The Quantum Leap Nov - Dec 2021
Table of Contents 04 12
Member Spotlight Department Updates Publicity robot River + Beach Cleanup
16
FTC Meet 0 + meet 1
22
safety animation video
Beach Blitz Recap
about us
25
08 14 18 24
upcoming schedule From the Operations Directors
27
Introducing...
Rishi Mishra
RISHI MISHRA is a newcomer to OA Robotics. Since joining earlier this year in August, he has been a dedicated member of our team, consecutively coming to meetings and supporting OA Robotics in all that we do! Read on to learn more about Rishi, his OA Robotics journey (so far) and what he hopes to do in the future. Q: HOW HAS YOUR TIME IN THE CLUB BEEN SO FAR? A: So far, my experience has been great. I am super dedicated to robotics, and have spent many hours helping out, and it has clearly paid off, I was able to go to Beach Blitz, and all of the FTC meets. Beach Blitz was very fun, it was my first robotics competition, and I was able to see how we did everything, and learn more about the competitions. Robotics has also allowed me to make more friends, and know what's going on with different grades. Q: WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO JOIN? A: When I first learned about robotics was when I was in 5th grade, I was visiting Oxford for an event my brother was attending, my brother was in 9th grade then, now he is a senior. There were a few people from robotics in the gym with a robot driving course, they were letting students from Oxford drive a robot, as an activity to possibly get more members, my brother won a shirt because of how good he drove, which was cool. Anyway, a few years later I get into Oxford, I didn't hear much from robotics in 7th grade because of COVID, and online school, but when we finally got back to in person, I saw my brother's friend, Suvan, going into the engineering building for a club meeting, I asked him about it, and he said it was robotics, I helped out a little with the organization that meeting, just observing what they did in this club, and it was pretty cool, but it was before club rush, so barely anyone was there, just the leads. Then two days later, I decided to join. Q: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO IN THE FUTURE? A: In the near future, I plan on trying out for the FTC software lead, and expanding my coding knowledge, I want to become a software engineer when I grow up, and being a software lead in robotics would definitely look good on my college application. But to be honest, after a few years of being part of the software team, I want to try out to become the robotics director, or at least part of cabinet. I feel like I could do, and help so much more if I was part of cabinet, after being a normal member for a few months, I know a few things that could be improved on, or things that can be changed about robotics to make it better, like having alumni teach students about mechanical stuff, just like what they are doing with software.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF ROBOTICS? A: Some things I'm interested in doing outside of robotics would be gaming, practicing coding, thinking about philosophy, and attempting to answer random questions that have to do with human psychology. I also enjoy going on bike rides, and playing tennis with friends. Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF EVERY MEETING? A: FREE SNACKS! I'm joking (or am I), sometimes I get to take a bag of chips, or something like that, and it's cool, but definitely not my favorite part of robotics. The meetings are usually fun, but my favorite part is when the older kids, alumni, or mentors take out the whiteboard. I'm not thinking about when they start off the meeting, and say what each team is going to be doing, I'm thinking about the times they take out the whiteboard to teach us things. For example, in one of the meetings for FTC, one of the mentors took out the whiteboard, and we were brainstorming ideas for the robot's intake mechanism, which is where we came up with the mini conveyor belt idea. There have been other times too, like when two of the alumni were teaching us software, and they were writing down different commands we could use. The whiteboard is changeable, anyone can go and draw different ideas on it, that can be used, and lots of them are good ideas. Other parts of meetings that I enjoy are things like software, and when we talk about strategy. Q: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE SO FAR IN THREE WORDS? A: Three words...hm...I think I would chose, INTERESTING, I've been interested in what we've been doing, USEFUL, my future career may be in the software field, and TIMEWORTHY, because if I'm dedicated to robotics, I'll have fun, learn a lot, and most importantly of all, get free food! Q: IF YOU COULD BUILD A ROBOT THAT DOES ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE IT DO? A: If I could build a robot that could do anything, realistically, I would build one, essentially like Baymax from Big Hero 6, that would basically check in on my health and make sure my family is ok, he can also give people lollipops! Another thing that would be cool is building a robot that can fly me anywhere, like a flying car, but for kids.
