US FIRST ROBOTICS
 The PTR Group believes that US First Robotics represents an important investment in our efforts to develop engineers and scientists for a new generation. To that end we directly sponsor four teams and provide mentors to the same. We are not sure but we suspect we are the only firm our size with such a strong commitment to US First. You can read more about it in our press release hereThe competition, promoted by innovator Dean Kamen, is an international program to challenge youth in a technical venue. Teams are given six weeks to design and test a robot to win the competition. The nature of the competition is kept secret till the kick-off day so the ability to manage time & reseources is a big part of the project. PTR is proud to provide facilites, financial support and technical expertise to the students.
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Team 2537, RAID, Atholton HS, Columbia MD
The PTR group was a gold level sponsor of the Atholoton HS Team #2537 in 2008-2009 and a platinum level in 2009-2010. The Raider Autononous Intelligent Device (RAID) Team competed this past year in the Washington, DC and Chesapeake Regional competitions. This year's design won the coveted “Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation” at the First Robotics Chesapeake Regional competition in March 2010. PTR CEO/President Sharon Brackett acts as an Adult Mentor to the team.
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| Team 1296, Robo-Jackets, Rockwall HS, Rockwall TX |
 The PTR-sponsored FIRST Robotics Team 1296 (Rockwall High School Robo-Jackets) competed at the 2010 Dallas Regional competition in Richmond, TX. They built a 4WD crab-steering robot. The students did a great job with the robot and were ranked 9 out of 62 at the end of the qualification/seeding rounds. Several of the teams ahead decided to join forces in the same alliance so the team ended up being the lead robot on the 6th team. Unfortunately the team lost 2 of 3 semi-finals matches by one point each. In addition to advancing to the playoffs, The Robo-Jackets won the Best Animation Award and the Best Web-site Award at the Dallas Regional. The team will particpate in the national championship in Atlanta in April 2010. The Rockwall High School "Full Metal Jackets" Robotics Team won the FIRST Denver Regional competition in March 2008 as well as winning the web site award. The team advanced to the national competition in Atlanta in April where they did not win but had a good showing. |
Team 620, The Warbots, James Madison HS, Vienna, Va
PTR Employee Don May acts as a mentor to the team.
PTR is the primary sponsor for FIRST Robotics Team 620 (James Madison High School Warbots). Team 620 competes at the D.C. Regional and Virginia Regional competitions. In 2010, the Warbots advanced to the semi-final round of the elimination tournament at both competitions. In 2009, the Warbots won the D.C. Regional competition and went on to compete at the National Competition in Atlanta. In addition to their on-field accomplishments, Team 620 won the Best Website Award at the D.C. Regional competition in both 2009 and 2010.
Team 116, Epsion Delta, Herndon HS / NASA HQ, Herndon, VA
PTR CTO/Chief Scientist Mike Anderson is a mentor to the team.
19 July 2010
Hi Guys,
Many of you know that I went with the team to the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI) this last weekend. If you've never been to IRI, it quite a match. Basically, it's the best of the FIRST teams (and then there's us :-) from around the country all there to compete for bragging rights. Teams came in from California (5 teams), Hawaii, South Carolina, Canada, etc. to battle it out. The competition is sponsored by Rolls Royce, Lockheed Martin, AndyMark and a score of others. Imagine being able to compete on Einstein at nationals and you almost have what this match is like. Most of these teams play for blood.
So, how did we do? Well, we when into the competition seeded in the 70's out of 78 teams. At the end of day 1, we were #34 thanks to the motor-driven kicker and our incredible driver (Dave Lavery's daughter, Megan). We had very few breakdowns because I had gone with a minimalist approach. No sensors, no pneumatics, etc. Just a motor-driven kicker and mechanum drive. All of the controls were driven by the joystick (although I did set up a full and half-power kick option via the joystick buttons). And, we couldn't even go over the bump thanks to the legacy of the build season's decisions.
We had 6 matches on Friday and 3 on Saturday. Of those, we were on the winning alliance for a couple, tied a few and lost a few by a point. But, the ability to steer, the relative maneuverability of the robot, and a reasonable kicker that wouldn't run out of pressure over time turned out to be huge assets for us. Saturday matches dropped us down to #58 until the last match. Therein lies a strategy of beauty thanks to Dave Lavery.
We were on an Blue alliance with the Martians (Team 70) and another team that was ranked just slightly above us. We were playing against Las Guerrillas (469), Beach Bots (330), and BombSquad (16) on the Red alliance. The Guerrillas had been racking up high scores for almost all of their matches thanks to taking up a position in the tunnel and directing balls into the goals as fast as the balls could be cycled. We looked like toast. There was no way to win against them. So, Dave Lavery put forth a strategy that was to lose and lose big.
It turned out that there was a strategy that had been discussed on CD but never tried. That was, by the fact that the losing team gets half of the points of the winning team and vice versa, we could help the Martians make the elimination rounds by making sure that the Red alliance got as high a score as possible and ensure that none of our team scored a single point. In fact, we had to make sure that the Red alliance couldn't score any goals for us to shift the balance of points and we could even help the Red alliance to score if needed!
The bell went off, all of the Red alliance started moving in Autonomous and scoring. The Blue alliance just sat there. Teleop started and our robots kicked our balls into the red scoring zone and then two of our robots (our team and the other non-Martian team) ran to our Blue goals and parked ourselves in the goals. The Martian robot was in the far region to help the Guerrillas scoring machine get started and running. It took the Red alliance a good 45 seconds to figure out what was happening. It so flustered the 330 driver, that he didn't know what to do. He drove to our robot and started slamming into us to try and get us out of the goal (he bent one of our wheels in the process -- fortunately this was our last match). The score ended up 32-0 in favor of the Red alliance. The Red alliance was furious for having won! Mentors ran up to Dave and the officials to complain (it was perfectly legal and their protests were dismissed). The crowd went crazy.
The end result? The Martians made it to the semi-finals before their bot broke beyond repair. The BombSquad was eliminated from the elimination rounds. And we ended up a very respectable #42 in the rankings at IRI! All-in-all, it was a great time and a significant redemption of Team 116 and our robot after the total drubbing we got in Atlanta.
Mike