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FIRST WISCONSIN REGIONAL NEWS

The following dates should be noted:

January 7, 2012 Kickoff at WCTC  (SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS)
February 19, 2012 Charger Robotics Invitational, Hamilton High School, Sussex, WI
February 21, 2012 Ship Date
TBA Wisconsin Regional
April 25-28, 2012 St. Louis, MO
   
BOT BYTES (WPRC Newsletter)

August newsletter

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December newsletter

News

12/31/2011

We will be presenting workshops in the evening of Friday, January 6, 2012.  The workshops will be:

Meeting Room C-051 or C-053

6:00 PM - Project Management / Build Schedule with De Murr and Bill Bonneau

7:00 PM - 2012 Beta Testing for Control System with Teams 537 and 1714

Meeting Room C-057 or C055

6:00 PM - How to Setup / Run Demos with Team 537

7:00 PM - Chairman?s Award with Jerry Beranek

Meeting Room C-052

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM - NEMO Mentor Meeting (Non-Engineering Mentors Organization)

Please see the attached PDF document which includes a synopsis of each presentation as well as a short biography for each of the presenters.

<<FIRST Kickoff Workshops.pdf>>

The Kickoff will be presented in the same area that the workshops will be presented (Rooms C-051, C-053, C-055, and C057).  The dividers will be taken down to accommodate as many guests as possible. We will also have overflow seating available if the main room gets filled to capacity. Here is a timeline for the event on Saturday, January 7, 2012:

  8:00 AM - Doors Open and Team Registration Begins

  9:00 AM - Everyone Seated for Opening Remarks and Start of Broadcast

  9:30 AM - Kickoff Broadcast is Scheduled to Start

~11:00 AM - 2012 FRC Kit Pick-Up and Field Viewing Starts

~12:00 AM - 2012 FRC Kit Pick-Up and Field Viewing Ends - All Guests Depart

Directions to the WCTC Pewaukee Campus:

http://www.wctc.edu/general_info/maps/pewaukee.php

Campus Map (Kickoff and Workshops will be in the Building C in the RTA Education Center)

http://www.wctc.edu/general_info/maps/floorplans/printable_wctc_map.pdf

The location of the rooms for the Workshops and Kickoff in the College Center (Building C):

http://www.wctc.edu/general_info/maps/floorplans/collegectrll.pdf

 

11/27/2011

All regional hotel agreements have been completed and that the Steele Meetings website has gone ?LIVE?.

We have 38 cities / FRC regional events that will be part of the 2012 FRC hotel programs.

Steele has modified their website for ease of use by the FIRST community.   Here are the links that can be attached to your regional website and/or distributed to your FRC teams.  Both links are ?live? and active for all to use.

http://www.steelehousing.com/

http://www.firstchampionshiphousing.com/

I?ve attached a ?Step by Step? instructional that will help your regional community navigate the regional hotel program and how to secure reservations for their events.

Please note, the below codes are required for the specific category when making their hotel reservations.  (Codes are case sensitive)

Judge ? rophw3ya
Volunteer ? 3fk85ean
Staff - l4k25dpl
Sponsor ? 8gxo53cj
FIRST Invited Guests ? y3q8kq6b

I would strongly encourage all FRC participants who require hotel stays that they utilize this hotel program.

Key reasons to use this program:


Best in class pricing.  If a team finds a lower hotel cost at a participating hotel, then the hotel will match cost to all FIRST participants.  (Costs obtained by sites such as Priceline where the hotel is not named are excluded)

Value added amenities are included such as free internet, breakfast, parking at select participating hotels.

Revenue is directed back to the Regional event to help offset regional event costs (Complimentary rooms, rebates and so on).

(10/26/11)

Here is some GREAT  information on Bag & Tag and a useful link.

 http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/2011-bag-and-tag-faq

 

(10/05/11) 

The NASA grant is now available at the below website.

http://robotics.nasa.gov/

(10/04/11)

Calling All Super Connectors! Enter for a Chance to Star in a Connect a Million Minds Commercial

Your team could win $25,000

http://connectamillionminds.com/campaigns/super-connector-search/

(9/29/11)Greetings Teams:

Initial Event Registration Opens September 29th @ 12 noon EST:  Register for your initial Competition Event in TIMS beginning 9/29 @ 12 noon EST:

https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/site.lasso. If you haven?t done so already, it?s a good idea to pre-register your team in TIMS now.

