Team Structure, Organization, and Activities

Transcription

1 Team Structure, Organization, and Activities Business Plan Excerpts: Future Goals This year, the principal goals of Team 1678 are to build a competitive robot with which Citrus Circuits can again become the FIRST World Champions, win the Chairman s Award at one of FIRST s regionals, expand the Team 1678 brand to various social media platforms, and update its official website. Citrus Circuits also aims to expand the team and increase its numbers by actively recruiting students from local high schools and junior high schools. Organization of Files Using Google Drive The team organizes all of its files including documents, spreadsheets, and presentations using Google s cloud based infrastructure, called Google Drive. This infrastructure includes Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The team uses these services to collaborate on files seamlessly which helps it stay organized and productive.

2 Team Leadership and Structure: Citrus Circuits is separated into four sub teams: Mechanical, Electrical, Programming, and Business & Media. Each sub team has a leader, who collectively form the leadership team that makes the executive decisions of Citrus Circuits. The leadership team also decides who will be on the travel team, which is a group of members who go to competitions. Electrical: Programming Team Composition Statistics:

3 Budgeting and Auditing of Expenditures: Subteams create budgets and use a purchase order within our accounting system to track income and expenses. The entire team must approve all purchases through a vote at team meetings. Within the accounting group, three income accounts are managed: Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD), Blue & White Foundation, and Associated School Body. Each account has a different ledger that is updated weekly with new expenditures, including purchase orders, and incomes, such as grants and sponsorships. Category Expenses Robot $28,890* Mechanical $13,500 Electrical $4,600 Programming $3,800 Business/Media $6,990 Mentor Stipends $8,596 Game Elements $1,000 Loan Repayment $19,000

4 Machinery Equipment $26,239 Regional Fees $20,195 Central Valley Sacramento Fee $4,000 Food and Lodging $3,200 Fee $5,000 Food $400 Silicon Valley Fee $4,000 Food and Lodging $3,595 World Championships Fee $5,000 Travel $13,100 Food and Lodging $14,800 Total $136,820 *Regulations only allow $4,000 to be spent on the competition robot; however, the remainder of expenses is spent on prototyping and concept materials. ** This year the robotics team started a class which needed a financial kickstart given by the Davis Joint Unified School District. Fundraising: In order to compete in FIRST competitions, teams must raise a significant amount of money. To accomplish this, Citrus Circuits actively seeks out corporations and organizations that are able to contribute both resources and mentorship. Many companies have been extremely generous, and the team looks to build long lasting relationships with them in order to help the team continually move forward Sources Forecasted UC Davis* $45,000*

5 DJUSD $25,000** Parents $30,000*** DHS PTA $5,000 Farmers Market $4,000**** Da Vinci Boosters $1,000 Blue and White Foundation $3,000 Service Clubs $1,500 Grants $6,000 Sponsors $32,000 Total $152,500 * The different schools of UC Davis gave different amounts of money; the sum is listed above ** DJUSD provided the class with a sum of money, listed above, for classroom supplies, which are also used for the team *** Parents have given the team a great sum of money through donations and fundraisers **** The team sells LED light bulbs at the farmer's market every weekend Sponsors: Kickoff: During Kickoff, the team watches the reveal video of the new game at a local high school. What we do after that is the key to our success. When we return

6 to our workshop, the entire team begins to brainstorm ideas for what our robot should look like and how it should function. To ensure that our members know about the rules, we have a rules test, which is when students must read the entire rules manuel and take a test. They can only contribute to the discussion if they have passed the rules test.

7 Outreach: FIRST LEGO League FIRST LEGO League is a robotics program for 9 to 14 year old students designed to inspire children in science and technology and teach them valuable life skills such as responsibility, leadership, and collaboration. Teams are composed of around eight children with at least two adult coaches. The competition has three components: the Project, the Robot Challenge, and the Team Core Values. Students learn how to collaborate in a team environment as they research topics for their Project, brainstorm approaches for the Robot Challenge, and design, build and program a Lego Robot. More information about FLL and its goals can be found at firstlegoleague.com. Women in STEM The Citrus Circuits robotics team hosted its 2nd annual Women in STEM (WiSTEM) seminar. The event was held at the DMG Mori auditorium in Davis, CA on Saturday, November 7 th, from 1 5 pm. At this event, women in STEM professions spoke about their experiences and what they hope for the future. The goal of the event was to inform the community about the history of women in STEM and increase appreciation for their accomplishments. Another goal of these seminars is to encourage more women to join the STEM community. All people interested in STEM are invited to come and listen to the lectures.

