Robostormers

Robotics on 26 August

2006-08-26T13:34:00.001+08:00

Researcher speaks:
Today I went to the Jungle Lab to work on NJRC as there is no more time to wait. We had to finish it today! We had a lot of work to do and we also had chicken rice for lunch. Han Yu and I played Pokemon Crater while doing our work. Hee, hee!

First Playing Field Testing

2006-08-17T20:38:00.000+08:00

Programmers speak:
It was PSLE Oral Examination Day. We went back to school to work on our robots. We were desperate. Mrs Tan asked for Ms Ng's, our Principal's, permission to let us come back to school. We worked from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. We were going to the Science Centre to try out our robot at the playfields! Hurray!

We did a bit of programming and got ready for the trip to Science Centre. When we reached there, we set up our laptop and put our robot into the pool of water for Mission 2! We were trying out to see if the robot was tall enough. It was a HUGE mistake.

The parts of the robot were wet and when we tried the wet robot on the Mission 1 playfield, we got the playfield wet too. We looked for tissue to clean up the playfield frantically.

We realised that the robot was still wet after drying it. We changed the tyres as the wet tyres would affect the reading taken for the rotational sensor.

We soon got settled and got straight to work.

We started with the robot not being able to track the line. We took the reading from the light sensor on the light intensity of the black line and the white line.

Then, we took the reading for the rotational sensor to turn till the antenna. The robot stopped and we again took reading for the rotational sensor to turn for the 90 degrees turn to face the antenna.

Then, the robot had to move forward to press the handle of the antenna down. The robot resumed line tracking and went on to collect the buoys.

Our robot depended on the rotational sensor a lot. We managed to find the correct match for the robot to move in a straight line. Hence, programming the robot to move as desired was a breeze. Weren't we lucky!

We used timer for the 3rd motor which was controlling the cover as we ran out of ports! (2 for light sensors and 1 for rotational sensor)

At the end of the day, we were tired but happy that we managed to raise the antenna and collect 3 buoys. Hurray!

After today, there would be no practices for us as we had to sit for our CA2. Mrs Tan wished us well and we promised her that we would do our best (both for CA2 and NJRC)!

WISH US GOOD LUCK!

Constructor speaks:
I was under tremendous pressure. I was tasked to run the robot for the actual competition! I held on to the robot while Yusuf and Yang Ming programmed it.

I tested the robot out in the Mission 2 "pool" and the robot got wet! I had to change the tyres of the robot so that the readings we took were accurate.

I had to remember the starting position and got Yusuf and Yang Ming to change the numbers whenever I got the new reading. It was more fulfilling today as out team managed to get the antenna raised and collected 3 buoys.

Researcher and Journalist speak:
Our constructor and programmers were off to Science Centre to test out our robot. We wish we could join them. Never mind, once we have completed our journal we could help them. With three hours left in this last session before we had to submit our journal, it was a mad rush to get everything ready. We printed our research booklet and added the final touches. Next, we finalised the design for the journal entries and started typing them in. We must remember to get the entries for today from our team mates and add them in!

Because of these last entries, we will have to wait till tomorrow to finish up our journal. Luckily, there are no lessons tomorrow as the Primary 6 pupils are still having their PSLE Oral Exams. We cannot wait to show the rest of our team our journal. We hope we can win!!!

Another Day

2006-08-15T20:35:00.000+08:00

Researcher and Journalist speak:
The deadline is drawing near! We had to race against time to complete our journal! Today we sought advice on model-building from our teacher, Mrs Sin. She gave us some advice and we quickly started building our model. It looked quite cool! We were so engrossed in building our model that we did not realise how time flew by. We had to pack up and go home. Mrs Loke and Ms Tan gave us gentle reminders to update our website and blog. What a lot of work there was to be done! But we were happy, because our model looked great!

Constructor speaks:
It was a disaster as we realized that the base of our robot was too wide. I had to modify it again.
Luckily, I managed to modify the width of the base and it was done. What a close shave!

Programmers speak:
We worked on the programmes again. We planned to use touch sensor to control the programme we wanted the robot to run as we did not have enough programme slots.

We still had very vague idea on how we wanted to complete mission 1. My goodness! We were less than a month away! Help us!!!

Road Safety Park Day

2006-08-11T20:31:00.000+08:00

Constructor speaks:
Despite Mrs Tan "pleading" us to sacrifice our educational trip and attend Robotics practice session, I went to the Road Safety Park, leaving Yang Ming behind to work on the programme.

It was not exactly fun at the Park and I kind of regretted going there. I had the chance to ride on the go-cart but I was unfairly booked by the NPCC cadets. I should have stayed in school to work on the robot.

Programmers speak:
Today, all the Primary 5s went for a trip at the Road Safety Park. I (Yang Ming) decided not to go as I felt that we did not have enough time to work on the robot for the competition.

Mrs Tan, another CCA teacher, "pleaded" us to sacrifice the educational trip. She called me an angel when I told her that I wanted to work on the robot. Others looked on. Yusuf was adament. Bryan and him insisted on going. They decided to head for the fun!

I stayed on with Iyadh (another P5 pupil) from another team. I looked at the programme Yusuf worked on. My goodness! I did not know what it was all about. I decided to help Fantastic 5 with their robot.

Researcher and Journalist speak:
We chose Road Safety Park over Robotics. Oops. But we made up for it by meeting at my house again. This time, we gave up on our pop-up book because it did not look presentable enough. We had a better idea, and that was to build a model of an oil rig, and put our research and journal entries on it. We will need many materials. Perhaps the teachers could help us?

