After a long night with Relay For Life, a few of us brought our robot and gear to Queen’s University for the Science Rendezvous.
Robot transportation is sometimes difficult, but today it was pretty simple. We are very glad that Queen’s is close by, and that the sun was shining! 
We were excited to be a part of the Science Rendezvous, an event that brings together many different community groups to show demonstrations of different kinds of science.
We got our display set up…ready for the event to begin at 10AM.
At the event, there were many different booths to explore. We had fun learning about different aspects of science…
There were many different people presenting their work. There were professors, and grad students, high school students, and even elementary student science fair winners. These two girls made robots out of toothbrushes!
photo posted with permission
Here’s the robot in action.
The Human Mobility Research Center showed how computer assisted surgery works…programming and cameras seem to be everywhere!
Our display was a big hit with all ages. From young drivers….
…to parents, everyone was interested in our program and how we were able to create this robot in 6 weeks.
We are glad of the opportunity to demonstrate our robot at this event. Many thanks to the organizers of the Science Rendezvous. We hope to participate for years to come.
When the cue was aimed, the cameras picked up the angle, and projected where the cue ball would travel, and where the other ball would go after impact.
It was fun to try our hand at pool. We realized that some of us were pretty good! The tracer lines helped some of us a lot.
Thanks to the Queen’s students for inviting us back again. Although watching calibration was interesting, playing the A.R. Pool was much more fun. Good luck as you take this demo on the road–we’re sure it will be a big hit!
This is a project being worked on by one of our mentors who helped with programming and vision code this past season. He wanted to show us that some of the same techniques that our team used are being used by researchers in computer vision in other areas too.
We had a brief tour of the ILC, and learned about what goes on in the building. Many of us have been there before for Science Quest, or for our FLL practice tournament a few years ago. There is usually NOT a big tent set up in the computer area though. This is a special demo set up for A.R. Pool.
It needs to be under a tent to control the lighting on the pool table. There are cameras and a projector involved in the game, so lighting is very important. The cameras are supposed to detect where the balls are, and where the cue is, and the projector will then trace lines showing where the balls will travel after they are hit at a specific angle.
Unfortunately, when we arrived for our tour and demo, there were a few technical issues. The camera settings were off….
…so those got changed….
…and then the lengthy calibration process had to happen.
We know all about calibration. It is such an important step in making any system function well. We had days of calibration in the warehouse before our robot was shooting well.
Today we started off bright and early in the Transformix Engineering Plant 2 Warehouse.
We worked hard to reassemble our robot to get everything in working order to test some key components that Purolator delivered today! 
We’re so excited to be in the warehouse and wrapping up build season. Some of us are wearing robot themed accessories!
Before too long we set to work putting holes into our robot….EVERYWHERE!
We weighed the robot….and look what the scale said!
Just kidding….that was only part of the robot. We think we’re on target though.
We ate a yummy lunch provided by our parents. It’s so nice to be well taken care of during a very stressful time.
After lunch it was nap time, until we had to construct the field. It takes a lot of power to keep the warped wood lined up properly.
The Cyberfalcons, FIRST team 3710, joined us in the warehouse today, and helped out fastening the field pieces to the carpet with heavy duty velcro.
Hard work leads to more nap time!
Our electrical and programming team worked hard to get all of the sensors connected and working.
Productivity was everywhere….
The Cyberfalcons made bumpers…
We worked on programming….
…and built a human player station….
….and made sparks fly!
Some of our mentors were ABSOLUTELY happy with all of our progress…..while others were a little concerned to see the robot disappearing before their very eyes.
Our families came to visit us and see our progress all day long. All of Mr. Wood’s family was here all at once!
We appreciate our families encouraging us through these last busy days. It’s nice to share the excitement with everyone we love.
Spontaneous sweeping is always a good thing….so is collecting piles of files! Rhyming organization is the best kind.
While waiting for the testing to begin, we entertained ourselves in many different ways….one of which was a crazy hair extravaganza! Thumbs up to everyone!
It was such a great work day today. Thanks to everyone for bringing your best effort, enthusiasm, and patience today. Please also bring your homework tomorrow….there will be some moments of down time where you can get ready for Tuesday. Also….when you arrive tomorrow, say happy birthday to Kevin!
See everyone here at 9AM!
…looked online for teaser videos to see how others are approaching the competition….
We worked with programming some more…
And, while all this was happening, part of our team met with 
We machined a few parts today. 
Most of our cheeseholes are now complete!
To make these parts we needed to go through quite a process. Drawings were made using CAD software.
The printed drawings, were then checked over
And then they were taken to Transformix for machining.
We turned all of our metal into much smaller parts.
Thanks to the machinists who made it happen!
When parts are completed, they need to be examined, and the sharp edges removed.
Looking at the pieces in this small cardboard box….we begin to wonder about the final size of the robot.
Meanwhile…back at KCVI. We had a visitor today who dropped by to get more yarn for 
We also had visitors who brought us our batteries from Florida. Thanks so much!
We devised a way to do tandem knitting. 2 knitters on one project is pretty cool stuff.
We did some bumper math calculations. Look at our reversible bumper instruction 
We looked at various sensors and how to use them effectively.
Our team had been working on a super top secret project for the past few days. We’ve made warm fuzzies for our mentors. Today they were delivered. Mentors are appreciated for the time and effort they put into our team.
Who doesn’t like warm fuzzies?! Why not thank a mentor today!
Programming needed a little tweaking to make the robot easier to drive.
It takes a little time to get used to the controls….
…and then it takes intense focus to drive the robot without hitting the cones. We saw a lot of promising drivers today! We’ll keep practicing, and have some driver tryouts in early February.
We’re organizing all of our tasks on our big organizational chalkboard. There is so much to do!
We’re working on our CAD drawings still. We’ve got lots of part drawings to get done before we can manufacture all of the parts. 
We’re prototyping various devices to manipulate the ramp. To make it more fun we split up into two teams (girls vs. boys) and had a competition.
We’re planning and measuring and cutting material carefully.
We’re working together, mentors and experienced team members are showing our rookies how to work safely.
It’s exciting to see our designs work well! Even if our designs don’t work well, we can learn from that.
We also get to meet family members…
…and welcome them into our big purple family. Family members love Tweedles as much as the rest of us!
After dinner we kept working on our prototypes for ramp manipulation. When tested on the ramp, the boys’ prototype was definitely the loudest, but the girls’ seemed to be a little more effective. Good work girls!
We’re getting a second driver station up and running so we can have drive practice before we hold tryouts later in the season. 
Some of the older students had a turn driving the robot, while the younger ones seemed more concerned about if the robot was alive, or if it was a boy or girl robot, and what its name was.
Tim was having such a good time teaching driving skills that he let us catch a smile on camera!
Some of the grade 8s were very intrigued with how the robot was built, and they look forward joining our team next year.
