On Saturday 3/25 and Sunday 3/26 at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, the LigerBots will be competing at a FIRST District Qualifying Event. If you are unable to attend the event, you can livestream it at https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires. Match times and scores will be available during the competition at https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2017ripro.

The LigerBots won the Gracious Professionalism award last week at the FIRST District Qualifying Event at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Johnson & Johnson sponsors this award at each FIRST Robotics event to recognize the team best exemplifying the principles of FIRST–fairness, humility, sharing, and persevering–and a winning attitude. The judges at WPI noted that “Gracious Professionalism can be used in any aspect of life, not just at a FIRST competition.” Citing the op-ed column the LigerBots wrote last year on good sportsmanship and respect, the judges said, “This team is what FIRST is all about. No matter if they are on the playing field, or out in the community, ‘working together’ is the theme of this team.”

The LigerBots  after the WPI competition

The LigerBots steampunk pit at the WPI competition

This was our first competition of the 2017 season, and these early competitions provide an opportunity to test the robot ways that are simply impossible during the short schedule for designing and building. On day one of the competition, we observed our robot and others to figure out what strategies and design mechanics were most effective in competition. We identified our own design flaws, then worked overnight to pinpoint and correct those flaws. That resulted in our robot’s first competitive climb up a Velcro rope for bonus points on the second day. The team returned to Newton with a list of items that need work before we compete at Bryant University in Rhode Island March 25 and 26. All are welcome to come watch and cheer!

A LigerBot sends our robot up a Velcro rope on our alliance’s “airship”

Right after the competition, we jumped  back into doing outreach, starting with an appearance at the Boston STEM Fair. The event, held at the Arsenal Project in Watertown, seeks to track families with kids who are interested in STEM and teach them about different organizations. It was a crowded venue, filled with people from many different communities and of different ages, and our 2016 robot received a warm reception. The team taught kids about how it works while letting them control the robot, and spoke to families about how they could get involved in robotics.

LigerBots demonstrating the 2016 robot to some kids

We are excited for our next competition, and we will be participating in several outreach events in late March and in April, including Robo Madness, Bowen Elementary Science Day, and the Science Carnival & Robot Zoo at the Cambridge Science Festival.

Build season has ended, and we’ve bagged the robot! On bag day, the team must stop working on the robot, place it into a large plastic bag, and send timed photographs of the process to FIRST to prove we have bagged it before the deadline. From then on, the team can work on our second robot, as well as a 30 pound section of the first robot that we have withheld from the bag.

The bagging of our 2017 robot, with a build leader inside the bag

Many finishing touches were added to our robot during the last week of build. We attached a mechanism that allows it to place big, plastic game piece gears onto a long peg. We also added a polycarbonate guide to our ball shooter that dramatically improved its aim.

LigerBots finishing up our 2017 robot

We installed not one, but two cell phones on the robot. We are able to use their cameras to help place the gears and to shoot wiffle ball game pieces into a funnel shaped goal. The coding team reprogrammed the Android phones’ entire operating systems to allow two phones to be tethered to a single computer.

Repeated testing is a vital part of any engineering project. The LigerBots tested each of the mechanisms throughout the entire build process. The ball shooter was improved over and over until it could accurately shoot four wiffle balls per second. The gear-placing mechanism was improved until its vision tracking could auto-align and drop off a gear in less than five seconds. This year we made a big leap up in the precision of our curved surfaces and large plastic and metal plates by using a Mostly Printed Computer Numerically Controlled (MPCNC) 2.5D router that we assembled ourselves to manufacture many of our robot parts.

The team was extremely glad to see hours and hours of hard work pay off.

A LigerBot using our MPCNC 2.5D router

LigerBots testing the ball shooter

Although bag day occurred during school vacation, many team members stayed in Newton to work on the robot rather than going on vacation. We drove the robot back and forth from the homes of coaches to Newton South, depending on whether we could get into our school shop. It was a hectic process, but at 10:22 p.m. on Tuesday, the team cheered as one of the build leaders followed the robot into the giant plastic bag to make sure it was placed correctly.

LigerBots testing a dump of whiffle balls into the robot’s hopper, at a coach’s house over February vacation

After bagging the first robot, the team was able to catch up with construction of the second robot so that it now matches the original. We are now free to test additional improvements in preparation for the two competitions coming in the next three weeks. We are lucky to be able to have a second robot thanks to donations from our many sponsors and donors.

LigerBots working on the second robot

Even our Liger mascot got in on the robot build action!

The LigerBots 2017 robot, Daedalus

Last week, the LigerBots had three meetings in a row cancelled due to snowstorms, but we took initiative and did everything we could to ensure the building process was not held back. During the snow days, LigerBots members worked at two of the coaches’ houses. At one, we worked on machinery, and at the other, on CAD. Despite lack of access to a full-fledged shop, we continued to machine and cut polycarbonate side panels and metal for the hoppers that will gather balls from the field. We tested the now fully operational intake. The electrical team also mounted electronics onto the polycarb. Meanwhile, the CADers finalized the design for the gear-placing mechanism.

The LigerBots got an extra boost from Ian Clark, a friend of a LigerBots mentor. Ian was kind enough to let the LigerBots use his garage shop to cut parts for the robot, help lathe gears and sprockets, and build angle brackets. Finally, on Monday, we were able to resume our meetings at Newton South. The builders had access to our own machines, and the Chairman’s Award group was able to continue practicing their oral presentation.

We’re excited to announce our 2017 sponsors. In preparation for our upcoming robotics competitions, we have begun preparing materials that display the logos of our Puma, Panther and Cheetah level sponsors for this year. They are: Google, Analog Devices, The Village Bank, PTC, Raytheon, Whole Foods Market, McVittie Tax Advisors, Shark Ninja, Dunkin’ Donuts, You-do-it Electronics Center, Bose, Honda Village, Tanowitz Law Office, Newton Public Schools, Newton Schools Foundation. We also are grateful for our anonymous and individual donors. Thank you to all for your support of the team.

We’re four weeks into build season, and we have made major progress on our robot. The chassis has been fully built, and the ball intake was successfully tested. The gear intake is also near completion, while the rope-climber and ball-shooter are well under construction. The second robot is nearly up to speed with the chassis, and the electrical team has built a test-bed for software before it is used on the robot. Our team has attended two outreach events in January. First, we had at the Just Think Expo, which gathers many non-profit organizations that support teens and families in Newton in making good decisions. Then, the LigerBots and other FIRST teams made an appearance at the Booz-Allen Ideas Festival. By showing what students are doing with STEM education and new technology, the FIRST teams set out to inspire employees of the large, Boston-based consulting firm to better help their clients. We also have a group of team members working on our Chairman’s award submission, and they have nearly finished writing the Chairman’s essay and making the video. We are very proud of our progress so far, and cannot wait to present the finished product!