Huckleberry and the Robot

After a friend told me it annoyed them when someone would post the same thing on their page as on facebook, I got a little leary of posting the same pictures in both places.  Which was fine when I had time to post twice as many pictures.  But lately life and investing in actual people has kept me busy and several people have reminded me that they do still read my blog.

So for all those family and friends near and far all dear to us who have so far not succumbed to the evil vortex which is facebook (or yet accepted my friend request)...here are the pictures from Huckleberry's first robotics competition this year.

Huckleberry's Team's Robot.  They painted it green with a sharpie.

There were 14 teams at the League Competition.  Each competed 6 times with 3 other teams.  One team was their "partner" and the other two the "competition."  Their score and partner scores would be added together.  Any penalties would be given as points to the other teams.  The first part of each meet was the autonomous part.  The robot had to preform a task by following a program.  There are different tasks to do, but Huckleberry's robot was programed to drive up onto the bridge and park.  They did this 6 out of 6 times, so that was great given that some robots didn't even move.

Next step is to, with remote control drivers, move blocks for points.  Into the blue square on the carpet or into the blue crates.  Huckleberry's robot does not have the ability to lift blocks, so into the square they went.

Huckleberry is the team driving coach and leader.  The team has 1 main driver and 4 secondary drivers and a programmer and a few other people.  Huckleberry is doing a good job of organizing, designing, setting people to task, and encouraging the team.  We are very proud of him.

One last check before the next meet since in meet number 2 their "Samantha?*" stopped talking to the robot so it started going in circles.  It is the one time that their robot didn't raise the flag.

Here is the flag going up because of Huckleberry's team's robot in their first meet.  Though other teams had already gone, it was the first flag raised in the competition so everyone was pretty excited.

Including Huckleberry and one of his team mates...the one who has the controller that works the arm that turns the flag wheel so the flag goes up.

Sweet Pea thought it was all exciting...or she just likes clapping.

Here is the robot in place to raise the flag during their third meet.  (The kids, camera, and I went home after the 3rd match finished at 8 p.m.)

And up it went.  Raising the flag 5/6 six times was a great way to earn points.  It put them in second place amongst the 14 teams at the end of the night.  Most of the teams were from High Schools so we feel Huckleberry and his team has a right to be proud.

The other big point earners are parking on the bridge during the autonomous (which they did) and hanging on the bar on the bridge.  Huckleberry expects to have their hydraulic lift arm up and running by their next meet this upcoming Friday.  If they do it will put them a good ways towards earning a place at State...they have two more competitions and a league championship first to find out.

And here is their robot parked behind their "partner's" robot after raising the flag.  Apparently when you are using the remotes it isn't considered very impressive and doesn't garner any points.  But still it is fun to see the robots actually moving...it doesn't always happen that way.

* If you are actually curious about wireless and robot failures and Samantha, ask Huckleberry some day...or Oak.   Me, I thought going in circles was part of the plan.