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Mechanical
Recently, the Mechanical Department has shifted gears to disassemble the FRC 2020 field and stripped the 2020 robot to a barebones drive train for use in driver practice. Taking these apart yields parts that can be reused for the 2022 season. Furthermore, they’ve gotten the X-Carve CNC Router and Nomad Pro CNC Mills up and running, as well as an Ender 3 3D printer. Their next focus is to set up the water jet and laser cutter to utilize for the upcoming season.
electrical To finish up the off-season, the Electrical Department has been focusing on work with the pneumatics board for FRC. Alongside the Mechanical Department, they are making progress in disassembly of FRC’s 2020 field and robot, especially for the motor controllers, motors and other electronics that can be used. Achieving these current goals is crucial to preparing for the upcoming FRC season in January.
software The Software Department is touching up on code for the Publicity Robot, particularly for the drive train and the shooter like that of the t-shirt cannon. Their members are moving forward in the Publicity Robot software that will enable smooth operation of the robot and essentially allow for the necessary control over its movement, as well as complete all the functions expected of the Publicity Robot.
operations In addition to updating monthly newsletters, the Operations Department is working on designs for our 2022 season merchandise. Included in this merchandise is our brand-new FRC plushies that have received much appraise from our members and mentors, so be on the lookout for its official release! On the other hand, we are planning a website that’s in its early stages of development, and with this we hope to expand community outreach and better communicate our teams’ vision.
Publicity robot
Our last issue introduced the Publicity Robot that our team has been working on since the start of the off-season. Since then, the electrical board was fabricated and the components were mounted. The rest of the wires have been prepped and pre managed and are ready to be connected to the remaining components. The board was 3-D modeled then cut with our brand new X Carve CNC Router. In addition, the air horns are all wired up to “make some noise” for our awesome supporters! The actuator plate and linear actuator for articulating the barrel has also been mounted. Several spacers have been cut and tapped to mount the actuator plate and electrical board onto the robot. The battery mount has also been painted and mounted onto the robot so that we were able to start testing and tweaking the robot software. The basic drive train and orchestra class software is done, completed by our awesome Software Department. We can easily switch between split arcade and tank drive configurations for easy control and maneuverability at slow and fast speeds. Additionally, all the parts were painted by our dedicated members, making the Publicity Robot our first robot to have a central theme and color scheme. Now, we will be working on mounting the barrel, indexer, and barrel air seal, as well as wiring up the solenoid, linear actuator, and indexer motor, so that our robot can complete the rest of its functions! With how much we have accomplished within these past two months, we have been able to take these learning experiences such as painting and aesthetics, software implementation, mechanical design, and electrical board design and implement them into the building process for our 2022 robot! Special thanks to FRC Team 3309, the Friarbots, we were able to have essential parts fabricated for our Publicity Robot.
river + beach
cleanups
It is easy for us as a robotics team to get caught up in the day-to-day projects in front of us. With so many deadlines and competitions ahead, we often find ourselves getting stuck in the work and not thinking bigger. However, we recently partnered with a few other organizations on campus to use our platform as an opportunity to help our community. A couple of months ago, we held a river cleanup in the dam near our school, Oxford Academy. After a huge turnout, all of the organizations decided that we needed to hold another event for our students to participate in these larger acts of service. With that, we partnered again with ECO Club, Solar Boat Club, Key Club, and AP Environmental Science Students to hold another cleanup at the Bolsa Chica Reserve. Just over 15 miles away from school, this ecological reserve is home to tons of native species. We worked with the local volunteers to clean both harmful trash that was littered across the area and find any of the invasive species of plants. With around 30 people attending, we spread across miles of the ocean to support the wildlife. It was amazing to see so many of our younger members taking the step to support the community. We always hope to foster an environment where our students can use the skills they learned with us to help their own communities. In this same way, members got the chance to make a tangible difference by donating their time to help out our environment. I think everyone saw the benefits of this event playout as they drove down the beach and saw a much cleaner area. Just like last time, we saw an overwhelming amount of interest in the cleanup and we hope to host more this next semester.
ftc meets
Our first two FTC meets took place during November and December. FTC Meets are like practice runs for us to test and improve our robots while also learning how other teams’ robots are doing during the FTC Season. Since these were our first two meets, our runs were nowhere near perfect. But, with lots of hard work and practice, our FTC team was able to learn from our mistakes and come back stronger from Meet 0 to Meet 1. In January, our growth will be further tested in Meets 2 and 3. During Meet 0, we encountered many setbacks. Due to the lack of a practice field, our carousel spinner was at the wrong height so we had to adjust it. Maneuverability was also a struggle, with our robot getting caught on the field barriers much more than we had hoped. Additionally, our cables were poorly managed on the robot, leading to a failed inspection during this first meet. Learning from those mistakes, we scored a greater amount of points at Meet 1. However, there were still difficulties due to poor planning as we had issues with our Driver Hub battery and we lacked some of the proper tools needed. We collaborated with other teams for batteries and worked out a solution to replace our missing wrench. Additionally, we added a cube manipulator between two matches, resulting in a last minute manipulator that we could possibly pursue. All in all, the success of our experiments with the robots were always uncertain, but we were able to learn from our first round, think creatively to find solutions to problems, and have fun at our first FTC Meets in Quantum Leap history. In January, our team’s growth will be further tested in Meets 2 and 3, and we can’t wait to see what the competition brings!
