By Anna Plank
Twelve years ago, Team 1807’s founder, Chris Nalbone, had a goal. He wanted to start a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team in Allentown High School in order to create an activity his son could partake in and enjoy.
However, Mr. Nalbone did more than that; he created a community within the school that was diverse in skills and hobbies, but unified in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Fast-forward to today and the ideals and work of Allentown’s FIRST Robotics Team 1807 are still in full energy.
On Jan. 7, the FIRST Robotics season at Allentown commenced with the announcement of the 2017 theme: STEAMWORKS. The promo video included three main mechanical tasks that must be included in the robot design.
First, it must “collect fuel” by launching Wiffle balls into an elevated “steam boiler.” Then, it must be able to “install gears” by placing plastic gears onto a peg which will then raise the peg into the air, where an “airship pilot” will collect the gear and put it in place on the airship. The goal is to collect as many gears as possible in order to “spin up the rotors.”
Lastly, at the end of the round, ropes will be released from the airship and the robots must be able to climb up the rope in order to “board the aircraft.” Another item each team must account for is autonomous mode, which takes place in the beginning of the round and is where the robot must function on its own for 15 seconds.
The Allentown team is in the Mid-Atlantic Robotics (MAR) district. This district contains 120 teams and hosts six local events, the last event being a championship that only qualifying teams can attend. These events take place in the six weeks following building season.
Each team is only allowed to participate in two district events, however, they can compete at regional events in the meantime. Allentown attended the Week One competition in Hatboro-Horsham, Pa., March 3-5, and is planning to attend the Week three competition in Bridgewater-Raritan, March 17-19.
The competitions last the entire weekend. When the rounds are complete, the eight top-scoring robots will move on to sudden elimination rounds. Each robot is allowed to pick two other robots, not in the top eight, to join their alliance in each round.
If a team wins a district competition, they are then eligible to participate in the district championship, which is Week Six of events. A team can also qualify for this event by reaching a certain score at the end of all the district competitions.
Teams who win the district championship will move on to the FIRST Robotics championship, which consists of all teams registered within FIRST Robotics competition.
Joey Sofia, software head and sophomore at Allentown High School, said, “We are making heaps and leaps of progress in vision processing.”
Vision processing is the steps information takes as it flows from visual sensors to cognitive processing. This software is vital in the autonomous mode that takes place in the first 15 seconds of the competition. The team will have a camera on the robot that will shine green LED lights.
Normally, these lights would bounce off at an angle away from the camera. However, through the use of special tape, these lights will bounce right back to the camera. The camera will then be able to pick up where the brighter lights are in an image. This will create a final picture that contains blobs of pixels, and the size of these blobs can be used to determine how far away an item is.
In order to be able to program the software right, they need to perform many tests in order to correctly determine what pixel blobs coordinate with what distance. They can use this information to program the robot software correctly so that it performs its best in autonomous mode during competitions.
FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1807 (the Allentown division) has a sturdy team of 30 active members who meet every day after school and on Saturdays during building season. During the off-season, they will tend to meet once a week.
They are overseen by their mentors, who act as advisors and role models to the team. Mentors include the engineering teacher at Allentown, Mr. Tackett, and parents and community members, Mr. Kohler, Mr. White, Mr. Skidmore and Mr. DePinho. Mentors are only allowed to encourage and guide and are not allowed to intervene with the building of the robot.
To connect with the team and learn more about FIRST and Team 1807, visit our website at frc1807.org or follow us @frc1807 on Twitter.
This article was written by Anna Plank, who is a sophomore at Allentown High School.