wheels, or added motors) need to be applied. The ball must be centered upon insertion into to the shooter, otherwise the balls will travel in unpredictable arcs, which is highly undesirable for accuracy. Additionally, the drivers need more practice with the shooter, for we need some set distances and loctions on the key in order to fire accurate shots into the highest basket, much like to more advanced teams at KC (Team 16- Bomb Squad, Team 1986- Team Titanium). Additionally, the drive needs to be edited in order for a smoother transition between turning and aiming to pick up balls. Otherwise, competition went somewhat well, and hooray for the Spirit Award! The team definitely deserved it. The team and I have some pretty high hopes for Denver.