2009: Lunacy
See also: 2008 Game - Overdrive, 2007 Game - Rack 'N' Roll

Click here to see pictures and video of the 2009 season

2009 Game Animation

Lunacy is played on a 54' x 27' low friction field, called the crater, designed to replicate the low gravity environment of the moon. Robots are equipped with slippery wheels and required to pull a trailer. The game pieces are 9" diameter balls known as “Orbit Balls”. There are three types of Orbit balls: Moon Rocks, Empty Cells, and Super Cells. Two robot alliances (three robots per alliance) collect and score Orbit Balls in trailers attached to the opposing teams’ robots. Human teammates are positioned around the outside of the game field and can score from their stations by throwing orbit balls into the crater. Game play lasts for 2:15 minutes. Robots are autonomously controlled during the first 15 seconds of play, and human operated for the remaining 2 minutes. Trailers begin each match empty. Robots may be loaded with up to 7 Moon Rocks by their team before the match begins. Human players are equipped with 20 Moon Rocks, minus the number they load into their robot. The quantity of Empty Cells and Super Cells is predetermined by the outcome of their prior match. If a team has not yet played a match, the human players receives 4 Empty Cells and 2 Super Cells. Moon Rocks and Empty Cells scored in an opponent’s trailer earn 2 points each. Super Cells scored in an opponent’s trailer are worth 15 points. To get a Super Cell, an empty cell must be delivered to one of the human players at the “Fueling Stations” (corners of the field). Empty Cells can be delivered throughout the match. Super Cells may only be played during the last 20 seconds of a match.

[2009 playing field known as the "Crater"]

[Moon Rocks and Empty Cells score 2pts each, Super Cells score 15 points]

[Red and Blue trailers are pulled by all of the robots playing the game]

THE HULK - 2039FRC2009

Functions and Features:

-Automated ball intake using 4 photo eye sensors for internal ball situational awareness
-Automated goal tracking
-Turret capable of shooting balls approximatly 10 feet
-4 wheel drive with maximum robot and bumper weight for traction
-Reliable empty cell delivery sensor
-Turret position awareness and limit switches
-10 to 15 ball capacity for fast delivery
-Auto mode designed for moon rock delivery
-Maximum allowable ball entry inlet size
- Light weight carbon fiber composites allow for weight added to achieve even distribution to wheels

2009 Team Updates

Post Wisconsin Regional:

We had a great time at the Wisconsin Regional. Thanks again to all of the volunteers and teams for making it such a fun and safe experience! At the end of qualifying rounds we had a record of 7-1-0 and were the number 1 seeded team. During our first round at the competition, we helped to set the high score for the regional event at 105 points. We then selected Winnovation (Team 1625, Winnebago, IL) and Fondy Fire (Team 2194, Fon Du Lac, WI) to be in our alliance for the elimination rounds. After going undefeated in the elimination rounds, we earned our first regional championship and got our tickets punched for the World Championship Event in Atlanta, GA from April 16th-18th. Stay tuned for news from the Atlanta!

Post Midwest Regional:

Our first robotics competition at the Midwest Regional’s in Chicago has been a great learning experience for the Rockford Robotics team. We not only did exceptionally well in the competition, but we also learned some really good lessons that we can apply to our second competition in Milwaukee.

The team arrived at the competition on Thursday morning with some modifications in mind to make on our robot. The balls were still getting stuck at the joint from the internal conveyor to the turret, so the team added plastic strips to funnel the balls into the conveyor so they would not become jammed inside the robot. This done, we went to our first two practice matches and our new modifications did not work After further modifications and failed attempts, a huge team discussion took place. The whole driving team and a few others voted for the removal of the turret in order to replace it with another conveyor system that would go on top of the robot where the turret was originally located. The team would also cut the hole from the internal conveyor to the turret the whole width of the top to allow the balls to flow into our new conveyor easily. This would allow the balls to come through our conveyor systems and be shot out from the top conveyor into the opponent’s trailer extremely fast. Due to some quick and good wrenching done by the team, the new mod was put on and we went to our last few practice matches to test it out. To the joy of the whole team, the added top conveyor system works exceptionally well!

