Which it might.

Giger is controlled bia Bluetooth and runs on an embedded version of Linux knows as Buildroot.

It also has a moving red eye like a Cylon. So you know its intentions cannot be good.

(via MAKE)

We had a chance to walk around the “pit” area, where students and their mentors would do final adjustments to their robots, and where they would keep the robots between rounds.

We spoke to a lot of students there in the pit, and found out just who these kids are and why they build these robots, how long it took and how they came to choose their particular robot design.

I spoke to Richard Pease of Grand Blanc’s team, the EngiNERDs. When asked why he got into robotics, he said, “I always messed with stuff when I was little … my dad kept telling me about Lego robotics but never really wanted to do it. And then my friend in one of my tech classes … was telling me about it. So I joined in … and it has been fun ever since.” So what does Richard want to do later in life? “Hopefully electrical engineering, maybe NASA …  might start my own business. ”

Tod LaBelle from Saginaw said, “I love engineering, it’s really fun. And thinking like that is what I want to do. And so this got me into it and made me think harder, it was just a lot of fun.” Kevin is also interested in electrical engineering.

“I’ve always been interested in engineering, my uncle was an engineer.” said Kevin Anderson of Okemos High School. Kevin is in his third year on team. “It’s just a really great experience being on the team, working together, getting whole different types of tastes in engineering all in the same club.”

The engiNERDs and their robot

As mentioned in yesterday’s article, every team seemed to gravitate toward either a turret or dumper style of robot. However, how they reached that point and the mechanics of each robot varied wildly. Here is the impressive part: These students only had 6 weeks to design and build their robot!

The EngiNERDs started out looking at ways to manipulate the ball. They did trials based on multiple designs before determining which worked the best for them. The turret can shoot from 5 feet out or just drop the ball right into the trailer if they are up-close. So how did they use their 6 weeks? The first 2 weeks was coming up with a design. The rest of the 4 weeks was constructing the mechanical skeleton of the robot. They had about 3 hours to put in about 90% of the electrical system.

Kimberly Marquette of Capac’s Metal & Soul team said that they wanted something similar to a conveyor belt in their robot for picking up the balls, but didn’t want to use an actual conveyor belt. So they ended up using paint rollers with Velcro on them that would spin at high speeds. So when the robot encountered balls it would pick them up, pull them to the top of the robot, and then be ready to use against their foes.

The Phoenix team from Saginaw had a very wide bottom for picking up a lot of balls at once. It uses a conveyor belt to pull the balls right to the top so that the dumper mechanism has what it needs to drop the balls onto their target’s trailer.

Okemos also looked at a lot of designs. At first they looked at trying to hold a lot of balls, but in the end went for a more compact design that was faster and had more scoring options available to them. Their robot was a sort of turret/dumper hybrid. While it has a turret for aiming, rather than shoot the balls out, it can instead dump the balls in the specified direction.

Every team had a different solution for what the game had to offer them. It was incredible to see all of these different robots and to hear how they were designed. The students clearly had a great time building them and then ultimately competing with them.

Metal and Soul with their robot

So why does Kettering University put on this event for the High School students?

Kettering University (formerly known as GMI) is a top engineering school that is ranked nationally #1 for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and #2 for Mechanical Engineering. So having a FIRST competition is a natural fit. Additionally, it makes high school students from Michigan and nearby locations aware of the programs that Kettering has to offer.

According to Bob Nichols, the founder of the FIRST games at Kettering and the Director of External Affairs, an incredible 20% of incoming classes at Kettering are FIRST alumni, with that figure going up every year. So clearly the students become aware and decide to attend. Mr. Nichols also points out that events like these can sometimes be what really gets the kids interested in engineering as they really realize what they can do. This program is so successful that for the second year in a row this kickoff has had 42 teams, which is a sell-out.

So how does Mr. Nichols describe the matches? “I’ve always compared this to NASCAR because they are in the pits working between matches. It is just like a NASCAR race, because you get a break, go back to the pits, work on your robot, get ready for the next match.

So how do they put this all together, “We have an extremely loyal volunteer committee. I don’t do this all myself. There is no way in the world I could.” said Mr. Nichols. “I don’t want to take the credit because without them it wouldn’t go on out here.”

A great example of just how valuable these volunteers are is what they accomplished the Thursday before the event. Starting at 4:00pm they began to put together the game area, bleachers, and everything else needed for the event on Saturday. By 8:00pm everyone was able to leave because it was all done.

