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.
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 
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.
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.
Teams 1114 and 2056 and 781 are great teams to sit and cheer with!
Qualification matches were played in the morning. We played some excellent defense!
By 10:30 AM we were awaiting alliance selection. 
We were not selected, which was not a big surprise since we were sitting in 75th place. What was very exciting was to see 2 Canadian alliance captains, and to see one entirely Canadian alliance created amongst teams 2056, 1114, and the rookies from Alberta, team 4334.
We watched and cheered through the Archimedes finals, and as the games progressed our cheering section expanded to include the families of team 4334, and SWAT (team 771), and after their final matches we we joined by team 610 as well.
Flags waved and fans cheered as the Canadian alliance won the finals on Archimedes and continued onward to the championships on Einstein.
We took our team picture, and packed up our pit equipment then crated our robot before heading to get seats for the final matches.
Between matches awards were presented. We are excited that team 1114 won the championship chairman’s award, and are now in the hall of fame.
As the Einstein matches were played, there was a bit of an event going on outside of the dome as well. There was a tornado warning in effect, and we were not allowed to be near windows in the foyer or hallways. Rain poured down with hail the size of ice cubes, the sky was a greenish gray, and the winds whipped the dome area.
Some people with Internet access told us that a tornado was spotted 30 miles from the dome.
The weather impeded our plans for a speedy departure. Once we got the all clear from the security officials, we loaded up the bus which was now 2 blocks away, and then we set off for the border.
…then switched back to the McCoy bus that had been repaired.
Thanks to everyone who has been following along and cheering from home. We appreciate the support of our friends and family, our mentors, and our sponsors. We look forward to another fun season next 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 
While all of this is going on, there’s a small group of purple enthusiasts who are choosing the colour to paint our robot cart. We’re thinking that “Victory Purple” would be a great choice…because it would match M.E.L.
While at robotics we have been experimenting with different hair styles…today Sam wore a hairband!
We shared snacks….
…and had a fantastic BBQ chicken dinner! Thanks parents for feeding us so well.
Later in the evening we welcomed more people into our big purple family!
We participated along with the sports teams and other school clubs….but we stood out with the BIGGEST group of people on stage….
…and the most purple! We showed off last year’s robot, since our 2012 robot is already in St. Louis.
Our school was excited to see the robot in action on the stage. Nobody got stage fright this year…our robots have suffered from that in the past.
The important part of our calibrating is to make sure the robot camera and programming recognize the targets!
The next thing is to be sure that the ball sits well in the robot shooter….we’re getting good at setting up the shooter after all of this practice.
It’s also very important to have an expert button pusher running the controls.
We’ve been keeping a stats sheet to track our accuracy. It’s been pretty good, but more variable than we’d like it to be.
It was nice to have so many helping hands at the warehouse today. For the most part, everyone was very useful.
We competed in Toronto and then in Atlanta at the championships after winning the rookie all-star award.
Parents and students are excited to see our robot, and some are brave enough to try their hand at the controls.
Many thanks to our school for allowing us to demonstrate our robot at parent teacher nights each year!
