We have made it a K-Botics tradition to participate as a team in the KCVI Relay For Life event held each spring. This year the KCVI event raised over $17000 for the Canadian Cancer Society! 
Our team, made up of students, teachers and mentors, had a campsite in one of the basement hallways, and we needed to mark our territory by making a banner.
To pay tribute to our most recent all-night adventure we called our team K-Botics: LAMBeth 2.0 (For those of you regular blog readers, you’ll remember that it was in Lambeth that our bus broke down on the side of the road headed for St. Louis)
All participants were given T-Shirts….but after a few moments it was evident that there was a sleeve monster on the loose! 
After the opening ceremonies, where we heard from cancer survivors and family and friends, we did a lap of the luminary track with our teams. The luminaries are all dedicated to family and friends who are fighting the battle with cancer, or in honour of those who have passed away. 
Some people lingered to walk around the luminary track, which was open as a quiet space all night long, while others participated in some more lively events.
There was a dance competition! We did a pretty good job showing everyone our dance moves.
There was a pizza party for dinner…
…followed by a coffee house, where musicians showed off their talents….
…and there was a newspaper fashion show at 2:30AM! 
It has become a tradition for our team to put on a demonstration as well. This year it took a bit of preparation though. We needed to clean all the carpet which had been in the Transformix Warehouse since build season ended. We needed to vacuum the top AND bottom side of each roll. Thanks to the custodial staff for providing us an excellent vacuum!
We also had to ensure that the electrical system and programming were working on our Logomotion robot. Our Rebound Rumble robot is currently in a crate in Toledo Ohio, headed to Kingston sometime this week.
With the music pumping, our robot showed off for the crowds. It was great to see so many people line up to get their hands on the controls. We’re always looking for new members to join our team next year! Who knows, maybe some of these people will join our ranks.
As the night wore on, some of us took time out for a nap.
…or a quiet moment to read a book.
When the morning came, we were feeling a bit exhausted, but happy. We are glad to do our part to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
In fact, our team raised the 4th highest amount! For this, we got prizes.
Thanks to Sam for being the team captain this year.
Dawn was breaking as we walked to the Edward Jones dome, and the streets were very quiet. 
We arrived at 6:15AM and found ourselves among familiar company….our good friends team 1114 and 2056! We are in the same division as they are, so we stuck close by them as the crowds grew larger.
We saw many familiar teams as we waited. Some of these teams we remember from regional competitions, and others we see only at the championships.
We followed our buddies to the Archimedes area of the dome, and settled down in the stands behind them. Close behind us followed our friends team 781 from Kincardine.
It was a reunion of sorts….we’ve seen each other play so frequently at the Ontario competitions.
This year, unlike last, we have all 4 fields in the dome! 
While scouts were scoping out the competition during practice matches, our pit crew readied our robot for competition. Part of the task included attaching our freshly constructed bumpers. 
Last night our bumpers transformed from this…..
…to this….
…and finally this!
They are much more sturdy this time, and the reversible flaps work much better. 
Practice matches were played in the morning. During this time our pit scouts and photographers gathered information behind the scenes, and our drive team got to experience the excitement of competing on the world stage.
In the afternoon we started the qualification matches, and were scouting in full force!
As a break from scouting, we split into two groups and toured the St. Louis arch. Here’s one of the touring groups. We have Captain Canada with us, and it’s causing quite a stir as we walk around the streets of St. Louis with a mascot!
From the top of the arch there are commanding views of the city and the river. We can see our hotel and Busch stadium!
When not otherwise involved in team events, we have some time to explore the pit areas and see other teams, and see many exhibits.
We saw SWAT (team 771) and Sabre Bytes (team 772). We’ve got mentors from both of these teams working with us this year!
Part of the activities available in the pit area is the bedazzling of safety glasses. There’s never too much bling!
When we need a break from FRC robotics, there’s always FTC (First Tech Challenge) robotics to enjoy. Some of these robots had very tall scissor lifts!
You never know who you’ll find when you’re walking in the pit area. Several of our students saw Woodie Flowers….
…and got his autograph.
All in all it was a very exciting and exhausting day. Our poor blue bear got a little bit sweaty with all of the dancing!
Matches continued until just after 8PM. K-Bots were all in bed by 10PM, ready for another early wake up call tomorrow!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our 
…it’s so nice to lay down and relax….it’s almost like having a beach vacation!
We applied reflective tape to our third target, and our programmers got right to work implementing the changes to the vision algorithm…
…while our mechanical crew attached the shooter to the platform.
Spring is in the air….and pool noodles have hit the store shelves. We’re stocking up for spare bumper parts for St. Louis….but in the mean time, they’re pretty fun to play with. 
Tomorrow we’ll be doing a robot demo for parent-teacher interviews (K-Bots, please show up at 6PM to prepare). Friday we’ll be back at the warehouse 5PM-8PMish working on calibrating the shooter.
…and work on getting encoders and chain back on our shooter. There were some discussions as we analyzed the mechanics of the situation.
After deciding on a course of action, we got to work.
Tomorrow we’ll have the chain back on!
Today a reporter came to take a few pictures for EMC. A few of us got interviewed for next week’s paper.
