A reprieve

Following a frantic two weeks of attempting to get the robot to do what we tell it, design the robot so that it does what we think it will do, and panic about the fact that it is not doing any of these, today I received an email putting our competition date back to January. This means we have two whole months extra to get to grips with this thing.

On balance this is marvellous news, the pressure is off for a month at least and I feel like the team have a chance to shine now rather than just scramble to do their best in limited time and with limited knowledge and experience. The drawback of course is we ill now need to find time to meet over the busy Christmas period.

They are doing fantastically well and even as things stood before our reprieve we are at the stage where we can begin the programming of the tasks in earnest. However the set back of the date allows us to take stock a little, refine the design of the robot and discuss things as a team more thoroughly so everyone feels they have had all the input they need and want.

 Some of the programmers have been hard at work with some of the field tasks and their efforts are on various You tube videos below.

woodworking challenge:  http://youtu.be/eVsRHdXMHa4

Medicine bottle challenge:  http://youtu.be/A2HrDtyfKLA

A design update from the programmers http://youtu.be/hyQOW2SdzSw

medicine bottle part two with the actual field mat rather than a home made version http://youtu.be/XvzW2SGTcw4

the transition table  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuIYJ5yliqU

The designers have also been hard at work trying to solve some of the problems that we have encountered while trying to solve the tasks. The robot is now three wheeled to allow more manoeuvrability and the NXT block is mounted differently so that the sensor ports can be accessed more easily. At the moment the position of the NXT is slightly loose so that the block can be moved to change the weight distribution on the robot. We have found that when the scoop is lifted the weight needs to be further back to counterbalance BUT when the robot has to go up the transition table the robot falls over if the weight is too far back. The robot now looks a little like this.

The project also continues at a pace. The script is mostly written and will be pulled apart and put back together again on Monday while the programmers are off with Jeremy learning all about NXT programming. We are hoping to do a full read through and get a base line time for how long it lasts. However the goal posts have moved here also as we now have ten minutes rather than five. There is still much to do though, as we have very few props as yet and no one knows their lines.

Onwards and upwards!

The mentors

Part of the FLL process involves talking to people who can mentor us through the different skills we need to get good at. The great part about this is the team have been really engaged and had the chance to talk to some people who really know and love what they do.

Our first Mentor was Sean from Techniquest who spent three hours with us, showing us how to programme the robots to go in a straight line, stop accurately and turn. Despite the long drive to Wrexham the children agreed it was finally good to get our hands on some technology. The trip also gave me an idea of what Mindstorms programming actually looked like and gave me a little reassurance that it was possible for me to be a coach even with out a computer background.

Next came Paul. Paul is a carpenter and helped us cut the pieces straight for our table.

Then there is Julie. Julie is our senior partner in the project side of the challenge. Until she recently retired she was a lecturer at Salford university in sociology. Julie also had responsibility for designing and administering 13 undergraduate and graduate courses one of which was social gerontology. Julie also happens to be Q-Man's grandma. She came to talk to us on Monday about some of the social problems encountered by people as they age things like the invisibility of older people in society, how older people are often patronised by family, younger friends and professionals. Julie also spoke about the problems associated with being lumped together in a group labelled old, it turns out this is a similar experience for the team who are often lumped together in a group marked children or youth. Julie will continue to be involved in the process to the end and we hope to invite her back to show her how the information she provided was used and to take part in our after show party.

And there is Jeremy. Jeremy is dad to S, one of the team members and, along with Tara and Dave, have computer programming backgrounds. Jeremy found a book about programming the NXT and has run a fantastic all day session at his house with the three programmers. They learnt many things including how to get the robot to follow a line using a light sensor, how to make a bumperbot and how to program a sequence of things into the NXT block using chunks so that each time you adjust something in the program you don't have to start again and re program the whole thing. The programmers came back very enthusiastic and are planning a second session at Jeremy's house to build on this.

Tara has recently become my right hand woman in the sessions. We have found recently that it is difficult to stay on track when discussing various aspect of the robot game. There are three main strands to the robot game which all depend on each other and no sooner do we start talking about one and they veer off into the other. Now the children are in groups I cannot be everywhere at once so Tara is now deputy coach.

Sophie, L's mum has run the treasure hunt session for us, Maria, Ginger's mum, is playing host to us twice a week, opening up her home to a bunch of rowdy FLLers, Dave and Suzie B.J.P.'s parents have done fantastic R&D at home with the robot and been a reliable taxi service to Jeremy's and back.

So overall we have involved many people in our FLL journey.

A big thanks to all of you.