Blog – 2014

FTC Team 9459 Took 9th Place! – December 13, 2014

Kudos to our rookie FTC team! 9th place is a great showing for anyone, especially a rookie team. The robot picked up balls, loaded them into the tubes, pushed the tubes up the ramp, and played well with others. The team learned a ton, from how to do a judge presentation to how to develop strategy with alliance partners. Nice job, team 9459.

FTC Team 9459: Adrian, Elizabeth, 9459 robot, Cian, Liza, Ethan, Michael, Emilio, Zack.
FTC Team 9459: Adrian, Elizabeth, 9459 robot, Cian, Liza, Ethan, Michael, Emilio, Zack.
Panorama of FTC tournament.
Panorama of FTC Edina Tournament.

Monticello Nuclear Plant – December 8, 2014

Many robotics students are considering engineering degrees. This weekend, they got some hands-on experience with another use of those degrees – nuclear power. Twelve students, three adults and one sister got a tour of the Monticello nuclear training facility. The students donned and doffed protective gear, learned the basics of radiation, and visited the control room. They lived through a simulated earthquake, and three students got the opportunity to shut down the entire virtual plant! Thank you to Xcel Energy and to Team 2220 for organizing the event.

Stewart and Rosemary checking for radiation.
Stewart and Rosemary checking for radiation.
Control room.
Control room.

Emilio and George.
Emilio and George.

Laura and Leeah.
Laura and Leeah.

Connor, Adam, Marcus, Stewart and Max
Connor, Adam, Marcus, Stewart and Max

Ann Bancroft Grant

Four of our team members – Susan, Elizabeth, Laura and Leeah – won scholarships this year from the Ann Bancroft Foundation to cover their team fees for the year.  One more, Liza, applied but wasn’t eligible as an exchange student. It’s exciting to see all five of these girls articulate how robotics is helping them meet their goals and dreams for their lives.  And it’s wonderful that organizations like the Ann Bancroft Foundation are there to help them with the finances needed to participate in this expensive STEM project.Photo of Susan, Elizabeth, Laura and Leeah sitting on a high shelf.

 

Introducing FTC Team 9459!

We have a rookie FTC team this year. Eight students (Adrian, Cian, Easton, Elizabeth, Emilio, Ethan, Liza, and Zack) plus two mentors (Michael J and Jim) have been hard at work building their first FTC robot and constructing the game field. They take their robot to competition on December 13th. Go Team 9459!

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CAD Workshop at Minnetronix – October 25, 2014

Computer Aided Design, or CAD, will help the team make more precise designs, document our work, and succeed the first time we build something. But it has a rather steep learning curve. Minnetronix, who is also one of our major sponsors, hosted the team this weekend for a CAD workshop. Thank you, Minnetronix!

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 Zack and Emilio.  Cian, Dan, and Liza.  Nick, Seamus, Evan, George and Gus.

Underwater Dreams – September 27, 2014

The team also attended a screening of the new movie, Underwater Dreams. The story follows four inner-city, undocumented hispanic students from Phoenix who enter a different kind of robotics competition. Besides getting to cheer them on as they beat out MIT, it’s great to see the kind of impact that robotics competitions has on individuals and even whole communities. As for NoMythic, this was a perfect introduction to robotics for some of our new team members and parents – who knows what we’ll accomplish this year!

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Triangle Fraternity – September 27, 2014

What is it like to major in engineering in college? The team got a preview on Saturday during a visit to Triangle Fraternity. The U of MN students are pursuing a range of majors, from environmental engineering to robotics to circuit boards. No Mythic students gave a presentation about the team, including hand-on time for Triangle members to drive the robot around the parking lot, and shoot the ball into the air. NoMythic students loved the glimpse into their futures, and thanks Triangle for all of their support.

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Join 2491!

Interested in joining team 2491 NoMythic? Come learn more at two sessions designed for prospective students and mentors. We’re accepting students from Great River Montessori, Avalon High School and Twin Cities Academy.

