ROOKIE CONFERENCE CALL WEEK 1
WEEK 1: LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
ROOKIE CONFERENCE CALLS
The following notes are from the January 9, 2014 Michigan Rookie conference call, with enhancements from past years. Please pass these on to other teams who may benefit from them! J Notes through the season will be able to be found on: www.teamrush27.net
UTILIZE CONTACTS OF YOUR PARENTS
Q: How do we recruit mentors?A: Parents! Call a parent meeting or send out an eblast for parents. Ask them who they know who could help out. Teachers! Ask the teachers in your building if there is anyone who would like to volunteer, or if their spouses would like to volunteer. Some ideas for volunteers to help make your life (the head coach) easier:
• Team Fundraising coordinator
• Design work on the computer (Inventor) • Part fabrication or machining
• Electrical engineering assistance • Mechanical engineering assistance • Welding assistance
• Business assistance
• Teambuilding/professional development assistant • Media coordinator
• Public Relations coordinator
• Travel coordinator (including carpool organizer) • Food/meals coordinator
• Website assistance • Uniforms coordinator • Social media assistance • Sponsorship assistance
PLEASE NOTE: These people may not have a degree in what you need, but may be really good at it and can help the team, examples: photography, social media, travel coordination, etc.
FIRST BUSINESS REMINDERS
Kit inventory – due Friday, 1/10/2014 DO IT NOW! FIRST Choice – get your supplies ordered NOW
• Sign up right away!
• Main contact email address (in TIMS), and Q&A password to get into FIRST choice
• Log in asap! Supplies are dwindling
GAME UPDATES
• Be sure to check on the rules. FIRST will NOT contact you about updates, but YOU need to look online for them
• UPDATES: Go to http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/Updates/0 for the updates to the rules.
• Q&A: Go to http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/game-q-and-a for a questions/answers section
• FIRST BLOG: Go to http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog for the official FIRST Blog
• Designate a student or mentor to be the updates person
• Have updates printed off and put in a binder for “quick reference”
GAME AND STRATEGY
Field components
Low cost plans are out there. Be sure to look at the field pieces – either build the pieces or look onto a veteran team’s field pieces – being able to see the field can sway your thinking on HOW you may play this game. Bumpers
Be sure you know the bumpers rule. IF your bumper is not legal, you will not play. If your robot becomes illegal during play, you will be disabled! Pay attention NOW to the bumper rules!
Clarification of game rules
• Be sure you KNOW HOW to PLAY the game • Be sure you know HOW to SCORE in the game
• Decide on what your “athlete” will be (we will discuss more below) How do you want to play the game/what is your strategy?
• Your team will need to decide what aspects you want to concentrate on. • As a rookie, don’t try to do everything – it is too much!
• Right now, Focus on WHAT (game strategy), not HOW (drive trains, manipulators, etc.) … HOW will come after the WHAT is decided.
• Put all ideas up on the board of what you want to do - then get rid of at least one to narrow focus
• Suggestion: break game down into 2 parts: o Auton
o Tele-operated
• Prioritize these 2 parts of the game – to help you determine HOW you are going to play the game. Make sure your auton and tele-operated games compliment each other!
• Draw sketches of what a robot might look like to achieve your WHAT o General – ie pick tubes up from floor
o Not “HOW” – brainstorm!
• To narrow focus - Keep in mind resources: financial, mentors, technology, machines, time, etc.
PLEASE NOTE: At a tournament, you need to understand the following (this will help you make decisions):
• Qualification matches – the Friday matches (and some on Saturday) • Elimination matches – after qualification matches. Top 8 teams pick
their partners
• Being a “Jack of all trades, master of none” will not help you to be as successful as a focused robot; others may not pick you for finals. Work to be strong in one area which will make you more desirable for picking DECIDE: What can you do REALLY, REALLY well (with the hopes of being a strong alliance)?
After deciding WHAT your strategy will be: • Brainstorming = crazy ideas!!!