Between the students, the organizers, and volunteers it takes a lot to put together a FIRST competition. There is a lot of work that goes into those robots. There is a lot of work that goes into the creation of the event. There is a lot of work that goes into the setup and operation. All of this, however, leads to a fantastic competition that was as near perfection as you could hope for.

We want to thank everyone for being so welcoming and gracious with their time. Everyone was very helpful and more than willing to explain everything we needed to know about the competition. We couldn’t have asked for a better day or for better hosts.

To those that have never experienced a FIRST competition, I strongly recommend going. It will be impossible for you not to have fun.

The Pit

]]> http://robotsftw.com/2009/09/kettering-first-competition-part-two-the-people/feed/ 0 http://robotsftw.com/2009/09/kettering-first-competition-part-one-lunacy/ http://robotsftw.com/2009/09/kettering-first-competition-part-one-lunacy/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:11:06 +0000 Matthew Bleicher http://robotsftw.com/?p=248 When fellow Robots – For The Win! writer Bryan English and I decided to attend and cover the robotics competition at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan we had no idea what we were in for. Oh sure, we knew there would be high school students that built robots for some specific task, but to summarize this event that way would be like summarizing Star Wars as an indie movie from the 70’s.

When we walked into the Kettering Recreation Center we were struck right away by the size of the event. Bleachers were set up all around a “court” where the robots would play their game The atmosphere was very much like a championship basketball game, with students from different schools chanting, leading cheers, and loudly supporting their teams. Mascots where everywhere, from the very entertaining students dressed as “ThunderChickens” to students dressed as robots, lightning bolts, and more. Entire teams were even dressed up, wearing capes and hats with flames, or shirts with construction logos on them or just shirts with their team’s colors, names and sponsors.

As the games progressed and the teams they support came onto the court, the students would wildly cheer and root for their team. Music was also always playing providing a perfect backdrop to the day. As particular songs came on between matches, students might suddenly break out dancing like a scene from a John Hughes 80’s movie, with students from multiple schools standing up and dancing routines so well you would swear they got together ahead of time and worked out the choreography.

In other words: The atmosphere was incredibly fun and infectious. The room was full of joy and happiness and excitement.

A dumper style robot from Powers Chargers

As to the game itself (called Lunacy), the rules are complex, but I will try and sum them up as best as I can. I will not deny it, seeing the game played was the best explanation. However, the basics are this: Each team is part of a three-team alliance. Two alliances face off at a time. Each team has a single robot with a trailer being pulled behind it. These Alliances (Red vs Blue) would attempt to score by placing “moon rocks” in the opposing alliance’s trailers.

The “rocks” can be placed into the trailers either by robots or by people behind glass that throw the “moon rocks” into the trailers. These “moon rocks” also end up all over the court, which is a low-friction playing surface. So the robots gather up these loose “rocks” to use as ammunition against the opposing alliance. For those that were there, you know I am leaving a lot out in terms of the rules, strategies and more. These games were complex enough that I could write a whole article just on how to play and what strategies were employed. So, for now, I am going to just leave it at the overly simplistic “put the moon rocks in the trailer” explanation.

The game and its rules are put together by FIRST, an organization founded by Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) back in 1992.

Since more points are awarded for a robot placing a “rock” into an opposing alliance trailer than if a person throws the “rock” into the trailer, a big part of the challenge was figuring out the best ways to accomplish this task.

While implementations varied wildly, the types of robots could be categorized into two types: Turrets and Dumpers. The turret style allowed the robot to shoot the “rocks” from a distance or close-up as well as giving the advantage of being able to aim the firing mechanism. The biggest disadvantage was that they could only shoot one “rock” at a time. The dumper style of robot could only score when right next to a trailer, but had the advantage being able to drop multiple “rocks” at one time.

A turret-style robot from the EngiNERDS

The morning was the qualifying rounds. Each team would go multiple times, teamed up with different teams each time. The top teams from the morning would then get to move on to the afternoon tournament.

And here is where yet more strategy comes in: The top teams would then select from the teams that are left, two additional teams to help them form and alliance for the afternoon rounds. Teams would then accept, or if they felt they could build stronger teams on their own, decline.

There was much cheering when alliances would form, though none more than from the teams from Pontiac, Canton and Goodrich. By chance the Pontiac team (Wings of Fire) and the Canton team (Lightning Robotics) were sitting next to each other in the stands. Soon, the two schools were doing coordinated cheers and chanting “Red Alliance” (and later “Blue Alliance” when their colors had to change). They were boisterous, fun and as excited as any fans at any sporting event. Watching them was almost as much fun as the robot games themselves.