  • Intro: September 16th or 18th (choose one). 7-8:30 pm. Great River School, 1326 Energy Park Drive. For prospective students, parents and mentors.
  • Orientation Crash Course: September 23rd and 25th (choose one). 4:30-8:30 pm. Great River School. For prospective students and mentors.

Please RSVP if you’re coming: 2491nomythic@gmail.com .

We Won A Ribbon!

Artemis was on display through the entire state fair, along with our poster about the team. On the 26th, we did a mini competition/demo with two other robots, and pulled the robot in the parade. It was a blast!

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 Our robot won 4th place in our division and class, construction and engineering  It was a fantastic opportunity to share robotics with people of all ages!
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 1/3 sized field for mock competition/demo.  Marching in the parade!

We’re Going to the Fair! – August 11th, 2014

Come see us on August 26th at the Minnesota State Fair. We’ll be in the Education Building, doing a demonstration at 10 am, noon, and 3 pm. And we answered the million dollar question: “Does our robot fit in a Prius?”

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New Video – About 2491 No Mythic – June 4th, 2014

What is this robotics thing? What’s special about team 2491? Check out this new video about our team.

Summer Sponsor Drive – July 18th – 22nd, 2014

After completing the summer camp, students used the summer to start planning and preparing for the year ahead. A small team of students met for three days of intensive fundraising in July. After refining our presentation, we met with four potential sponsors, raising over $20,000 for the year ahead– about half of our goal for the entire season! Team members also met regularly to discuss the calendar for the 2014-2015 season, creating a handbook for new members, as well as other things. When school begins in the fall, students will have a new challenge to take on: designing and building our new work space after the building renovation that happened over the summer.

LEGO Camp – June 16th – 20th, 2014

Join 2491 students to learn about robots! We will be holding a day camp for students going into 4th- 8th grade who are interested in learning how to build and program a robot. June 16th-20th, from 9 am – 12:30 pm. Sign up now! First come, first served.

Championship Video

The trip to St. Louis was quite an adventure. Follow along with this short video of our trip:

FIRST Championship – April 23-29, 2014

FIRST robotics ends each year with a huge world championship event in Saint Louis. Although No Mythic did not qualify this year, eight students and four adults took a very long road trip to St. Louis with three goals in mind: find out what championship is all about, hold a leadership retreat to work on team vision/mission/goals, and support Ellen as Dean’s List Finalist.

The Championship event is huge. Over 400 robots, close to 800 matches, and around 12,000 people, just for the FRC part. Seeing robots from all over the world, the best of the best, was really inspiring. We can do it! We’re hearing that next year is already planned to be even bigger. Here we come for 2015….

DSC01230smThe group also tackled the team mission, vision and goals. Team building activities including going up the St. Louis arch and visiting City Museum, but at the end of the day, the group really rose to the challenge, and came back with draft goals for the team and text for vision and mission statements.

Ellen was one of the 132 Dean’s List finalists in St. Louis. This award is to recognize the leadership and dedication of the most outstanding FIRST Robotics students. The ten final winners will be flown to the FIRST headquarters in New Hampshire for the Dean’s List Summit, where they meet representatives from top colleges including MIT, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Yale. Minnesota was honored with one winner Madeline Logeais, from one of our favorite teams, the Robettes. All the finalists were also recognized with some great gadgets but more so with the honor of being a regional winner. Already, Ellen landed a summer internship with Pace Analytical.

From St. Louis, we really learned the scope and magnitude of how great the FIRST organization was. The atmosphere was electric (almost literally)and examples of “gracious professionalism” were seen everywhere.

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North Star Regional

We started the day on a high, ranked in second place. Our first match on Saturday morning was great – along with our alliance partners 2220 and 3293, we scored 166 points. By alliance selection, we were in 11th place. As the selection process unfolded, we ended up as the alliance captain of the 8th alliance. We picked teams 3883 (Data Bits) and 2220 (Blue Twilight), building an excellent alliance. We played the first match of the quarter finals, against the first ranked alliance of 2175, 967, and 4607. We put up a good fight, but we lost, 255:175. Then came our second match. From the stands, we watched the match start, and our robot sit still. We didn’t know what was wrong. Our alliance partners worked hard, but two against three is difficult, and they lost the round.  It turns out that a controversial call by a judge disabled our robot seconds before the match began.