beach blitz
recap
For the first time in over two years, our team had the opportunity to compete at an in-person robotics competition. Beach Blitz is an annual off-season competition put together by a few teams in Southern California that gives teams the chance to compete before the official season starts in January. With the event spanning for two and a half days, there were so many opportunities that many of our newer members got to experience. Even with a limited capacity for attendees, there seemed to be a
general feeling of excitement throughout the bleachers. Despite what seemed like an empty stadium, there was so much energy that filled the room. Parents, mentors, students, and alumni all watched in awe as the opening ceremonies that so many reminisced about began. Within minutes teams rushed back to their pits to make any modifications or improvements to their robot. Right on schedule, Team 4079 began our first qualifying match of the day. With some pretty tough timing, all of us struggled as we shoveled down mouthfuls of In-N-Out so that we wouldn’t be late for the game. And sure enough, our drive team of 6 rolled out Lightspeed for its first test in front of such a large crowd. Sometime around 1:20 p.m., the starting bell rang and our robots were off. However, our robot proved to be pretty useless.
See, Lightspeed was first created as a tall robot in order to spin the, once important, flywheel from the 2020 games. However, after that aspect of the game was taken out, a third major aspect of our robot became irrelevant. All that was left to the robot was the climber and low dumper. This combo didn’t seem very appealing to most teams as we continued with the qualifying matches. In summary, if we didn’t change anything about our robot, we would be screwed (engineering pun not intended.) After a couple of matches, we realized that defense and climbing were our strengths in this game. Feeble attempts to play some sort of offensive became useless as our ranking slowly dropped to the bottom. On top of a weak defense, there became an issue with the roboRIO, essentially the brain of the robot, that no one at the competition could figure out entirely. With nothing left to lose, the team made the decision to tear apart a huge chunk of the robot to make it faster and better at defense. In a spur of hope, we decided to add a mix of cardboard, plexiglass, and zip ties to create a makeshift shield against the aggressive offense of the other teams. In a competition without much flexibility, the majority of robots seemed to be small variations of each other. In light of all this, a tall and clunky robot surprisingly stood out of the crowd. Our robot somehow became the underdog that was able to defend against the best teams in the competition. Slowly but surely, we made our way up from the bottom of the roster as our defense saved our alliances from tough opponents.
When it came time to pick alliances for the final matches, our entire team sat on the bleachers with a lot of hope and a bit of fear. As teams continued to be chosen it came to the final two alliances to pick the last robots they wanted to join. With only two possible chances to make it, they decided to choose us to join their alliance.
Our team burst into cheer as we rejoiced over this extra chance that we had been given. During one of our matches, the robot again failed for some reason and we weren’t able to play many other matches. In the end, our alliance was able to place second in the entire competition losing during the finals. This became the second time that our team won as finalists in the Beach Blitz competition. We all were proud to walk away with a finalist trophy in our hands. In a robotics competition, it is easy to say that the best robot is the best-looking one or the one that is able to shoot the best. However, it is telling that our team was able to overcome all the challenges that were thrown at us to make it to the top. It doesn’t always take the best technology or resources to make the best robot. Team 4079 found themselves creating a completely new robot by adapting to their circumstances and taking on the challenge that the competition asked of. In an odd twist, we were able to use principles of engineering as the clock ticked down.
SCAN THIS QR CODE TO WATCH THE BEACH BLITZ RECAP VIDEO!
safety animation video Throughout November and December, our team’s Audio-Visual Technician, Chris Nguyen, and Safety Captain, Emily Lee, worked hand-in-hand to produce a stunning submission for the Safety Animation Award presented by FIRST. Being the first award submitted this FRC season, it has a great impact on motivating the team as the competition season approaches for FRC. Since first participating in the award last year, we’ve been able to learn about taking different approaches to the animation process. Read on to learn more about the process of creating this year’s animation with Chris and Emily.