The shooter needed a few adjustments for our upcoming competition in Waterloo. But for the shooter repairs we were missing a few tools so some of us walked to Lowe’s, twice. It’s looking pretty good so far.
Later on Sam and Mike decided to play some 21…
The final score was Sam 21 and Mike 16…. can you guess why? Look at the shots!
After the game they were both pretty exhausted….but thankfully still friends. They just needed a hug.
K-Bots: we’re meeting at the Transformix Plant 2 Warehouse from 5:30PM-8:00 PM tomorrow evening. See you there!
Congrats to our friends FIRST Team 772, 
We’re starting to really notice the time passing. Some of us are feeling the time crunch! There are only 5 more days until we are competing in Oshawa, and we’re still working on some critical components. We’ll figure something out in the nick of time!
Our skills at vacuum forming chain guards is increasing by the day. We made another mould today, and will work on our final moulds tomorrow. Thank goodness for all the Timbits consumed today. We needed the cardboard to help stabilize the styrofoam!
Between designing, scouting, programming, shooting, and vacuum forming we got pretty hungry. Pizza sure was delicious! Speaking of food, K-Bots: if you have not yet put in your food order for Oshawa, you need to contact Colleen.
While we ate, our new friend the Roomba helped clean up some of our carpet. It’s mesmorizing to sit and watch it move around and around.
Come see the Roomba and the rest of the excitement at the warehouse tomorrow from 10AM-6PM. Bring your own food!
After school many parents volunteered to drive us to Transformix Engineering where we ate snacks and did homework….
…and worked on programming the robot….
…and finishing up the wiring.
Thanks so much to Transformix for letting us use their space for the weekend and letting us bag and tag tonight. We’re making ourselves at home! There are Queen’s jackets everywhere!
We had a few visitors come to see the last exciting moments where our robot was driving around and shooting baskets. It’s really thrilling to see everything come together at the last minute and work like it was supposed to!
Chris, from FESTO, was excited to see the pneumatic components in action. He’s arranging FESTO giveaways for competition this season.
We also had our follow-up with CKWS TV. It was exciting to have media present for the final moments of our build. Bag and Tag was officially documented this year, and a two part series about our team will air Monday and Tuesday at the 6pm news on CKWS.
One minor hiccup that we had to negotiate before bagging the robot was our bumper design. After recent clarification our original split number bumper was deemed to be against the rules. We quickly made some patches to sew on. 
There were still plenty of people taking naps on the sidelines…It will take time to regain all of the lost sleep from recent days.
With 30 minutes to go, we separated our shooting device from the robot to hold back and work on over the next little while. Thank goodness for a withholding allowance!
There was great hustle near the robot, and also in the Transformix lunch room. We cleaned up all of our dishes and food and prepared for the excitement of putting the robot into the bag.
But first…we needed to weigh our robot. Using the bathroom scales gave us one estimate…
…Transformix’s industrial scale gave us another….
With a 20 pound shooter, we’re under weight! 
We gathered at 11:50 to bag our robot. Everyone wanted to be a part of the momentous occasion.
It’s all caught on film!
With a sigh of relief and a few cheers we were done, with a few minutes to spare!
It’s a strange feeling to be done building. We’re used to seeing each other every day, and now we’ll take a day to rest and recover before we start thinking of all that remains to be completed before going to competition. 
We’ll miss each other in the mean time though! Good work everyone. Thanks to all of our families and supporters for helping us through an intense 6 weeks. Enjoy your rest.
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!
We’re making supports for the pneumatic systems and for the battery. It’s quite a riveting experience.
Programmers worked hard today getting robots ready for driver tryouts.
At 
Jags are now mounted….
So are the victors…
And the wires are all being put in place
We’ve had lots of helpers working on our electrical system. Thanks to Richard from Transformix for lending a hand today.
We took a break to de-stress today. Bubble wrap is a wonderful toy!
In the afternoon we set up the gym for driver/operator/human player tryouts.
We practiced throwing long distances. Some of us scored on the basket–some came close. Our mentor, James, scored twice!
The tryouts consisted of driving an old robot around the gym, through an obstacle course, over the bridge and back, and balancing. We had a defense robot to deal with too!
All interested drive team members then took a test to see how well they knew the rules of the game.
We’ve continued working on a top-secret knitting projects, and we’ve started some hats for some of our newer members.
Our programmers have been working very hard, using our test chassis to decide how the controls will be laid out.
After modifying things, it’s really fun to drive the robot around!
We held a meeting right before lunch to discuss our latest outreach activity… we’re going global! After our meeting we ate a delicious lunch. Thanks parents for keeping us so happy and healthy! We couldn’t survive our hectic build season without your support.
After lunch, we split up into groups to work on various tasks that needed to be completed before the end of today.
…While others worked on CADing various parts of the robot, including the drive train and some other ideas we’re working on.
We’ll meet next at the usual time after school on Monday. Enjoy your day off to relax and do your homework!-
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award brainstorming breakaway build season bumpers CAD Chairman's Report communication community competition construction Cyber Falcons dance demo design electrical families field field trip First Robotics FLL FRC fundraising GTR kick off Logomotion Machining media mentors New York City Regional organization pre-season challenge programming prototype Queen's University rebound rumble safety scouting sponsors team building testing thank you Transformix video WAFFLES