Still, our team and our robot did a great job this year. We built a really complex robot that did exactly what we planned – picked up, shoots, and moved really well. And we grew as a team, supporting each other, learning new skills, and even having fun! Plenty of reasons to feel very proud of ourselves.

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North Star Regional – Ended Day 2 in 2nd Place

unicornsmThursday was the first time the team got to work on Artemis since Duluth. They had a long list of repairs and updates to make – which took all morning and part of the afternoon. The robot passed inspection by the end of the day, except for the bumpers. Emergency sewing fixes overnight solved that problem, leaving the robot ready to drive on Friday morning just in time for the first qualification matches.

The team played a grueling 8 matches on Friday. The robot performed great! It scored well in autonomous mode, then did many truss shots and three robot assists. The matches were really fun to watch.

A number of visitors stopped by our pit today to visit with the unicorn.

We ended the day in second place, out of all 60 teams. Tomorrow will bring more exciting matches – drop by to see!

Robotics North Star Regional: Friday/Saturday, March 28th & 29th

2491smWhat an incredible season! Team 2491 No Mythic would like to personally thank everyone for all the help and contributions this year. This has been our best year to date for many reasons, especially the collaborative support from sponsors, parents, team members and mentors. This support has allowed the team to focus their energy, support each other and create a highly functional competitive robot.

If you’ve ever wondered what a robotics competition looks like, this is your chance to find out! We have demonstrated our capabilities by being a top competitor at the Duluth competition in early March and are excited to compete again at the North Star regional next weekend at the U of M Maruicci Arena. We will be going up against over 60 teams and expect to hold a place in the top 10. The event is free and open to the public. You can stop in for 10 minutes or all day. The matches get more and more exciting as the the day wears on and the robots get better. Saturday afternoon, the best robots compete against each other.

Friday, 3/28: Qualification matches from 9 am – 5:45 pm
Saturday, 3/29: Qualification matches from 9 am – 12:15 pm, then Final Rounds from 1:30-4:30

Come to cheer us on! Look for the team with the unicorns on their shirts. If you can’t attend, check out the live webcast, match results and standings: Regional and District Events . You’ll have to scroll down to North Star Regional on March 27-29th.

Ellen honored with Dean’s List Award

ellen_deanWe were selected, as first pick, tot he seventh ranked alliance. Our alliance went up against the 2nd ranked alliance, and we gave them a tough fight for the first match, losing by just 4 points. In the second match, Artimes and our alliance partner both lost communication with their robot – a tough lesson about the value of new ethernet cords – and we lost the match, thus being elimated from the final.

But the day wasn’t over yet. After the quarter finals, the semi-finals, and the winning match, there was a very long awards ceremony. And at the end of that, Ellen won! She’s a Dean’s List Finalist, an award given to a students to recognize “the leadership and dedication of the FIRST most outstanding FRC students.” Ellen is truly outstanding, and it was great to see that recognized.

Elimination Rounds, here we come!

As expected Team 2491 (19th) was selected almost immediately. We are on the blue alliance with teams 3206 ( 10th)  and 3055 ( 28th). We’re in round 7 @ 2:03 pm. The winning alliances from the elimination rounds will go onto the final matches. Stay tuned for more details…

Qualification 74 11:48 – the final match

Though the match was up against some tough competition,  team 2491  scored all of the 95 points for their alliance.  Though it wasn’t a winning match,  they have poised themselves as a strong alliance member and have a good chance of being selected for the elimination rounds.  They have fallen a bit in the overall standing,  but this is a marathon and not a dash,  and the work they have put in earlier this weekend should sustain them through to next rounds.  Stay tuned to find out if they make it in.

Another morning at the competition

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Ellen assisting another team on the field. Theo dancing with some of the other mascots.

