15 to 0 - A Story of Domination

That's 1676 in the picture, a great shot of the inner workings of the robot

So last Friday morning, I woke up, ready to start my day in Richmond, Virginia. I had heard that a Robotics competition was going on at the Virginia Commonwealth University arena, and I wanted to go. I drove there, and found a crowded half of an arena, divided by a black curtain. On one side, 63 Robotics teams worked on their own robots. On the other side, there was a field where I supposed the robots went on. I found a place to sit down and waited for the opening ceremonies to begin. After the National Anthem was sung, The first match began. I was confused and interested at the same time. Interested because it was awesome, but confused because I had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.

The 27 x 53' field was divided widthwise into 3 equal portions by two humps, one red and the other blue. Then, it was divided lengthwise into two equal portions by a white line. In the middle of each hump, there was a tower on top, and a tunnel on the bottom. 6 robots, 3 on the red team and 3 on the blue team, started on the field. Two robots were placed in each zone, one from each alliance. When the match started, the robots drove all by themselves for fifteen seconds. They kicked soccer balls or otherwise ran around to set up for whatever the drivers of each team wanted to do. When the 15 seconds ended, a bell rang and suddenly each driver ran up to their control board; now it was them who was controlling the robots. Robots crossed the humps by either running over them or going under the tunnels in the center of each one. They shot balls into their own teams' goals, earning them one point per goal. This went on for about 2 minutes and 10 seconds, when another sound played, signaling permission for the robots to hang on the towers. I had no idea, because for a while, no robots actually hung.

The fifth match of the day was a good one. It started out with, instead of 6 robots, there were 4 robots, 3 on the blue team, and 1 on the red team. Apparently, the two other teams on the blue teams' robots weren't working in time for the match, so New Jersey team 1676, the Pascack Pi-oneers were by themselves. I didn't think it was fair. How could a single team face 3 teams on their own? The match started, and immediately the robot kicked three soccer balls into the middle zone by itself. As soon as the drivers got the signal, they took control of the robot. 1676 immediately went into the middle zone, and kicked five or so balls into the forward zone, then they climbed over the hump. I looked at the scoreboard, it was 3 to 1 with the blue team in the lead. Fast as lightning, 1676 scored 3 more balls into their goal. It was 4 to 4 now, and there wasn't much time left. In the final 20 seconds, team 1676 scored one last goal, 5 to 4. I couldn't believe it, the red team won, even with only 1 robot. I went down to their area to see their robot up close. Five people were all huddled around it, getting it ready and fixing anything that needed to be fixed. A young lady from the team came up and asked me if I had any questions about the robot. I asked her about how the robot could kick the balls or acquire them. She turned to another person and pulled him over to answer my questions. Apparently the boy I was talking to drove the robot during the round, so who better to ask than the person who's most familiar with how it works from first-hand experience? Jeff (the driver) showed me a spinning piece of extruded middle in the front of the robot, covered with pneumatic and surgical tubing. This mechanism spun, keeping the balls with the robot. The kicking mechanism was just a metal device attached to an axle. It got its kicking power from the tension in the surgical tubing, and it was held back by a latch. The latch was released by a pneumatic piston, and the surgical tubing spring the kicker forward, kicking the soccer ball. It was pushed back into place and reloaded with another pneumatic piston. There were other cool features of this robot, like it had two different gears - high gear and low gear. High gear was activated by the driver to make the robot go faster, while the lower gear was default and gave it power, but less speed. The robot could also hang using a hook and a winch, but they did not do that yet. I went back up to the stands to see the rest of the matches.

There were other cool robots, such as team 716 (They had a very fast robot), team 1086 (Who humorously called themselves the Blue Cheese, complete with giant pieces of a cheese wheel used as hats during the games. Their robot could acquire the balls really well, and kick them really well), and team 422 (They had a strong robot who could kick very well). They all did good jobs.

Time after time again, team 1676 was winning their matches. All in all, they played 6 that day. I had learned that they were going to continue the matches the next day, so when the competition for that day ended, I waited in anticipation for the next day.

I got there the next day, and the matches started again. Team 1676 was up again for three more matches, still keeping their undefeated record of 9 to 0. After all the matches were played, the top 8 teams got up on the field to choose their permanent alliances for the rest of the playoffs. Team 1676 was top seed, so they chose first. For their first pick, they invited team 1086 to be a part of their alliance. They accepted, and each seed down the line got to choose their alliances. When they got to the 8 seed, they went back up the line, and top seed was last to pick. They chose 1418 as their other team mates.

After this, the playoffs began, and the first and eighth seed alliances played against each other. 1676's alliance won both rounds of the 2 out of 3. Every other alliance matches in the quarterfinals took three matches to finish. In the semifinals, team 1676's alliance won both matches again, with an even greater gap in between the scores. The other two alliances competing in the semifinals actually took 6 (If I recall correctly) matches to complete. One alliance won 1 round, the other won another round, and they tied three times. There was a big break in between games because the scoring system stopped working, and they couldn't fix it, so they had to have the judges keep score. Finally, one of the alliances won 4 to 0, only to face team 1676's alliance in the finals. Team 1676's alliance won the first round of the finals, but the second one was closer. No one knew the scores until the match was over. The announcer announced that the game was close, and that before penalties, it was 8 to 8. After penalties, teams 1676, 1086, and 1418 won the finals 8 to 7. This set 1676 as the only robot in the entire competition to go undefeated the entire time, 15 to 0.

Wow, what a game. I loved watching the matches, and I'm currently looking to get involved in this program (FIRST robotics) somehow. There are teams everywhere, mostly through schools, so maybe I can help there.

I am definitely looking forward to next year's game. Too bad I can't make it up to Atlanta to see 1676 and every other Regional winner compete in the Championships.

Cartoon Physics, Part 1

The poem can be found here

I really like this poem because I can relate to it. I remember the days and the antics of Looney Toons and I remember enjoying it. My initial reaction to the poem was that I was familiar with what Nick Flynn was talking about. Flynn is trying to say what Physics a ten-year old would know, which is whatever cartoons showed them. In this case, the physics of cartoons such as Looney Toons.

In the first line where he says that children under 10 shouldn't know about the universe ever-expanding, he is saying that children don't need to know about it. The cartoons showing them how physics doesn't work is good for their imaginations. On the other hand, he could also be saying how children shouldn't be around these cartoons showing them the wrong way the world works. He seems almost sarcastic at the end when he says that a child will enter a burning house and come out a hero.

This is a free verse poem, with randomly sized lines in stanzas with a random amount of lines in each one. There is no rhyme scheme, and sentences run on through as much as a few stanzas. There aren't any metaphors or similes because Flynn is just stating what is going on with the cartoons in mind.

Reaction-Meaning-Technique Method

My initial reaction to the poem "Tuesday 9:00 AM" was that the three people at the bus stop were "dying" in such a way that is related to how they're feeling. The man on fire, for instance, could be mad because he was recently fired or something similar. The woman drowning could be "drowning" in work and is too busy to tell the man what's wrong. Finally, the frozen women is too shy and is left out in the cold, and she can't bring herself to talk.

My teacher today mentioned how it can all be a scene where they died and are going to the appropriate afterlife. The bus driver was tortured because he was wondering if a previous passenger was actually being mauled by dogs, or Cerebrus. The fire, water, and ice passengers could be described that way because that is how they died, or maybe it connects them to which afterlife they're going to.

The poem does not rhyme and is a free verse poem Each line is of a different length, but each stanza is referring to a different person. Denver also used metaphors to talk about how each person is suffering. There is no punctuation except for the very last line, so the entire poem could be read fast and as 1 sentence.