This is not to say other teams didn’t do the same thing: Quite the contrary. Chants and cheers only got louder as the finals approached and the winners about to be crowned.

When the finals were played – it was intense. Every player was at the top of their game, trying to drive and will their robots to get the “rocks” in to the opposing alliance trailers.  In the finals were the aforementioned Wings of Fire, Lightning Robotics, and Martians as the Blue Alliance. The Red Alliance was Xtreme Eagles (Romulus), Truck Town Thunder (Ortonville) and Team RUSH (Clarkston). After an intense battle and a very close set of matches, Red Alliance came out on top. At the end all players on both alliances came out and shook each others hands – and not just in a “we are required to do it” kind of way – they all seemed to be genuinely congratulating each other.

Here is the reality: in this article I am only touching on just what an amazing experience this was. Being there is really the only way to experience this event. There will be another in March. It is free to attend. You should be there.

Tomorrow, I am going to write about the students themselves. We were lucky enough to interview some of the students as well as Bob Nichols who put together this program 10 years ago. The article will be about why the students do this, how they came to choose some of the designs and why Kettering puts on this competition.

For the record, here are the winners in the Kettering FIRST Lunacy Competition:

Top Score (awarded to the Alliance with the highest score in the morning qualifiers) – Wings of Fire, Metal & Soul (Capac), Killer Bees (Auburn Hills)

Number One Seed (individual team that was seeded the highest going into the quarterfinals) – Xtreme Eagles

Robot Design Excellence (to the team whose robot demonstrates excellence in performance, aesthetics, reliability, simplicity, efficiency and innovation) – Truck Town Thunder

Spirit of FIRST (to the team who shows the most team spirit, student/engineer collaboration, gracious professionalism, and teamwork) – Lighting Robotics

Safety (to the team that progresses beyond safety fundamentals by using innovative ways to protect against hazards and promotes safety in their practices) – EngiNERDs (Grand Blanc)

Big Dog (second place alliance team) – Wings of Fire, Lightning Robotics, Martians

Top Dog (first place alliance team) – Xtreme Eagles, Truck Town Thunder, Team RUSH

Final note – you can see a few more videos on our YouTube channel.

Lunacy in full swing

What the military is hoping to accomplish with this is to find new technologies that they can invest in or use right away. There will not be any competitions or full-scale robot wars, sadly.

If you have a submission, you need to get it in on June 1st. You can see the full schedule here.

The military has been greatly increasing their use of robots lately – they went from having none on the ground at the start of the Iraq war to having over 12,000 now according to P.W. Singer. In an upcoming podcast (the first ever from Robots – For The Win!) this topic is discussed in-depth.

Now, however, it appears doctors can take the idea of surgical robots much further than before. At the Israeli Institute of Technology they have built a prototype robot that can swim through a person’s bloodstream right to the point of where there is a problem. The ViRob can then administer whatever solution is required directly to that point.

This could mean no more pumping radiation throughout a cancer patient’s body, for example, and just targeting the cancer cells themselves directly. No more wasted medicine as any kind of medicine can be distributed right to the damaged cells.

While this might not be the submarine-like ship out of Fantastic Voyage (or Inner Space if you preferred the comedy) it certainly is a huge step forward in the use of robotics in the operating room.

Working on each of these issues are two car manufacturers – Honda and Toyota.

Honda’s robot is ASIMO (I am going to assume this is a nod to the great robot sci-fi writer, Issac Asimov). ASIMO is able to make decision all on his own. He can choose when to step back or forward, choose how to carry and deliver objects and more. Honda has even developed ways for multiple ASIMOs to work together as a team, give people the right-of-way when walking and travel to the nearest charging station to charge itself when needed.

You can watch videos of ASIMO doing these things and more much more, like the one below of it conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, at their site here.

Speaking of music, Toyota seems to really enjoy creating musical robots. Here is one that can play the violin.

As you can see, it isn’t exactly awesome at it. It plays like someone just learning. But even that level of manipulation is amazing. It has to not only have a light touch with its mechanical fingers, but it must move them in a coordinated fashion, with each hand performing a very different task.

But Toyota has kicked it up several notches by having a group of robots playing different horns and other instruments. What makes this performance particularly amazing is that they not only must manipulate the keys, but the level of airflow through the horns. Another robot plays the drums, having to carefully select which drum to strike and how hard and with the correct rhythm. That each of these robots does these things individually is incredible, that they do them as a band is mind-blowing.

Note in the video that not only does the trumpeter play, he walks around and even moves his feet to the rhythm of the music!