Seeding matches began early Friday morning at the regional competition. Rockford Robotics had 8 seeding matches total and we won 5 out of the 8. Throughout the whole weekend the team was always in the top 15 teams out of the 54 teams that were there. Rockford Robotics made it into the quarter finals by being picked for an alliance with two other really good robots. With this alliance, we were able to win all of our quarter-final and semi-final matches! We were now in the final match against Winnovation from Winnebago and the two other teams on there alliance. The rules of the game were best out of 3 matches, so when we lost the first match by 8 points, we had to win the second one to stay alive. But contrary to our wish, we lost the second match and this put us in second place at the Midwest regional. Though the team is bummed we did not take first place, we are extremely pleased about how far we did make it in the competition and we are looking forward to doing better -winning- at the Milwaukee competition in two weeks.

Rockford Robotics really pulled together during the competition and one thing we are proud of is that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. When we look back over this competition we are amazed at how far we have come since the shipping of our bot. At the time of shipping, we had a bot with some problems and a team with little to no practice or de-bug time. After the competition, our bot was one of the best, fastest, most efficient conveyor-dumping robots out there - and it's something to be proud of! Of course, without your wonderful support we would not have been able to make it this far and we want to thank you. We also hope to be conveying in our next update that we will be heading to nationals - because this hard working team deserves to win the Milwaukee regional!

So here is a list of some of the things that we learned at the competition and would like to implement for our next competition:

1.) We are ordering some larger sprockets to increase our drivetrain speed by 50 to 100 percent. But with speed comes some slip due to the low friction surface, so we are also hoping to implement some form of traction control.

2.) One judge asked us why we are not running the conveyors 100% instead of using the sensors to turn them off. We did not have a great answer at the time, but our experience shows that we are correct in doing so:

-By turning the motors off, we decrease the stress on the motors and reduce unnecessary heating thereby decreasing the probability of burning a motor out.

-After each match we were already draining the batteries down to one bar out of 5 on the charger. If they were drained more, we would increase charging time in between matches and potentially be decreasing our robot performance near the end of each match. This is a big benefit and something we are going to bring up proactively when we are being interviewed by the judges in Milwaukee .

3.) Our conveyor system works good and is simple. It also has MANY interchangeable parts (rollers, 2 of the motor / gear box setups which are actually most of the system) and one of the important lessons learned is that we need to stress the awesome functions of our bot to the judges.

4.) Competition readiness is a must. Thus, one of our goals is to get in on the extra practice rounds available so our driving team can get as much experience as possible.

5.) We have a trophy to show off! So Rockford Robotics plans on showing this and videos of our excellent performance in Chicago to other teams during the Milwaukee competition.

6.) From day one, we are planning to help the less experienced alliance teams to have a basic autonomous mode program. This will allow us to not only show gracious professionalism but also help out our alliances chance of winning.

7.) To be safe rather than sorry, the team is discussing putting heat sinks on the motors so they don't burn out during the match.

8.) Many teams had highly complex mathematical ranking systems for scouting. Rockford Robotics did an amazing job with our scouting at the Chicago regional, but we are wanting to improve even more by cooperating with other teams and trying to learn from their ranking methods.

9.) We seemed to forget about the maintainability aspects of the design. After changing out 2 motors in Chicago that required complete disassembly of the conveyor system, we plan to modify the mounting to allow for change without conveyor disassembly.

This list is not an exhaustive one, but it summarizes a few items that we want to do so we can improve our robot even more. We hope that as we go and compete in Milwaukee , these implementations will launch us to nationals!

Our 2009 robot "The Incredible Hulk" has arrived. We are looking forward to
competing at the midwest and wisconsin regional competitions.
Good luck to all the other teams, we can't wait to get out there and delve into some LUNACY!

Week 5- February 10, 2009

The 5th week of the build season has been filled to the brim with work, work, work. The 3 systems of the robot - the turret, hopper, and conveyor systems - have been fully designed and are being built. But the main issue for the team this week has been the frame. The frame which was required to integrate all 3 sub-systems go a late start, therefore it didn't get to the welder until late last week. It was cut, pop-rivoted together, and sent off to the welder for tacking together on Friday. The frame was picked up on Saturday to do some work on it over the weekend, and the mounting of the 3 systems was finalized. It went back to the welder Monday, and it's back so we can start assembling subsystems onto it tonight. The team has finished proto-tpying the lift system for the bot, the conveyor parts are complete, and the angles for our turret have been welded. Our bumpers have been assembled and we made sure that they weighed the maximum amount - 18 pounds - so our robot can have weight at ground level to be more stable on the slick playing field.