National Day Eve

2006-08-08T20:27:00.000+08:00

Researcher and Journalist speak:
It’s the eve of National Day and we had to stay back to work on NJRC. We had decided to make a pop-up book for our journal. Zhi Wei came to my house yesterday and we started working on it. After a long time we only finished four pages. Help!! How are we going to finish!

At the computer lab, Mrs Loke taught us how to create our own webpage. Wow, it was difficult but fun! There were so many things which we could do for our webpage. But that also means more work! Not to worry, I’m sure we can make it. Towards the end of the session, we went up to our team mates in the IT resource room and took photos of them (and with them too).

Constructor speaks:
I was the only person in my team to be there for the practice session. I kept asking where the rest had gone to but Mrs Tan was not informed of their whereabouts. Anyway, I continued with the building of the robot for mission 2 and Mrs Tan gave me a pair of matched motors.

It meant that when we attached the motors to the robot, the robot would be able to move straight with the same power. This could cut down on the problems when we programmed.

Programmers speak:
We celebrated National Day today! We wore red to commerate the significant day. After the celebration, we stayed for 2 hours for Robotics. I went out with Yusuf, Louis and Raffles for roti prata! We lost track of the time and were late. Mrs Tan gave us a scolding as she wanted us to exert self-discipline and be more responsible.

Yusuf continued programming on Mission 1. I (Yang Ming) was supposed to assist him in the programming, but went to help another team, Fantastic 5, on their construction.

They were quite helpless and their robot was not ready for the mission. Knowing that Yusuf could handle on his own, I thought I should extend a helping hand to my schoolmates. I could hear the scream for help in their hearts! Weren't they glad!

We Made Some Progress

2006-08-04T20:26:00.000+08:00

Programmers speak:
Today, we started on the programming. We had no time to lose. We were briefed us on the programming. Yusuf worked on the programmed. He programmed Mission One which was to push the handle of the antenna down and collect the buoys.

We were also taught on the programming of the colour identification. Yusuf stopped on the programming of Mission One and started on colour identification as it would take quite a long time to do so. He managed to finish the program for the colour identification that day. What a feat!

Constructor speaks:
Since our robot from the previous robotics session did not work, I started from scratch. I decided to build one robot for each mission.

For the first robot, I started with a roverbot base and modified it. Then, I attached the arms for collecting the buoys. Bingo! The length of the robot fit perfectly! Our robot for the first mission was completed.

Researcher and Journalist speak:
I (Han Yu) was alone in the computer lab today. Zhi Wei was not here, and I did not know why. Well, since we had almost finished our research, it was time to think about how to present our research in a nice journal! Oh, I almost forgot, we had to “chase after” our team mates for their journal entries! We really must quickly start to piece everything together. Our CCA teachers kept reminding us that time was of the essence! We had barely three weeks to finish everything!

Back to what I was saying.. We had to come up with a journal design. Mr Goh briefed us (all the teams) about oil rigs and alternative energy sources. After his briefing, I was clearer about our research topics. He also gave us some ideas to start us off on thinking about our journal designs. I must go back and discuss with Zhi Wei what we want for our journal!

Real Work Begins

2006-08-01T20:24:00.000+08:00

Constructor speaks:
I wanted to finish building the robot today. I had problems with the gear system. The gears were too tightly attached to the robot.

I changed the gears and the robot went very fast! I was happy as it would mean that we would take a shorter time to complete the mission, but it exceeded the dimensions of 20cm x 20cm x 20cm. Besides, it was not able to go up the ramp. And the arms.... it could not collect the buoys.

Researcher & Journalist speak:
Today we stayed in the computer lab and continued our research. Things were better today because Ms Tan printed out a list of points which we could include in our research. That helped us narrow down what we were looking for. By the end of the session, we had almost finished our research. Phew! It sure was tiring typing and typing at the computer!

Programmers speak:
Yusuf and I did not do much programming today. We discussed on the strategy to complete the mission but it was to no avail. This NJRC is TOUGH!!!!

We helped Bryan out in the construction. We talked about the dimension of the robot--20 cm by 20 cm by 20 cm. It was tough to keep the robot that size. We needed an arm to collect the buoy and to press the handle of the antenna down.

2 hours was insufficient for us to accomplish much. I think I must get Mr Chong, our CCA teacher to lengthen the time.

First Day

2006-07-28T20:22:00.000+08:00

Programmers speak:
Today is our first meeting for NJRC. We were briefed about the mission. This year's theme is Rig Attack. We would have to construct robots which can go into the water! After the briefing, we got to know our team members and decided which roles each of us would take. In the end, we decided on this:
Bryan:Constructor
Yang Ming and Yusuf:Programmer
Han Yu: Researcher
Zhi Wei: Journalist
When our roles were settled, Han Yu and Zhi Wei went downstairs to the computer lab to start on their research. The rest of the team started on building our robot. Because there was little time left, we did not finish building our robot.

Constructor speaks:
When I got to know that the robot had to get into the water, I was greatly challenged. Thinking that that was the biggest challenge, I was in greater shock that I was made the constructor! Me, "pi cia" king...constructor???

Journalist & Researcher speaks:
So, we are one of us a journalist and the other a researcher. That means we have to go downstairs to the computer lab to start on our work. Both of us decided that we would help each other out, that is – we would both be journalists and researchers! We started on the research by searching through the internet using different search engines. Progress was slow at first, as we were not familiar with the information that we needed to put into our journal. Hm.. We hope it will get better!