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#calgames #Cal Games #FRC #offseason #FIRST Robotics #robotics #omgrobots

The End of an Era - An Homage to Neutrino

Yesterday, my schedule freed up. Not to say that yesterday was not busy, because it certainly was, but yesterday CalGames ended. The robotics competition that I had been working towards since the start of school is now over. We hit some unlucky bumps and mishaps, but overall, we had a great robot!

Our robot Neutrino was "born" last year around January. When he was born, he was just a chassis and a drivetrain. We, being an unconventional family, did not christen him "Neutrino" until he had grown up a bit. Thus, he was nameless for most of his childhood. Throughout that childhood, we helped him grow up, developed his electronics board, polished up his limbs, got him new bumpers to wear, helped him when he needed to lose weight, and showed him off to the world. At this point, he has become part of the robotics family.

While you may scoff at my personifying a robot, to me, and other robotics team members, I'm sure, it feels totally natural. I calculated that from the day of kickoff, when we began brainstorming designs, to yesterday, when he finished his last competition, we spent somewhere around 330 hours with Neutrino. Anyone who has spent that much time with anything has to have built some emotional ties.

We spent the last weekend with Neutrino cheering him on as he played his final games of competition basketball. We patched him up when he fell. We helped him connect to the field when he couldn't do it alone. We changed his bumpers when they needed to be changed. We bragged about him, in the way that all proud parents do, to anyone walking by our pit. Therefore, it was quite emotional when Neutrino finished his last match, was packed into Victoria's car to return home to the lab, and officially entered retirement with other great robots like Sadie. Of course he'll come out every now and then for demonstrations, but for the most part, he's done his duty to us, and he's all grown up. We'll miss him.

#robotics #CalGames

CalGames 2012 Recap.

just got back from my first calgames. god it was tiring.

lots of things just went wrong with the robot, or didn't go right. autonomous ball shooting wasn't consistent, robot wouldn't drive straight at all, the new bridge manipulator didn't fit together. had to replace it with the old wood one, which i kinda broke a bit while driving. but i fixed it, so its all good. really frustrated that some teams didn't come to co-op bridge when they said they would, or didn't push us up the bridge, and didn't get off when there obviously wasn't enough time left. had to push them off. wth man.

we didn't do well, but it was okay considering i had only half an hour of driving practice time with the robot. good experience for the newbies though. so i guess it was okay.

we need to design a lot better this coming season. and get access to a cnc. and learn to weld/get a welding sponsor.

*inspired by seeing 254*

#me #personal #2012 #calgames #FRC #FIRST #4159 #10/13/12