FireBears

2023 Firebears Subsystem Fabrication Week

Cedar Longballa — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 19:12:21 +0000

This week in the firebears team, we started to build the different subsystems (AKA fabrication). We got the parts for building from our sponsor ATLAS, and started to assemble the chassis.

Summary of the 2023 Season Game

Cedar Longballa — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 18:56:17 +0000

In CHARGED UP^sm presented by Haas, two competing alliances are invited to process game pieces to
bring energy to their community. Each alliance brings energy to their community by retrieving their game
pieces from substations and scoring it into the grid. Human players provide the game pieces to the
robots from the substations. In the final moments of each match, alliance robots race to dock or engage
with their charge station!

Each match begins with a 15-second autonomous period, during which time alliance robots operate only
on pre-programmed instructions to score points by:
• leaving their community,
• retrieving and scoring game pieces onto the grid,
• docking on or engaging with their charge station.

In the final 2 minutes and 15 seconds of the match, drivers take control of the robots and score points by:
• continuing to retrieve and score their game pieces onto the grid and
• docking on or engaging with their charge station.

The alliance with the highest score at the end of the match wins!

2023 Firebears design and build phase

Cedar Longballa — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 21:52:06 +0000

This week, we chose which prototype from last week we wanted to build, and then the CAD subteam started building the 3D model in Solidworks. A lot of children were trained in on how to use the 3D printer, something new to the team this year, thanks to a generous contribution to the team.

2023 Firebears Subsystem Design Week

Cedar Longballa — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 20:31:07 +0000

Last week we decided on a manipulator called “The Shlucker”, which picks up and ejects game pieces to score. This week, the team started designing and building the different subsystems of the robot. For example, one team designed the arm to place game pieces on the scoring platforms once the Shlucker ejects them, and another team designed the drive chassis, which is where the wheels are attached and houses the wiring for the wheels. There is also the lights subsystem, which runs the lights on the robot, to try to get a design award. Finally, the vision team is a week ahead of schedule, and has already made more progress than the past 7 years of work :D.

2023 FireBears prototype week

Cedar Longballa — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 02:13:39 +0000

The week of January 8th, our team started prototyping the robot. We split into 4 different groups who each designed a grabber prototype. We then decided on a final design for the chassis of the robot. The CAD team then built the design of the chassis in Solidworks, an online design program to send to ATLAS on Wednesday morning so they could start cutting the sheet metal we use for the robots each year.

2023 FireBears Season Kickoff

Cedar Longballa — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 19:24:30 +0000

We kicked off the 2023 Firebears robotics season with a shock. All the students ran over to the school lightning quick at 10:30, energized after a big night of socializing and eating ice cream. We set up the stream and sat in our chairs, hardly containing our energy and jittering with excitement. When the reveal started at 11:30, we all became supercharged with excitement for the coming season. The 2023 FRC game challenge is… Charged Up!

Participants must use all their brain power to make links of game pieces (three in a row) to score ranking points and move up in the competition to the finals. They grab cones and cube power cells and set them on three different height platforms to score points and electrify the crowd with excitement. Once teams have connected the power cells to the platforms, they must dock and charge up on a power grid in the middle of the arena, getting extra points if they balance it flat.

Once we reviewed the rules, we broke into small teams to discuss what we wanted our robot to focus on – getting points, which game piece to pick up, defending, or balancing the power grid. After several hours of debate, we decided on our final goals for the competitions. To have a working vision system, score cones and cubes on the high scoring platforms, and balancing the power grid during autonomous and manual sections of the competition. We then all went home with drained batteries, ready to come back the next day.

2022 Minnesota Robotics Invitational (MRI) Registration Now Open!

Grizz Bear — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 01:17:19 +0000

The Minnesota Robotics Invitational (MRI) will be held on October 15th, 2022, at Roseville Area High School, Roseville, MN. Registration now open. Limited spots available.

Scholarships available!

See here for information and registration details: Minnesota Robotics Invitational (MRI) Registration

WCCO Video

shutterbug82 — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 02:09:28 +0000

WCCO video from the 2019 MRI.

We Qualified for the World Championships!

Grizz Bear — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 01:57:49 +0000

After making it to second place in the Medtronic Foundation Regional this last weekend, we managed to win the Imagery Award, as well as get a Wildcard. So we will be attending the 2018 FIRST Championship in Detroit, Michigan from the 25th to the 28th of April!

Our robot in action:

More pictures can be found on our flickr.

Firebears Programming 1.19.17

Grizz Bear — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 02:06:45 +0000