A New Day: Qualification Match 74, 9:49 am – Starting out refreshed and recharged.

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Team 2491 are ready and rearing to go. The first match was a good start of the day. Partnered with Team Rush 27 who also has proven to be a strong competitor, the red alliance came out on top with 140 points to the  alliance’s 66 points. Team 2491 dialing in the automous mode scoring and strategized to defend. This has put them in an overall standing of 6th place. With only one qualification match left today, there is a likely chance they will be in the elimination rounds.

Very tired team – Friday night

At the end of the day Friday, the team had played eight matches and fixed countless things on the robot. And they’re exhausted!

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A day in the stands is enough to wear anyone out. Edward actually spent most of the day driving – especially tiring. Isaiah was “just” human player. Adam’s mom stopped by to perk everyone up with a snack.

 

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There was a huge turnout in the stands, including teams, friends and families. The drive team met after each match to review the footage and revise the plan.

Qualification match 56 – 4:30pm WHAT A MATCH!

This was a classic example of alliance team work with paying and scoring.  2491 (blue) was able to fix the defects and scored a whopping 186 points over the red alliances 7 points,  putting team 2491 back on top of the overall rankings at 3rd out of 55!

Qualification match 48, 3:34 pm – Continued troubles, 2491 (Red) takes a beating

The team had some trouble with the power and the last 15 seconds completely lost valuable game time and powered down. Match was 36 to 47 .

Qualification match 43, 2:59 pm – Won but not without peril

Early in the round one of the pick up wheels come loose and the arm looked like it broke on one side making it difficult to pick up the ball. They also had some trouble with their shooting, making only one of five attempts in the high goal. Fortunately, the other alliance had equal troubles and the match ended 26 to 27 with the blue team ahead. Team 2491 is now 4 for 5 in their matches and are still in the top ten but are rushing to repair the damage before the 3:34 match! Is Not just about the build,  but also how they deal with the chaos.

Qualification match 35, 2:03 pm – Red lost, 51 to 95

P10205442491(on the red alliance) took a hit on this round. They knew it would tough going up against team 0027. Not to worry, there are several more matches to keep their standing.

March 7th  – Qualification Matches

Team 2491 are being treated like rock stars! With their 4th place standing in the qualification matches, carrying the points for their alliances, teams coming by the pit looking at the robot and taking photos. There are 5 more matches today and 2 tomorrow morning before the finals tomorrow afternoon.

The Blue Alliance puts out a live stream if you’d like to watch along: The Game Day. Be sure to look for the team numbers – 2491.

Q 35 @ 2:03 (Qualification Match 35 at 2:03 pm)
Q 43 @ 2:59
Q 56 @ 4:30
Q 65 @ 5:33

Saturday morning…

Q 74 @ 9:49
Q 91 @ 11:48

Finals will depend on  qualification matches and times will be posted when we know.

March 5th – Arrival!

A huge coach bus arrived at 3:30 to pick us, and all our stuff, up. After a frenzy of loading, everything was tucked on or under the bus – nothing on top! That included two robots, a 4’x8′ white board, 6 boxes of food, extra shooting arms, a myriad of other tools and equipment, and even our own bags.

Now we’re settled in the Comfort Suites. The rooms are huge, which is great. Plenty of room for team meetings, hair bleaching parties, and rooms packed with students.

Tomorrow morning we head over to the DECC to get our robot inspected, do final testing, and enter practice matches.

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Theo easing Artemis into place. The entire team gathered around Michael for a late-night team meeting.

March 4 – Leaving for Duluth

‘Twas the night before Duluth, and all through the shop, not a creature was stirring, except for the mice. The banner was hung on the tent with care, in hopes that Artemis soon would be there. The students were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of robots danced in their heads…..

We leave right after school tomorrow.

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Marcus and Leo, painting the cart or themselves? Leeah and Laura under our new shiny banner. Diana, sister to Artemis.