The programming for the robot is almost complete. The programming team have finished the controller feedback, this will give graphical representations of the robot's functions. The programming of single drive, the camera function, and auto joystick functions for the conveyor has been finished this week as well.

The hotels for are first competition in Chicago are being finalized. The decals that will display our sponsors on the Incredible Hulk and the trading cards are being designed.

We will be burning the midnight oil all week as we try to insure we have a competitive Bot before we ship next Tuesday.

Week 4- February 2, 2009

Week 4 has been filled with completing design and ordering parts. We are hoping to begin building the robot next week. As the design phase is almost complete, we will begin the cramming build stage and last minute design and welds/ work on the bot. Though this is somewhat insane, the team enjoy's working out the kinks to design the best bot possible.

One great thing that can take place during robotics is the helping spirit between teams. This week the Winnovation team from Winnebago is lending us a helping hand by giving/selling us belts for our conveyor system and eurethane tubing. As another aspect of our team, we will be having try-outs for the positions of a driver, operator, and payload specialist. These people will be the field team at the competitions.
As week 4 wanes, the insanity is beginning to build, but the experience of a team of high-schoolers and mentors designing and building a robot in 6 weeks in incredibley worth it!

Week 3 - January 19, 2009

As week two closes and week three dawns, team 2039 is excited to what this new week of the season will bring... but before we get to that, we must tell you of the epic adventures of robot design during week two!

The design of the robot has taken off. Our design plan for the robot includes having a fast conveyor system that will pick up balls from the playing field, then once the balls reach the inside of our robot they will
fill up the space in the "hopper system". This hopper system will basically be a big bin for ball storage with a floor that will move upwards and push the balls into our rotating turret. The turret will be multi-faceted, it
will be able to either dump the balls into an opponents trailer or place them into our goal for a human player to throw them into trailers.

The special ops subteam has finished the design of the conveyor system for the robot. The conveyors will consist of two 3 foot belt assemblies that spin in opposite directions, this will suck the balls up the conveyor and into our hopper system. The system will be run by two motors. We will be approaching sponsors to have some of the custom parts needed for our conveyor system! The special ops team has subdivided even further to design the hopper and turret systems.

The programming team has begun work on, well, programming. The camera, provided in the robot parts kit, has been placed on the kit bot and the team has started programming for autonomous mode, as well as, tele-operated mode.
In tele-operated mode our goal for the robot is to automatically aim the turret and shoot balls in an opponents trailer.

One of our new mentors with woodworking skills has built a trailor for us to be able to practice on. On Saturday the chassis team cut and welded the general frame together, with the help of a mentor from the Winnovation team. We are sure there will be more welding needed and we hope to engage Superior Joining in these activities. The chassis team has begun work on the mounting of the gear boxes.

The goal for week three is to rap up the special ops designs and start ordering parts. We have also designed a pit structure that will hold our banner, have a white board, peg board for hanging tools, and a coat rack and
flag holder. This will be made out of 1 inch aluminum tubing. Thanks again for your support, we will contact you as we can use your services. We hope to be able to report great progress on the robot next week! A video description of the game challenge that we are competing in teis year can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AHJc_ZcFUE.

Week 1 - January 5, 2009

Rockford Robotics is greatful for your support for this 2009 FIRST Robotics season and we wish as a team to let you in on our build season with weekly updates! So lets get down to business...

The 2009 FIRST Robotics game is named Lunacy and is meant to simulate the effect of the reduced gravity on the moon, let me explain. The playing field is an extremely slick teflon type surface, and teams must use the supplied low friction wheels. Each robot will be pulling a trailor, and the purpose of the game is to get as many balls -or moon rocks- into the opposing teams trailor while racing around the slick playing field known as the crater. Points will be made on the number and kind of balls that are placed in the opposing teams trailors. There will be an autonomous mode, as well as, a tele-operated period in each match.

The season is off to a good start this year for team 2039. The two seniors that graduated last year fortunately have been replaced by seven new students and two new mentors. The team has completed the brainstorming process, selected our primary functional objectives, and now we are "shaking the sieve" to pan out the worthy design options. We will begin to break down into sub-teams and start the design stage shortly. Thank you so much for your support of Rockford Robotics - we hope to impress you this season! Keep your eyes open for another update at the end of week two!