The Mentor Robots + Life + Blog Update

Hello everyone, Sorry I've been on a tad of a hiatus from the blog realm. Classes started, my brother's wedding, and a bunch of stressful stuff in between has kept me away. I will try my bring this blog back up from the grave once again. One special project that I would like to bring up is a side project I've been helping with for the past few months. My robotics teacher (Mr. Henry) called upon some of his loyal servants...I mean students and some professional mentors to help design two robots.

These robots are specifically designed to be teaching robots for new mentors arising in San Antonio. This will be very handy for demos, classes, or possibly for sponsor meetings. Most teams in San Antonio need their robots for the competition and because of the price of the equipment, they can be very hesitant when lending out their hunk of metal on wheels. So these will be very handy for many purposes. Mr. Henry has a few sponsorships already on hand so we are well on our way to building.

We started with an already built robot that students had built for a past game. Our first job was to tear it apart...WOOHOO!! We kept the chassis intact since it was just easier that way. Than we had to take apart the gear boxes, which my friend Rudy did since he is a pro, and took apart the wheels to take out some spacers that weren't needed. Anywho we have had 3 meetings so far and will continue till it is built.

I promise to document a little more than I have been and hopefully I can get some footage in photos or video before we get too far in the process. This will give me the experience I need since I plan on applying for the AmeriCorps VISTA Program with F.I.R.S.T., I'll explain more about that later, to help me be able to learn how to make a robot from the ground up.

I also need to ask if I can use some of the other mentors names on here as well, that wouldn't be good if I did and they weren't happy about it.

Anywho I will be adding a few more movie reviews, some posts about some work I'm doing in my classes, and a possible new blog dedicated to me reviewing TED Talks...maybe. I don't know yet. We will see...

STAY TUNED!

SA BEST Kick Off is near!!!!

San Antonio BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) robotics competition kick off will be arriving shortly, September 3 to be exact. The kick off is where they will show what the game is about and what they have to accomplish in the competition. F.I.R.S.T. Robotics also has a kick off (in January) but this competition is based locally.

 
"The SA BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) competition is a contest held annually to inspire and interest students in the fields of science and engineering. With guidance from adult mentors, local teams of students design and build a remote controlled machine to accomplish a specific task. The students are given a box of raw materials from which to build the machine and 6 weeks to design and construct it. The task of the robot is kept secret until Kick-off Day, when all the teams are told what the robot is required to do.  On Competition Day, all schools will compete head-on with each other in a thrilling science-fair-turned-sports-event.  Several teams advance to the regional Texas Best competition and compete with the BEST robots from other areas. More information on the BEST concept is available."

I have only mentored once for SA BEST when I was in high school, but I didn't know much about it and than continued to be consumed with F.I.R.S.T. My good friend Rudy (also a F.I.R.S.T. mentor) has been mentoring for SA BEST for many years and is mentoring two teams this year. So I figured I would try and bring this competition to light so if someone out there stumbles upon it, maybe I can get an "ooooo" reaction out of you. Seriously though, this is a very neat competition.

Check out their website here at SA BEST!

Here is the 2011 Game Teaser that you can also find on their website:

i.am FIRST: Science Is Rock and Roll on ABC.com

A thank you goes out to Grease Monkeys - Team 457 for posting the link to this article on Facebook.

"will.i.am pairs up with inventor/FIRST founder Dean Kamen for i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll, a groundbreaking, one-hour special promoting education, science and technology..."

"i.am.FIRST – Science is Rock and Roll is an electric hour of highlights from the 20th Annual FIRST® Robotics Championship"

                                        From ABC.com, read complete article HERE

F.I.R.S.T. has been such a secret for too long, this makes me very happy to see it is finally being recognized from people who can get the word out. As will.i.am. says "Its the superbowl for the mind"

For your viewing convenience, I've embedded the youtube videos of the show below...hopefully they will not be taken down anytime soon. I didn't get to see this show on television because I do not have any channels (the whole poor college student thing) so I'm excited to have found it on the good old youtube.

Thank you to RMHSRobotics for posting the videos!

PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5


PART 6

Dean Kamen and will.i.am = Awesome!

CNN's Piers Morgan interviewed Dean Kamen, Inventor of the Segway and founder of F.I.R.S.T., and will.i.am from the band Black Eyed Peas. *Videos below*

From what I've heard, Black Eyed Peas made an appearance at the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Championship in St. Louis last year. This makes me very excited to see that this program might get more attention that it rightfully deserves. Since I started in 2005, I have supported F.I.R.S.T. as a student and as a mentor. I agree with these two on that most schools are concentrated on just sports, which in most cases do not lead to college graduates. I am one of those students. I did not enjoy sports one bit and did not participate in any. I was always kind of nerdy and just didn't care for anything that had to do with sports. When I heard about the robotics team at my high school and went to the first meeting, I was automatically hooked. I didn't think at the time that it would make a profound impact on my life...but it did. It helped me to strive to graduate from high school when there was a chance I might not have been able too, its helped on my resume to be hired for jobs, it gave me that push I needed to go to college, and now I am less than a year away from graduating from college with a Bachelor's degree. I am living proof that this program works, and you are hooked for life.

Now I am interested on moving to the east coast to join the AmeriCORPS VISTA Program with F.I.R.S.T. which is a full year of full time volunteer service to promote the robotics program. I can't begin to describe how incredibly excited I am to know that this opportunity exists. This is something I can tell you now, I will probably be dedicated to this program for the rest of my life. It is that important to me and I think to this country.

Please Go and learn about F.I.R.S.T. and become involved. Sponsor, mentor, teach classes. No matter what your background is, you can be a vital member in your community and their robotics program.

Studio Art Problems: Final Project

Ah...the completion of my summer classes. What a relief! I had a post earlier talking about some ideas I had for my 5-week project and I finally came out with a product. It happened to be quite stressful because of financial strains but I think I accomplished what I wanted within the parameters given. We had critiques yesterday and today, mine was today, and it went fairly well. My biggest issue was the motor I used spun too fast (I did borrow it off of a mini-robot). My sculptural piece was a box made from acrylic with holes drilled on each side at an inch apart. I twisted wire using a drill and a hook looking bit to give it that nice and even look (my grandfather is a genius).With the wire, I pulled the wires through the holes and made a cross hatch pattern with different colors of twisted wires. After that, I laced the wires up the side like shoe laces which gave it a really nice aesthetic to it. Then having inspiration from Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's Light Space Modulator, I wanted it to spin and have lights. My good friend Rudy helped me out with the construction of the motor box using the program Solid Works. I then borrowed a motor from my former high school robotics team, Grease Monkey's, and some pieces of lexan for the base and motor box. I wish I had a better camera to have taken a picture while the lights were turned off. The reflection of the L.E.D.s off the metal wires made it look really neat and the shadows it created was also pretty awesome! Anywho, this was the result...

In the process of completion...

Close up of L.E.D.s and motor

A better look at the wires and motor box

Final Critique Set Up

Studio Art Problems: Final Project from Brittany Smith on Vimeo.

A special thanks to all the people who helped me out with this project: Grandpa Sam, Grandma Mary, Rudy, Mr. Henry, Ri, Brandon, Cale, Osiel, Mr. Binks (Class Professor and the one who told me about Maholy-Nagy), Grease Monkey's - Team 457, and anyone else I may have forgotten to mention.

Here is a random picture of a squirrel who is quite popular at our campus, not very shy either. If you look at his tail, it is much longer than most squirrel tails that I have seen...SQUIRRLY!!

Random Squirrel Picture

STAY TUNED FOR MY POST ON MY WORK IN MY ANIMATION CLASS!

"We Are All Makers"

I looked at the Maker Faire website and it just so happens there is a TED Talk talking just about that...AND ROBOTICS!! I don't know what else to say, I'm so incredibly excited. It makes me so angry that Maker Faire is going to be in New York on September 17 & 18 though. This is way too far, so incredibly irksome. Watch This Please of Dale Dougherty who is the founder and publisher of Make Magazine! The newest edition (Volume 27) is about ROBOTS, I am so going to go and buy it when I get paid...oh the anticipation ^^;

Grease Monkeys Team 457 is back!