8 Farmer s Market At the Farmer s Market booth, Citrus Circuits educates the community about STEM and The team also recruits members for both the FRC team and the FLL teams also uses the booth as a way to fundraise money for its team by selling LED light bulbs bought from FIRST. Digital Minds Team 5458 Digital Minds is an FRC team in Woodland, CA composed of students from Woodland High School and Pioneer High School. Citrus Circuits started mentoring Digital Minds in the fall of 2014 and continues to assist them to this day. In 2015, their rookie year, 5458 competed at the Sacramento Regional on the winning alliance. They also won the Rookie All Star Award, which qualified them for World Championships. Classes With the help of the school district, Citrus Circuits created two new courses that are currently being taught at the local high school: Introduction to Robotics Engineering and Advanced Robotics Engineering. Throughout Introduction to Robotics, students learn about engineering by participating in engaging competitions where they work as a team to complete a challenge. To learn about the engineering process, they make robots to the best of their ability. In Advanced robotics, students join Citrus Circuits as members of the team to compete in FIRST Robotics.

9 Capital City Classic Citrus Circuits hosts an annual offseason competition called Capital City Classic (CCC). In this three day competition, several local teams compete in the previous season s game, practicing with new drivers and operators. this year, the competition was hosted at Davis Senior High School with Teams 3859 and Robot Why Adrian? You may be wondering about the namesake of our 2016 robot. Adrian was a mentor on Team 1678 who passed away in the summer and we dedicated this season s robot to him in his honor.

10 Technical: Final Mechanical Design Subsystems Overview The 2016 robot, Adrian, features a robust West Coast Drivetrain supporting a utility arm that includes an elevator, shooter, and intake. The design gives 1678 infinite variability in movement, shot angle, and low bar ability. Drive Chassis The shape of the chassis was designed to maximize wheel base width while keeping space for 5 wheels on each side spaced as closely together as possible. Wheel placement ensures that that the robot can glide over defenses Wide Long Side rails are 2 x2 x1/8 Al 6061 Rectangular tube Cross bars are 2 x2 x1/16 Al 6061 Rectangular tube.090 thick laser cut belly pan features clearance holes for rivet nuts, enabling secure fixtures for electronics The middle cross rail provides a mounting point for the pivot arm mechanism as well as torsional support for the rough gameplay

11 Drivebase After one week of drivetrain prototyping, we were able to adapt our traditional drive base design to conquer the Defenses 10 Wheel, West Coast Drive 6 6 pneumatic wheels take the brunt of the impact from traversing the Defenses as well as keep us from beaching on the Moat 4 6 Colson wheel are dropped by.25 to create a stable wheelbase for shooting #25 Chain transfers power from the gearbox to the outer wheels through 18t sprockets Bearing blocks and tensioning cams allows us to adjust chain tension throughout the season ThunderHex bearings and shafts in the drive train improve efficiency with better bearing concentricity and less backlash We use VexPro 2 Speed Ball shifters at 9.167:1 High Gear and :1 Low Gear ratios to give us good speed as well as strong pushing power Drivetrain While 1678 does not usually prototype a drivetrain, the dynamic field forced us to modify our usual design. By building a complete prototype base, we were able to choose an appropriate wheel diameter, gearbox ratio, and wheel C C distance. In addition, we found that the Moat was a unique challenge, often causing our prototype base to beach. Lastly, we discovered the robustness required of our final base to withstand random impacts from game play.

12 Pivot Arm The pivot arm supports our intake, shooter, and elevator mechanisms Powered by two 775 pros in a custom gearbox with a 610:1 ratio through three spur gear stages and a final #35 chain sprocket stage Arm held by a 140mm disc brake to maintain arm positions Theoretical top rotational velocity of deg/s Elevator The elevator contains the shooter and intake and extends during shooting to make an undefendable shot Powered by two 775 pros in a custom gearbox with a 30:1 ratio through two spur gear stages Elevator inner stage powered by #25 chain Elevator held in position by 140mm disc brake Theoretical top linear velocity of 34.1 in/s

13 Shooter The shooter delivers a fast, power shot that enables us to make shots from the outer works and batter Powered by two 775 pros through a single 2.5:1 belt reduction Drives three 2 wide, 4 diameter 35A urethane wheels Theoretical surface speed of 260 in./s Plywood shooter hood directs shot angle

14 Intakes The intake mechanism is able to retrieve Boulders through its wide acquisition zone Front and side rollers are powered independently by one 775pro each through a 7:1 VersaPlanetary gearbox Urethane belting provides high grip on Boulders Passive side rollers prevent the robot from driving over Boulders unintentionally Class A Defense Mechanism The Class A Defense mechanism comes in two configurations for the Portcullis and Cheval de Frise Actuated with a 3/4 bore, 3 stroke pneumatic cylinder

15 Prototyping: Scaling The scaling team prototyped gear ratios for a linear climb and pivot rotation. Our game strategy required that we pivot the base of the robot up to a vertical position to give room for alliance members to scale the tower. Testing confirmed that we needed a high gear ratio for the pivot arm and a lower ratio for the elevator scale. Shooter We built a mock shooter structure out of Al extrusion to prototype shooting angle, gear ratios, and wheel material. We were also able to determine dimensions for the shooter hood that gave the optimal shot angle and ball compression. Awards: Media Award