According to Toyota they are expressing a Japanese concept of “Wa” – which deals with harmony and hospitality.

What both Toyota and Honda have accomplished over the past several years with these robots is to put a lot of robotic theory into action. While perhaps these are not super-practical applications, they do show what robots can do. Fine-motor control is now a reality for robots. To say, “Well, a robot can’t do that, they can’t manipulate something that small” is untrue.

It is only a matter of time before these robots and others like them are created not just to entertain but for more practical purposes.

Update: I have posted another story – American auto company robots. Let’s just say they are … different … than their Japanese counter-parts.

This system, they say, would allow for far greater advances in robotic technology, because rather than starting from scratch every time someone goes to construct a robot, the basic controlling code will exist – meaning more time can be spent on the mechanical aspect of the robot rather than the software side of things.

This seems to make a lot of sense – it would help everyone from all walks of robotic life as well. From the corporation that is trying to construct mass-market robots to homebrewers who are just trying to make something cool in their spare time.

Not to mention this would allow different robots – even ones from different manufacturers – to “talk” to each other, share information and generally make it easier to perform tasks.

For example, let’s say your Roomba was vacuuming a bedroom – the Roomba can communicate this to the other robots in the home, say one made by US Robots and Mechanical Men, so that they know to stay out of the bedroom until it is done.

You can check out the ROS project at SourceForge – which is also a great sign. This means that the ROS is available to everyone, which certainly will help with adoption down the road.

Microsoft is also developing software for robots as well with similar intent. You can insert your own “Blue Screen of Death” joke here.

Of course, this is not a bad thing – the more the merrier. While some might argue this could create groups of robots who can’t talk to each other because they are each using a different operating system, the flip side is, as long as more than one group is working on it, a better OS will be created. After all, each group will want the best so that their OS becomes the standard.

The demo videos are pretty neat. Even though the bot doesn’t have front steering, it does have a “Thingy” that lifts the back of the bot up so the front wheels can pivot the unit in a complete circle.

What would be a great use of this project, is to steal the vacuuming algorithm from Roomba and launch an army of these little guys on a minefield.

This matter could be programmed to flow under doors and into other tight openings, then assemble itself into a needed object. For example, one team is working on a wrench that could disassemble itself and then reassemble into a hammer. This could be incredibly valuable to a soldier in the field – to be able to carry just one tool that would be, quite literally, the ultimate multi-tool.

All of this is stunning and quite frankly incredible.

They also talk about other possible applications, like clothing that can alter itself according to temprature or terrain. You know, like Spider-Man’s black costume before it turned on him and combined with Eddie Brock to become Venom.

The trick, according to the scientists, is not just getting the matter to assemble into one thing, then break down and reassemble. It is to make sure that once it reassembles it can take whatever kind of stress it needs to as the reformed tool.

So, for example,  it can’t just become a hammer – it has to be a hammer that doesn’t squish like Jello when it encounters a nail.

Now, clearly we are a long way away from something like the T1000 from Terminator. Additionally it sounds like this can’t form into the shape of a bomb and explode – the mechanics would be far too complicated, not to mention the matter would have to take the form of specific chemicals to create such a reaction.

However, that certainly doesn’t lessen the impact of such an amazing breakthrough and the possibilities it has to offer.

But what Wired has written about is a step up from that. A huge step.

Meet the Cybraphon. This incredible robot plays music all of the time. Looking like something out of a Neal Stephenson fever-dream, the Cybraphon plays its choice of pre-programmed tracks. While the tracks themselves might be pre-programmed, the Cybraphon chooses which tracks to play based on its mood.

What affects its mood you ask? Well, the Cybraphon searches the Internet for mentions of itself. It looks at the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers it has. The more it finds, the happier it is. It announces its mood on its Twitter feed.

As of this writing it appears almost suicidal with its last several moods being “gloom”, “dejection”, “desolation”, “dismay”, and “indifference”.

Hopefully it finds this article and cheers up a bit.

So this incredible robot will play happy music when it is in a good mood and sad dirges when it is in a state of despair.

You can check out a demo of its music below.

Cybraphon Demo Song from Cybraphon on Vimeo.

Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “Sure, this is cool, but what does it mean?”

It means that it is possible to program a very basic emotion into a computer and then have it react outwardly to that emotion, in this case in the form of music and Tweets. At what point to more complex emotions start to arise? Is it now possible to program “feelings” into machines?

At this point we know that very basic emotions can be “programmed” – the trick is now to add more complexity to these emotions and reactions to those emotions.

The Cybraphon, besides being a lot of fun, is another step closer to that being a reality.