I just came back from the Texas Robot Roundup at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. This was the first time in two, almost three years of being to a robotics competition and it was stressful, exhausting, exciting, fun, and everything else I could remember. This time I was here as a mentor, which I have to say isn't as fun as being a student but seeing the spirit in these kids and having a whole team of first timers, it was so exhilarating. This was an off season competition and the first day on Friday was the mentor match and the second day was for the students. I've met some great people these past two days and I am hooked ONCE AGAIN!

Check out the news article for the 2011 Texas Robot Roundup.

Check out the teams facebook page at Grease Monkeys - Team 457 to get info on what they are doing through the season. Though its a work in progress, I believe we can get this team kick started into a good season.

Here are some pics from the mentor match, though we did bring students on friday so they could practice a little before saturday. There really isn't many pictures of myself because I stayed in the stands and did some scouting. There were some really great teams.

Here are a few students with a new mentor (the one in black)

Here is their robot in action, they named it "Chango"

Group Picture of the New Team

 PHOTO'S COURTESY OF GREASE MONKEYS - TEAM 457 FACEBOOK PAGE!

My F.I.R.S.T Robotics Team Slideshow: Team 457 Grease Monkey's

Check out my pictures below from my Flickr Set. Most of the photos are from the Florida regional in 2005, ahhh great memories...



I sincerely apologize to my teammates for some of the embarrassing photos.

TED Talk with Markus Fischer: A Robot that flies like a bird

To follow up my last post about Theo Janses, I came across this. Markus Fischer with his team from Festo Corporation have build a robotic bird. In the interview he shows the audience how it flies, which I believe was remote controlled. In my opinion, it flew beautifully. It was absolutely life-like and the work in aerodynamics they had to put in was just fascinating. From their website:

"Festo is a leading world-wide supplier of automation technology and the performance leader in industrial training and education programs. Our aim: maximised productivity and competitiveness for our customers."

From reading their website I found that they also signed up to sponsor Wordskills in London to provide competitions in Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics, and Polymechanics. Festo is a worldwide company but their U.S. branches support F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competitions. I am quite familiar with F.I.R.S.T being a former member of Team 457 Grease Monkeys from San Antonio, Texas and being a former two year mentor. This may be the year that I come back as a mentor, depending on my schedule. F.I.R.S.T and my robotics teacher, Mr. Henry,  helped me graduate and have given me the skills I needed to succeed in college. Please check for a F.I.R.S.T team in your town since it has completely widespread to all states and even other countries. I would suggest you participate no matter what your skills are. It is fun, exciting, and innovative and probably some of the best years of my life. For the robotic bird from Festo...

TED Talk with Theo Jansen...I am such an absolute nerd

Today in my animation class we were learning about motion. Our professor showed us some videos on animation and kinetic sculpture. My eyes sparkled and I got all giddy when he showed us Theo Jansen. Mr. Jansen is a kinetic sculptor from the Netherlands who builds grand sculptures made from tubing that move. They do not need motors, oil, or anything else you would think because it is actually WIND POWERED. Yes, I know what you are thinking...why is that so neat? Well, I'll tell you why! First of all, having a wind powered anything is very economical since you are using a endless source if you live in a windy area. Two, the way these creatures move are absolutely beautiful and very life like.
Three, technically it is a sculpture but the math and engineering that went into building these is quite mind boggling. Four, he has made them to actually live on the beach and has found creative ways to keep them from being damaged from the elements. Five, well...I think its neat so there! Anywho, he happened to show us the TED Talk of Mr. Jansen which is embedded below. Looking at this website called "TED: Ideas Worth Spreading" I seem to have been sucked in. They explain on their website as follows:"Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world" They hold conferences for people who have remarkable ideas but available for everyone to see since they are a non-profit organization. Being my nerdy self I click on to the Robotics section and that's where I am at currently. Though they have so many interesting topics from some of the most interesting people that its worth taking a look at.