16 Entrepreneurship Award Mission Statement Team 1678 Citrus Circuits aspires to empower those around us including its local community, students, professionals, and academics in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, and the FIRST community to be independent and innovative thinkers. The team accomplishes its goals by implementing peer to peer teaching with student leadership and group project based learning to develop an educated workforce with applicable skills. Team Origin Team 1678 was founded in the fall of 2004 as EnGen Robotics by Steve Harvey, a math teacher at Da Vinci Charter Academy, in Davis, CA. Since then, it has grown from 15 to more than 60 students. The team consists of students, grades 9 12, from Davis Senior High School, Da Vinci Charter Academy, and Harper, Holmes, and Emerson junior high schools. The team is mentored by teachers, team alumni, team member parents, nearby college students, and community members. For many years, Citrus Circuits operated out of a shipping container at Da Vinci Charter Academy with a small mill and some power tools. Team member skills had been improving every year since then. The team s competition success began in 2011 with winning the team s first regional and advancing to World Championships. In the fall of 2014, the school district provided a large workshop located at Davis Senior High School. Over the last two seasons, the team acquired three mills, two lathes, a CNC router, and a chop saw. In the fall of 2015, Team 1678 expanded to the classroom next door. It is large enough for a half practice field, more storage space, and separate rooms to hold sub team meetings. The expanded space also allowed the team to offer two new robotics classes, open to all students. With greater support and team resources, Citrus Circuits won the World Championship for the first time in 2015.

17 Relationships Team Members At the start of each school year, the team hosts Recruitment Day to attract new students. These efforts continue further through social media, robotics classes offered at the high school, and visits to junior highs. Meetings are run by student leadership with mentor support. Each meeting has a gathering at the beginning in order to brief all members on what has happened during the week, team goals for that meeting, and how to meet them. Mentors Mentors are found and enlisted through presence in the community and online, as well as personal connections. Many mentors on Team 1678 are alumni or students from UC Davis hailing from other FRC teams. They provide support and guidance to the various subteams on Citrus Circuits. At competitions, these mentors demonstrate gracious professionalism by not only assisting Team 1678 but other teams in need. They also lead outreach workshops in order to share the various skills used in Citrus Circuits. Sponsors/Community Sponsors are encouraged to donate through the increasing levels of benefits. They are contacted through professional and respectful phone calls and s. The process continues with presentations to potential major sponsors and community groups. The community is informed of the team through the team s website, newsletters, webcasting, articles in the local newspaper, as well as a booth at the local Farmers Market. Citrus Circuits is also involved with the Regional Committee which supports local competitions by organizing off season competitions and event webcasts. Deployment of Resources Team 1678 uses resources to boost team activities and fund outreach projects in order to spread the message of FIRST. These include workshops for the FRC community, supporting Davis FLL teams, organizing a Women in STEM conference, running a weekly Farmers Market booth, supporting two new FRC teams, and programming an app to find the nearest homeless shelter. Every member of Team 1678 participates in at least one outreach group.

18 The rest of the team s efforts go to increasing public understanding of the team in various ways. Newsletters are sent out as well as weekly build blogs throughout build season to educate parents, mentors, and occasionally the interested public. Other methods are through the Citrus Circuits website, several social media accounts, press releases during competition season, and newspaper articles in the Davis Enterprise. Citrus Circuits have been on local television at least once a year since Recently, Team 1678 was interviewed for Good Day Sacramento right before Kickoff, aiding in getting the team s message across to a new audience. Besides working hard, team members are supplied with a positive work environment. Parents donate food and time to improve the facilities so that longer meetings are enjoyable as well as productive. Each member is active and always involved with a task, whether it be mechanical, electrical, programming, design, or business and media. SWOT Analysis Key strengths include an archival system to ensure consistency from year to year, allowing the team to build upon past experience, and peer to peer teaching to mentor new students. The team maintains financial security through major sponsors such as UC Davis and its Chancellor. Shop and classroom facilities are provided by the school district, and a new introductory robotics course is expanding student interest. Identified weaknesses include the fluctuating number of members each year, especially in the Business and Media sub team. Inexperienced members, make it harder to raise funds and retain sponsors. This leads to inconsistent sponsorship and weak sponsor relationships. Being an internationally recognized team, Team 1678 has many opportunities to gain new sponsors. The team could also further develop its relationships with the school district and current sponsors in order to obtain more support and donations. Finally, Citrus Circuits can expand community outreach programs by connecting with city leaders and reaching out to new audiences throughout the region. Threats include a growing number of teams in the area, which threatens the level of funding. State budget cuts could also negatively affect funding from the University and school district, who are among the team s largest sponsors. The potential loss of key mentors could make it harder to train and assist team members. Inconsistent student participation may impede the ability to build and program the robot, fundraise, and keep outreach programs running.

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