• NURTURE the creativity of the students, reminding them that, “No idea is a bad idea”
• If you keep saying “no” or “that’s not possible” (during this phase), students will stop sharing ideas
• Collaboration is best
o Sometimes best to break into smaller group and then come in and share with entire group
o Put sticky notes of ideas on the board o Everyone’s ideas are on the board
o Allows others to build off everyone’s ideas o Keep sorted by priorities
• Robot’s first priority is to MOVE - Can’t do too many other tasks if you can’t move
ROBOT PLANS
Q: How do we break up this project? A: Develop robot sub-teams
• Chassis, above chassis, ball collection, controls/electrical, programming, etc • Chassis – use the kit chassis! Get it up and running as soon as possible.
Do not build your own chassis – not enough time
example: if your first priority is to move (which it should be), then you may want to have a chassis group
• Very important to break into groups
o Fosters ownership/responsibility o Breaks up tasks
• There are different philosophies on how to manage sub-teams o Some teams have kids stay in sub-teams entire 6 weeks o Some teams have kids rotate through sub-teams
o Try not to let kids do the same sub-team year after year (let them learn from the other groups)
o If one sub-team is done with their challenge, encourage those kids to help the other sub-teams
Design freeze - due by end of week – You really need to know: • What part of game are you going to play?
• What points are you going to score? • How are you going to score them?
• What do you want to accomplish in Auton? • Which part of the field are you focusing on? • Conceptually, what does the robot look like?
BUSINESS INFO
Reminder – You could also use non-technical sub-teams to help offset the business challenges. This is where you can encourage more parents to get involved!
• PR • Media • Website/IT • Community • Finance
Administratively, meet once/week to get everyone on the same page
• Make it a mandatory meeting – updated each other and plan weekly goals • Assign/nominate student captains and sub-team captains
o Allows a student voice o Fosters leadership
o Gives other students a peer to talk to if they have concerns o Possibly have the students run a design review from each
sub-team to improve communication and update the entire sub-team on the workings of the team
• Evaluate: “What’s going right, what needs to be improved?” work on
improvements! Team RUSH uses a “Pluses and Deltas” system. Each team member can report on a plus (what was good), or a delta (what needs to change) at the end of every meeting. This allows for student input on the direction of the team. The goal would be to take the deltas and make them
into pluses!
Reminder – Document all you do!
• Continue to update sponsors/social media/website • Take pictures and video – DOCUMENT ALL YOU DO!
• Keep pictures in an easily accessible place - use for award submissions, newspapers, etc.
• Create a team organizational chart
RESOURCES
RUSH Toolkit – a 12-chapter guide to help a new or sophomore teams! There are great ideas in this guide on Fundraising, team organization/management as well as guides on what to expect through the 6-week build season and
competition. http://www.teamrush27.net/request-toolkit The toolkit asks for information, that is so we can email you updates and see where the toolkit has traveled! J We do not share this information with anyone.
Programming Resources that help:
RUSH LabView Intro guide (PDF): This shows all of the simple data types, loops and and structures for beginner programmers.
http://www.teamrush27.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/ProgrammingGuides/RUSH27 ProgrammingGuideLabviewIntro.pdf
RUSH Robot Guide (PDF): This is how to set up a simple LabView robot program
http://www.teamrush27.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/ProgrammingGuides/RUSH27 ProgrammingGuideRobot.pdf
RUSH LabView Problems and Solutions (PDF): This shows how to debug problems on your robot
http://www.teamrush27.net/sites/default/files/pdfs/ProgrammingGuides/RUSH27 ProgrammingGuideProblemsandSolutions.pdf
Setup cRIO project – by TeamRUSH27
This video shows how to set up a robot project for a simple tank drive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Tlw8r58ts
Setup Radio – by TeamRUSH27
This video shows how to set up your wireless router http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1lzEVfKHE Setup LabVIEW – By TeamRUSH27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HrwghSlEx0 Good luck – see you next week! J