Season Calendar and Important Deadlines for 2011-2012:

 http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=454.

2012 Registration Pricing Structure and Payment Terms:

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=460.

 2012 Regional Events: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/regional-events.

 Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region: New Jersey, Delaware and the eastern half of Pennsylvania have joined forces to create the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region and will be holding Qualifying Events leading up to a Region Championship, similar to the Michigan district pilot.

(9/28/11) NASA Grants are available. The announcement was made today.

Applications will be available on the NASA Website at 12 am Pacific Time Monday, Oct. 3, and closes Tuesday, Oct. 25. Awards will be published on the Website ? Monday, Nov. 21, 2011.

(9/28/11) Just announced on Bill's Blog........

http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011/09/bag-tag-in-brief-and-mar-demystified.html

This year ALL FRC Qualifying and Regional Events will be Bag & Tag. (Teams attending Championship will still have to ship their robots to St Louis.)  Don?t know what Bag & Tag means?  On Stop Build Day - Feb 21st teams must stop work on the robot and seal it in a giant bag (using a giant tag) that will be included in the 2012 Kit of Parts. Teams then transport the robot to and from the event on their own. Details will be included in the 2012 FRC Administrative Manual coming soon.  In the meantime, reading the Bag & Tag sections of the 2011 FRC Administrative Manual Section 5 - Robot Transportationwill give you a pretty good idea of what?s involved. 

 

(9/28/11) 1st Annual Robotics Advancing the Human Condition Competition

Cause

IMSA's FIRST Robotics Team 2022, Titan Robotics will lead a competition to design and build robotic devices during the off season that assist people with special needs. Inspired by the Illinois Math and Science Academy?s Principal Eric McLaren, this year the project is about helping people stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig?s Disease) and anyone else with very limited use of their upper body. The challenge will be to design and build a robotic mechanism that people can use to feed themselves. The website of the game is here:

http://coolhub.imsa.edu/web/robotics-advancing-the-humancondition/

The Game

The premise of the game is simple, but very practical. The mission is to design and build a robotic device that people with impaired upper body movement can use to feed themselves.

Specifically for this game, the robotic assisting device must be able to pick up a coffee cup or a handle-less cup and permit the user to drink from it. It must also be able to use a spoon to feed yogurt to the user.

Rules for the Robot

The Robot must...

? be table or stand mounted.

? cost less than or equal to $1500 to build. This is to keep the robot affordable for potential users (Currently there are bionic systems that cost millions that can do the job, but it isn?t practical for our principal). If a computer is connected to the device, the cost of the computer is not considered in the $1,500 limit.

? be controlled with something other than hands, head movement, or voice commands (words) since this robot will be controlled by people with restricted or no upper body mobility. Sounds may be used, just not words. Eye movement may be used, or body controls of some sort.

(Note: Eye movement is one of that last voluntary movements that fails in ALS patients) ? Use of off-the-shelf commodity components or existing technologies is encouraged.

? The contest will be scored on a point system. Judging and Scoring ? This contest will be judged on a scored point system.

? In general, judges will observe the robot's ability to perform the task and rate it on its completeness, convenience, durability, stability and design.

? There will be several judges and the points will be averaged for each team.

? The Rubric will be sent out in the future.

Other Rules:

? A few bonus points will be given to teams who use CoolHub (sign up

here: http://tinyurl.com/3b575za) to collaborate and interact for project development ? Documentation for operation and use of the device is required and may be done electronically and/or via multi-media.

? Software, designs, and assembly instructions must be open source at the conclusion of the project (excluding software drivers, etc. that is provided with components).

Here are a couple final closing notes: Again, use of off-the-shelf commodity components or existing technologies is encouraged, and as a starting point IMSA's team is talking about using an Adruino processor(low cost) with a Microsoft Kiinect device for controlling the robot.

Finally, the competition will be held on December 3rd at IMSA.

If you have more questions, you can contact us at the following email addresses:

melagha@imsa.edu, bkuo@imsa.edu, or our coach at jgerry@imsa.edu.

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