Our project

Our project is going as planned.  We wrote the intro script already, and all we have to do is memorize it and be prepared for any questions the judges have for us!

Turning to something else, we have found the definition of bionics!  (I know it's the week before the tournament, but bionics seems easy to define.)  Here is what dictionary.com has to say about bionics:


bionics
–noun ( used with a singular verb )
the study of how humans and animals perform certain tasks and solve certain problems, and of the application of the findings to the design of electronic devices and mechanical parts.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bionics)

It can also refer to these electronic devices and mechanical parts.

Turning to our robot, we are trying to tweak some things to increase each program's success rate.  We have relatively high success rate for all of them, but we are NOT PERFECT.  We can't be, though.  Well, I guess we could, but the chances are, in effect, zero.  (What are the chances of picking a random number out of all that exist {real, imaginary, positive, negative, rational, irrational, complex, etc.} and getting 3.1415926535897932384626..., which is pi, for those of you who haven't memorized it?  The chances are zero, but it's still possible.)

This is a post from Alpha Rex.

The wires on the NXT are like telephone jacks, with one difference: the snap-connector on top is to the side to prevent kids from plugging their NXTs into the telephone service.

Briiiiiiiinnnnnnnng!  Briiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnng.

Person: Hello?
NXT: Hello.
Person: Who is this?
NXT: Alpha Rex.
Person:AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!  ALIEN ROBOTS ARE INVADING!!!!!!!!!!!!
NXT: Resistance is futile.

Competition, Here We Come!

Teamwork isn't as bad as it sounds; we are working on it. Plus, we have made big progress with our programs. So now we are double-checking, tweaking, and timing like crazy to make sure that everything is shipshape.  We are readying for the big competition this week---only 6 days! We're practicing teamwork  exercises  so we will be prepared for the major assignment the judge will give us to see how well we work together. All in all, very exciting! Competition, here we come!!


--- Cell & Anna

teamwork

So far our teamwork is going as usual. By usual I mean not great but not bad. But nobody is perfect. Sometimes it could get SOOOOO off hand we had to do something else because nobody was behaving like we kept poking each other on the back of the neck. So that's something we have to work on. Another thing is believing in your self. Were doing a good job programing. Were almost at the stent. Another thing that were close to is the pressure sensor. We might skip the tissue's. The movie looks great. But still if you listen closely you could hear me ( Cell ) make energy sound like ienergy. And at the very beginning, Adam sounds like thank, not think. Accents! Other than that it sounds good. 








      ---Cell

State of the Union (at least, about robotics)

We are working by busy little bees to get ready for our competition, which is on December 11. That may seem like a long time, but for us that is really a blink of an eye. We have 7 working programs and 6 arms that we are trying to amalgamate (a fancy word for combine) into one "super arm" as quoted by Matt. This super arm could feasibly work for a grand total of four programs. At the moment, there is an annoyingly loud human clock in the room. Be QUIET!
Anyways, this is a looong process, as you might guess---it's like trying on pair after pair of shoes, and they don't fit! (Yes, this is a girl speaking.) I mean that literally -- we are trying on arms only for them not to work...likewise with the programs. It's very trial and error. These are Anna's thoughts.
There was an issue with this one year with robots --- We had two very well made robots both with their pros and cons and my [Matt's] robot was very stable and couldn't perform well. The other one was could perform but wasn't very stable so we took the latter and stabilized it so we could use it for competition. Those are Matt's thoughts. Just so you know, Matt said the part about the human clock. That was Anna.

By Matt & Anna

Crunch time

Christmas is coming (kind of) near, but it's not a time of celebration for us yet!  (Don't forget that Halloween and Thanksgiving are also near, in a different direction in the case of Halloween.)  We have only a couple of weeks until our big tournament, and we have only four working programs and tons of arms... *GASPS* That's right, tons of arms!  Switching them takes time...  Uh-oh!  We can't lose time!  Our movie isn't finished, and technical difficulties have caused us to have to re-record some of our audio.  Will we get 1st place again this year?  There's no way to know for sure, but we hope so!

This is a post from Alpha Rex.

The wires on the NXT are like telephone jacks, with one difference: the snap-connector on top is to the side to prevent kids from plugging their NXTs into the telephone service.

Briiiiiiiinnnnnnnng!  Briiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnng.

Person: Hello?
NXT: Hello.
Person: Who is this?
NXT: Alpha Rex.
Person:AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!  ALIEN ROBOTS ARE INVADING!!!!!!!!!!!!
NXT: Resistance is futile.