State Championship!?!

NO WAY!! THE SQUIDBOTS MADE IT TO THE FTC STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!

We cannot believe it.

Lula did not perform well throughout the tournament as she only moved (and not much at that) for the first 2 matches.  The next two matches she did not move, and by the fifth and final match our phones and battery were not responding leading us to have to forfeit the match.

However, the judges must have been impressed by our team during the interview and inspection of our robot and display table.  We improved much on our answers to questions, our display boards, and  our engineering logbook since our last tournament.  We also added some new branding and scouting tools that proved to be terrific ideas and loved by the judges.

Come award ceremony, we were all sure we had not gotten any awards seeing as Lula didn't perform.  However, towards the end, team #10125 The Squidbots were called as 3rd place for the Inspire Award!  Awesome! About 5 minutes later, we were called among the names that made it to state!  Say what now!?  Thats right.  The Squidbots are going to state!

Here are some pictures reviewing our time at the Columbia Heights tournament!

Jacob, Aidan, and Jonah prepping Lula for her first match

The Squidbots display

Preparing for the match

Running into some issues during match #4

Lula on the field

Our Robot Moved!

Hey Everyone!!!
    After a lot of remodeling done on Lula, we finally got her to move!  Watch this video of her traveling across the arena, while moving her arm!

North Branch Tournament

Hello Everyone!

            On Sunday, December 13^th, The Squidbots, #10125, competed in their first of two tournaments.  After a 10+ day of working on Saturday, the team woke up early Sunday and was on the road before 6am!  And we were off to North Branch – a 1.5 hour drive for us! Although we didn’t do as well as we would have liked, we had a great time and learned a ton!   

            Since the doors opened at 7:30, we only had a little time to get set up and have our robot ready before our inspection at 8:00.  We weren’t entirely sure of what our robot was capable of seeing as we did most of the finishing touches the previous night (or morning;))!  Aidan, Jacob, Jonah, and Ben all went to the inspection while Emily and Frankie continued getting our table set up. 

            We had 5 head-to-head competitions.  The first run, our robot moved!  This was exciting news for us as we didn’t know what it could since we finished it that morning.  We scored 12pt. and although that is not a “good” score whatsoever, it most certainly was better than none!  Second run our robot scored 32pt. with our alliance! We were getting better.  We found out our robot can right itself, meaning if it flips onto its back, it can flip back! Unfortunately, the last three runs were not successful. Our robot somehow got disconnected all three times and sat still for the entirety of each match.

            So you may be wondering…How did we finish!?  Well, we say with the hopefulness that next tournament will be way more successful, that we finished 24^th of 24 teams! Somebody has got to take that spot!  And although we aren’t happy about it, we are only more motivated to do better next time!

            

            Throughout the tournament we took notes on ways we could improve for the next tournament, what we learned we shouldn’t do (both from our own experience and witnessing other teams), and what we did that worked well! Below are just a few of the notes taken.

• Ideal to have at least two people in the pit at all times in case someone doesn’t know an answer.
• Have a garbage at your pit
• Scouting is important
• Have a team schedule at our table so we and the judges can tell who is where and when.
• Bring display board to our presentation
• Wait 2-3 seconds before answering the Judges questions to make sure we think it through properly and let everyone have a chance to answer.
• Bring almost everything into the interview (board, book, business cards, stickers, magnets, robot, etc.)
• Talk and make plans with your alliance
• Offer help and supplies for other teams
• Judges are ALWAYS watching – so smile, share, don’t be bossy, be kind, and make it known your having fun
• Have confidence in your answers – someone can always add more to your answer.

In this video you can see our robot right itself for the first time!

Partial team waiting for doors to open!

Our Drivers (Jonah and Jacob) and Drive Coach (Emily) strategizing. 

Frankie and Emily next to our display table.

Fixing up the robot in between matches

Thank you to our Gold Level Sponsors for making this possible!

Ink Out!

The Squidbots

Team Spirit

Hello Everyone!

Today we are here to share with you some of our different marketing products.  We have received our t-shirts with our awesome hand-drawn logo on it,  stickers, banner, business cards, and magnets.  Emily also designed and made some unique squid hats for each team member and coach! We went to a tournament Saturday 14th, and those hats definitely got some attention! 