 

February 24th – Introducing Artemis

In a mere 2 weeks, the team took the new chassis from Quality Tool and built up a robot. Watch a 90 second summary of the process:

February 18th – Bag and Tag

Artemis lives! In a mere 10 days, the team went from a bare chassis to a fully functional robot. Now it’s tucked away in the official bag, ready for Duluth.

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Michael and Ezra installing the support bracket for the shooter arm. Bumper crew: Karl, Max, and Laura.
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Artemis Lives! At 9:47 pm, Artemis was officially bagged up. A record!

February 15th – Simley Pre-Ship Competition

On Saturday, most of the team headed over to Simley High School to give Apollo, the first completed robot,  some competition practice. The day was wildly successful. Lots of progress was made in terms of design development, and driver training. By lengthening the shooting arm, they improved shooting accuracy dramatically. Meanwhile, back at the shop a small group of students finished constructing the final components of Artemis, the final robot.

February 8th – Artemis Arrives

On Tuesday, the beautiful one-piece chassis for our competition ‘bot arrived from Quality Tool. They pressed the frame out of a single piece of aluminum, then bent it to our exact specifications. Zoe, Ellen and Leo painted it on Thursday and on Saturday the team added the first components to make it our competition robot. And it got a name – Artemis!

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Quality Tool staff member building the chassis. Rodrigo installing wheels on newly painted Artemis.

Less glamorous but equally important, the rest of the team kept working on our first robot, now named Apollo, improving the design so it can not only shoot, but shoot well, and also stand up to the wear and tear of real competition. On Saturday, the team added new wiring, cross bars to support the catapult, and started work on the team video.

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 Evan and Jamie working on the wiring of Apollo.  Alex on the set of the video.

February 6th, 2014

Triangle Fraternity paid us a visit today. They got to see the robot, and to present their sponsorship check. Thank you, Triangle! This work is not possible without sponsors like you.

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February 4th, 2014

Order No Mythic t-shirts! Use the T-Shirt Order Form to tell us how many you want, which sizes and styles. Then send a check with your student on Thursday or Saturday. We plan to order the shirts on Saturday morning, February 8th. It’s great to have a big cheering section at competitions all wearing our team shirt.

February 1st, 2014 End of Week 4 Update

Our Robot takes it’s first steps today as all of our individual pieces aggregate into a functional form. We have been working overtime to make up the days lost to the cold, during this time we finished our drive train and electrical systems, and we are now currently installing a pneumatic system for the first time in our history. Despite several setbacks regarding the intricate use of our limited space inside our drive train, we have high hopes at having our first  robot ready to roll by the end of the day.

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Pneumatic Crew: Thom, George and Erik Bumper Crew: Laura, Toby and Max Shooting Crew: Adam and Isaiah
And we did it! By the end of the day, we had a robot that moves, picks up the ball, and shoots. We loaded everyone up and headed over to Har Mar, to visit the Firebears, team 2846, and try out our robot on their indoor playing field. Much work yet to do, but very exciting! robot3

January 25th, 2014 Update

Three weeks into build – we’re at the half way point this week. And despite being behind in hours due to losing two practice sessions (thank you Minnesota cold weather), the team is right on track.  The drive train is almost built. The shooting and lifter teams are prototyping final designs, using the new metal parts that were purchased today. The programming team had a tough week – they had to reinstall Windows and Labview so they can start programming next time. Next we’re just waiting to see if school will be cancelled again this week – more arctic air is arriving on Sunday.

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Jeremy and the drive train. Lifter crew: Erik, Edward, Rodrigo, and Nick. Max, Tom and Ezra with the shooter prototype.

 

January 19th, 2014 Update

The team got the new challenge,  Aerial Assist, on January 4th. The first step was to learn the 90 page rule book. Then the students divided into groups to decide on strategies and possible designs. They’re now building the top four designs, creating prototypes that should showcase the feasibility and effectiveness of each choice. Overall, the team wants to create a robot that can receive or lift the ball and can shoot up high, either over the truss or into the high goal.

And the winner is: Lifter 1 with Shooter 1! Tuesday the team finally gets to start building the final robot.