Q: WHAT IS THE “SAFETY ANIMATION CHALLENGE” IN YOUR EYES? WHAT IS THE TOPIC/GOAL OF THE CHALLENGE, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE IN IT? EMILY: In my eyes, the Safety Animation Challenge is an opportunity to showcase each team’s interpretation of what it means to be safe. This year, the challenge was to create an animation revolving the vision of the future of transportation and the importance of safety in the design of these technologies. We decided to participate because our team really values safety in all areas. Whether it be to wear the proper PPE while working or to refrain from negative talk we strive to make everyone work in a safe but fun environment. We even have our own safety division! (aka me :) Q: SO WALK ME THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING THIS. WHERE DID YOU START, WHERE DID YOU END, AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? EMILY: Well, first I began the brainstorming of what innovations we can use. Despite the constant use of non-eco friendly energy such as fossil fuels to power daily transportation, there were many other vehicles that were fueled by more renewable sources and provided the same cause. From there, we selected the top three means of transportation, preferably one for each terrain: land and sky.
Q: WHAT TOOLS DID YOU USE TO ANIMATE? CHRIS: For the hand-drawn segments, I used FlipaClip for iOS. I draw using my iPad and an Apple pencil. For the 3D segments, I utilized a combination of Roblox Studio and the program, Dream Car Builder (both on PC). I modeled every asset myself, and I used these programs because I didn’t have a lot of time to create scenes using more complex animation software. I used Adobe Premiere Pro as a video editor and to put the final cut together. Q: HOW DID YOU GUYS COLLABORATE DURING THE PROCESS? EMILY: I don’t know how to animate so my partner, Chris, was in charge of animating it. As for me, I worked on the brainstorming aspect. This included finding potential transportation ideas, contributing to the layout of the storyboard and script and recording voice overs. CHRIS: Emily fleshed out the brainstorming and laid the groundwork for what the animation would be about. We both worked on the script and storyboard. While Emily and Erin worked on the voiceover recordings, I began working on the 3D aspects of the animation. Q: WHAT DID YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON WITH YOUR ANIMATION? EMILY: Our main focus was to display the bright future of eco-friendly forms of transportation. In our animation, you can see that each of our mentions of transportation (car, train, and airplane) were seen in a brighter light and animated in 3D. CHRIS: The purpose of the animation was to show viewers the potential of the future of transportation, in aspects of being environmentally-friendly, efficient, and consumer-friendly. Q: WHERE CAN WE FIND THE COMPLETED ANIMATION? EMILY: The video is titled ‘2022 Safety Animation Award Submission’ and is under our Youtube channel, Team 4079 - Quantum Leap. Please go show your love and support!
SCAN THIS QR CODE TO WATCH THE SAFETY ANIMATION VIDEO!
about us FRC We are Team 4079 - Quantum Leap competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. During the off-season, we work on building our foundation for the upcoming season. We teach incoming students the basics of engineering, hold student-lead workshops, and compete in off-season competitions such as Beach Blitz. Our Build Season begins with the Annual FRC Kickoff followed by collaborative brainstorming, designing, and building our competition-ready robot. This year we are working on various projects during this off-season, including the creation of a publicity robot for the first time in our team’s history. We are scheduled to have the robot complete by the end of this calendar year!
FTC
We are Team 19812 - Quantum Leap competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge. An offshoot from our FRC team, our team mainly comprises junior members just starting to explore the world of engineering. During this Build Season, we are addressing the problems of the transportation of the future in this year’s challenge, Freight Frenzy. This is our first year having an FTC Team under the Quantum Leap program, opening up new opportunities for STEM in our community! Now that we have more opportunities for Junior High and young High School members to participate, our program has been rapidly expanding. You can see us competing at our first FTC Meet on November 13, 2021.
Upcoming schedule January 2022 January 8th: FRC Kickoff January 8th: FTC Meet 2 January 22nd: FTC Meet 3
February 2022 Miscellaneous/Operations Awards (Deadlines in February) Dean’s List Award (10th) Woodie Flowers Award (10th) Chairman’s Award (17th)
From the operations directors Happy Holidays, Readers! We hope you enjoyed our second edition of our newsletter as much as we did while making it. These newsletters would not be possible without our amazing Operations Team. They write, design, and publish these newsletters every other month so that you, our supporters, can always stay connected with our FRC and FTC teams throughout the year. As you can tell, our teams are always working on something new. From helping the ecosystem by cleaning up dropped trash to working on a publicity robot that shoots t-shirts, we don’t stop moving. Next year brings even more movement, with the first FRC competition season since Quarantine ended. We can’t wait for an exciting 2022 to spend with you all. We would also like to give a huge shout out to our mentors and dedicated members. Without them, we wouldn’t have a team. And without a team, we surely would not be able to create content for this newsletter. Lastly, thank you to you guys who have read this far through the newsletter, supporting us through such an exciting time in our Team’s history! Sincerely, Abdullah Fattahi and Donna Le OA Robotics Operations Directors 2021-2022
Happy Holidays! FRO
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AMILY TO YO
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FRC TEAM 4079 FTC TEAM 19812
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