Team picture in our new Squidbots shirts

Showing our names, team number, and Gold-level sponsors on the backs of our shirts!

Our team member, Emily, designed and created our awesome Squid hats! 

Our 8-foot banner for our pit during our tournaments! 

Our business cards, magnets, and stickers

Have a great week everyone!

Ink Out!

The Squidbots

Squidbots Update

Hey everyone!  Welcome back to the Squidbots blog!

We would like to update you all on what our team is up to! Every meeting each team member takes notes individually on what goes on at that meeting.  We also take everyones goals, accomplishments, and notes and make team notes. These notes are what we will be compiling for our Engineering Log which we will turn in to the judges at the tournaments. Tonight, we thought we would share with you some of the team notes!

Meeting Goals:

• Finish building the mountain we started Sunday 
• Build the second mountain
• Program the robot to pick up a cup successful

During the meeting...

• Ben and Jacob working on programming and...THE ROBOT PICKED UP THE CUP!
• We also got the robot to begin to climb the completed mountain. (video at end of post) However, it did not even make it past the first "churro" before it tipped over!
• Discussed possible ways to make the robot get over the first "churro" on the mountain (getting bigger wheels, using tracks, making our robot taller, evening out the weight, etc..)

• All our goals (getting the robot to pick up the cup, building the mountains) were met tonight! Because of this, we were able to move farther along by experimenting with the robot going up the mountain and exploring options to make the robots go up with more ease. 

So there you have it! We had a very successful evening! Not only did we achieve our goals for the night, but we were able to accomplish beyond that and make our robot drive onto the mountain for the first time! Some awesome progress was made!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check back frequently to hear our latest news! You can also subscribe to our blog by submitting your email in the sidebar! 

The Squidbots

Don't forget to watch our robot attempt the mountain for the first time! 

Manufacturing Day with our sponsor, E.J. Ajax

Hey everyone!

Today was super cool!  We were invited by one of our awesome sponsors, E.J. Ajax to get a tour of their metal stamping shop in Fridley, MN!   Our team was able to learn more about their company and what they do there.  E. J. Ajax is a great company run my amazing, friendly people and have shown a lot of support for the Squidbots!

The Squidbots with the owner and staff at E. J. Ajax

Eric Ajax, a third generation owner, talks to us about the company's history.
E. J. Ajax has been around for over 70 years!

A tool made by EJ Ajax to make hinges and other metal parts Ajax frequently manufactures!  

Group blue (and the Squidbots) learning how Ajax makes the tool in the above picture using the machine at far right.

A staff member at Ajax explains to the group how the laser is used to cut the metal.

Watching the laser in the machine etch and cut through the
metal to create iPad stands that we each were able to take home!

The finished product: iPad stand laser etched and cut.  We were each able to take
one of these home at the end of the day!

Post tour team picture!

This was such an awesome experience, and we are so grateful to E.J. Ajax for this unique opportunity as well as their support for the Squidbots!

The Squidbots

Welcome!

      Welcome everyone, to the official Squidbots blog!  On here, we will be posting team updates, pictures, and the latest Squidbots news!

Who are we?
       We are a first-year FTC (First Tech Challenge) team, although a few of our members have been in a different robotics group before.  We are a team of six, ages 14-17, with a range of different skills and hobbies. You can read a bit more of each of us individually on the "Our Team" page.

What do we do?
     We started our weekly meetings in July 2015.  For our first meetings we have been actively seeking out sponsors and other ways to earn money for our team. So far, we have had a garage sale and car wash.  We have also volunteered at Palmer Day, a local annual summer event, and helped Mr. P finish his outbuilding. We currently have eight sponsors.  In mid-September we began working on our robot and learning how the phones, programming, gamepads, and other robot parts run and work.  

     If you have any questions about our team, about FTC, or if you want to come take a look at what we do you can contact us at ftcsquidbots@hotmail.com.  You can also subscribe to this blog to get a notification every time we post! 

 We look forward to sharing this journey with you all!

The Squidbots