2012 FIRST Robotics Competition Build Season

Play the video to understand this year's game:

The annual FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is the major competitive activity for the Kalani High School robotics team. The team has six weeks to design, fabricate, assemble, and test a robot weighing up to 150 pounds.

FRC Kickoff

Andrea and I attended the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) kickoff event with the Kalani Robotics high school team on Saturday, January 7^th.

We arrived at 5:00 AM after arising at 3:30 and having breakfast at Like Like Drive In on Keamoku Street.

The event was hosted by McKinley High School and was attended by teams from all over Oahu, including the 2011 Chairman's Award
winning team Wailua High School (The Hawaiian Kids, FRC 359).

They got the month wrong, it was not on Pearl Harbor Day of next December.

Mentors and parents.

The team checks off the major items for the kit of parts for the robot build.

Build Season

FRC Build Week One

We took lunch into the robotics lab at Kalani High School on Sunday, January 8^th.

Students move through the lunch buffet.

Discussing strategy.

The strategy is to score in hybrid mode, traverse the barrier, pick up balls, score some more, and end up balanced on a bridge.

Starting work with the vision system camera.

Assembling the new VEX-bot for the VEX competition on the 20^th.

Monday evening we went to check on the robotics build. Here the students are laying out a backboard to be part of the field mock-up.

Cutting plywood with a saber saw for the bridge field element.

Enlarging bearing holes in the gearmotor plate.

Two girl members help a senior team member.

The programming team at work.

Back at Kalani High School after stopping in to check on Hooponopono at UH on Friday night, Eric (team captain) configures the robot test bed
for software development.

A swim meet was underway Friday night, so the students moved the chop saw to the next building up the hill.

ZJ (facing camera) shows new students how to tap a hole for a screw.

Iolani High School Brainstorming and Simulation Event

Every year the Iolani High School robotics team very graciously invites other teams to their campus for brainstorming and game simulation. The event this year was attended by the Farrington, Kalani, Punahou, and Sacred Hearts teams, starting at 1:00 PM on Sunday, January 15^th.

These small balance bridges are for two human-simulated robots. Balancing with just one person is hard enough.

The Iolani team also built a full sized bridge field element so we could get a feel for how it will work during the actual game.

An Iolani student (standing, left) led the discussions.

Teams working together so we all do well is an important FIRST value.

The game simulation got underway and we all learned a few things.

FRC Build Week Two

In the second week of the build season, the robotics lab was open every day from 5 to 9 PM.

Andrea and I supervised on Thursday, January 19^th. Seniors Codey and Grant work on the chassis.

Students work building hoop and backboard field elements.

The Wong family donated dinner for the team that night. The fried rice and chicken were great.

The eight inch aluminum wheels were delivered from the machine shop and students installed the tread material.

Students use safety glasses and hearing protectors while using the chop saw to cut chassis frame members.

On Sunday the students began the assembly of the robot.

FRC Build Week Three

In the third week of the build season, the robotics lab was also open every day from 5 to 9 PM.

Thursday evening, January 26^th, I stopped in to check on progress with the robotics team.

David and ZJ were assembling the robot.

Eric and Carson were working on software development using the robotics testbed.

FRC Build Week Four

In the fourth week of the build season, the robotics lab was also open every day from 5 to 9 PM.

Andrea and I supervised at the robotics lab Wednesday evening. Here, students work on the ball handler.

Andrea made pulled pork for the team.

Mentor Matt and team Captain Eric got the PID (proportional, integral, differential) algorithm working for robot control.

Testing the ball handler on the robot chassis.

Freshmen add retroreflective target rectangles to the goals.

FRC Build Week Five

On Wednesday, February 8^th, Andrea and I brought dinner and supervised.

Students work on the ball handler and shooter assembly.

Students fabricate robot parts.

ZJ works on the ball handler to robot interface while mentors Andrea and Matt look on.

The students liked the chicken, garlic bread, and salad for dinner that we brought.

FRC Build Week Six

This is the sixth and last week of the Kalani High School FRC robot build.

Andrea and I brought dinner to the team on Tuesday evening, February 14^th, Valentine's Day. The robot is coming along.

Pre-Ship Scrimmage at Moanalua High School

Moanalua High School held a pre-ship scrimmage on Monday, February 20^th, in the cafeteria on the high school campus. Farrington High, Damien High, and Kalani High were among those who attended.

The Moanalua cafeteria is a good venue for the scrimmage. Moanalua had the field set up and the restrooms open when we arrived.
The large mural on the wall is a painting of Iolani Palace in 1975 in downtown Honolulu.

The team readies the robot.

The team work well together as an efficient pit crew.

It's a fine looking eight-wheeled machine.

Kalani Robotics Corporate Tournament

Andrea and I went to Kahala Mall on Sunday, February 26^th, to support the Kalani Robotics team with their Corporate Tournament fundraiser.

The students set up display tables for brushbots, the builder-bot, the t-shirt cannon-bot, etc.

This was a good looking entry by the Hawaii Chinese Immersion School.

Back view of the bipedal robot.

The corporate robots are lined up for photographs.

Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com