Mobile App Logo

Hello guys! Haven't really been posting much lately because of the upcoming end-of-year exams. Spent under an hour creating and refining this logo for my friend who is building some tourist guidebook app. Just explaining some basic concepts:

Color Scheme: Red and white, Singapore's national colors
General Shape: Rounded rectangle, fits iPhone theme perfectly
Blending: A few basic effects used, gradient, bevel, emboss used to make logo slightly 3D, solid color would be too plain, shadows to highlight important text
Background: 360 in low transparency, overflowing text gives effect of 360 degrees, all round, Singapore outline in medium transparency, creates visual recognition for app users
Caption: App name, accented first word to give emphasis since the app makes use of image recognition

So that would be the first serious app logo that I am designing. Please leave your comments! Stock files are available upon request. Thanks!

[NJRC 2011] Conclusion

It is not the result, but the process that matters. This statement neatly encapsulates what I feel about NJRC this year. Although we did not meet our expectations when we first came in, we knew that NXT was never our strong point as we are unable to harness the full power of robotics. However, we still pressed on and attained the 3rd position for the Best Research Award. The highlight of the competition would have to be designing a workable omni wheel out of NXT 9797 parts. We have tried and failed many times in the past and this time proved to be the breakthrough. So here are some pictures! Enjoy!

 This picture was used to show that our robot was able to balance comfortably, even on this highest step.

 This picture was used to demonstrate the extremely low clearance, giving us a low centre of gravity and allowing us to have excellent balance.

 This would be the back of the 5 medals: 1 for each member and 1 for the school.

 This shows the position of the egg holder when the robot mounts the step. It decreases the chance of the egg falling out as it is positioned parallel to the ground.

 This is the front of the medal, showing this year's theme, domestic bots. The gold medal colouration was done using HTC's sepia filter.

 This is the engraving on the back of the medal, showing that we have attained third for the best research award.

Below are some other pictures of the robot as well as the medals:

So this will be my last year participating in the secondary category of NJRC. Hopefully, the cumulative experience gathered over the years will give us an advantage in the JC section next year. I'll be back.

ASUS ROG Theme

Hey guys, this is what my desktop looks like now! Essentially, I changed the start orb using start orb changer 2.0 to an ROG orb. Also, the wallpaper has a really nice ROG logo, complemented by an ROG skinned dock from Rocketdock! Finally, I have also used an ROG cursor set but it doesn't show on the print screen. Anyway, credits to the people who have provided these awesome ROG stuff. I will post the links soon!

[NJRC 2011] Award

Hey guys! In case you haven't already heard, we won a presentation award for NJRC!

Hi ,

Congrats !

We are pleased to inform you that the following team have won an presentation award for NJRC 2011 :

S145

Raffles Institution

Raffles Team 4

The award ceremony will be held on 9^th September 2011 .

Reporting time will be at 12:00NOON at Annexe Foyer .

Do note that lunch is provided for all award winner .

Should there be any queries , I can be contacted at 90188479.

Thank you.

Best Regards ,

Cecilia

But they wouldn't tell us what award it is:

Hi Kenneth ,

We will not reveal what presentation awards the team has won . You will only get to know on that day.

Thank you.

Best Regards ,

Cecilia

In any case, an award is an award and we were only shortlisted for Best Research and Best Mechanical Design so I guess we will be happy with any one of the two!

Also, we had our research education semi finals on Monday and it went rather well. The judges were definitely impressed that out robots could move but mentioned that we needed to speak slower. But I think we did a good job considering we had to condense a 50+ page report into a 10 minute presentation. Moving on, I hope we can get to the congress and show off what second in the world is!

We will be meeting at 7:45 am on Monday so see you there! Thanks for dropping by!

Name Card Design

Hey guys, decided to upload my revolutionary name card on this blog. So how is it revolutionary? Think about it, how often is it that you see a nice name card with all the details that you might need on it? Too often, people who try to cram too much information on their name card find that the wording turns out crammed and many important details like the logo of the organisation is not large enough for the recipient. In order to solve this problem, I have enlarged the school crest such that it flows over the sides. However, it does not move the focus from the main text as the transparency is reduced. As the words "name card" suggest, the focus has to be on the name. As such, the largest and most distinct text would be my name. To make it stand out from the general card, white is used as it has the greatest contrast to the black backdrop. This if followed by the part I play on the team as the reader continues reading from the main focus. Noting the the target audience would be people from other countries, they would probably remember a person by their country and hence, the words team Singapore with Singapore in red. In case the person would like to contact me, I have also included details such as my email as well as my Facebook profile URL. In order to make the card look less wordy, the Facebook icon as well as a mail icon is used. This also makes the card more intuitive to read as the reader would immediately identify the location of my contact details instead of having to look through all the text like in conventional name cards. On the left, I have included the team name in green and white which is less outstanding than the main text, this will share the focus with the crest as it holds the same information, which is the school I represent. Beneath it would be the team credentials in grey, allowing the reader to gain some information about the team. Overall, the bulk of the information is centralized and hence stands out when viewed at a glance. Also, it conforms with the school colors of green, black, white and gold and also the national colors of red and white, all naturally colored on the information. This aids visual recognition and allows the reader to form a mental connection with the country as well as institution. However, this is just a draft. Please feel free to comment on it. Thanks!

Class Jersey Design

Hey guys! Just thought I will share my class jersey design for those who don't have Facebook. Basically, it is rather simple to recreate in Photoshop and comprises a set of checkers at the top, tilted at an angle. The bottom is faded using a black to transparent gradient layered over the checkers and is rather steep so that not too much will be cut off. If you can see the details, the lower squares are all brushed to give it a more modern effect. The main text is also slanted at an angle with the checkers. However, the school name is put horizontally to control the general flow. Otherwise, the shirt will look slanted when worn as the tilt is rather subtle. The back adopts a regular jersey design with the name and number of the wearer. However, the orange-black-white theme is preserved to ensure that the back matches the front. Orange was chosen as it stands out from the green on the field while black is the main color as it is not too distracting. Look out for more variations of this design after I update this post! Thanks for viewing!

First Tech Challenge 2011

Hi guys! The First Tech Challenge is coming to Singapore and the briefing was held at the Singapore Science Center today. I think that this is an interesting competition that allows you to advance your skills from just building Lego robots in competitions such as NJRC as well as the lower level FLL. The skills shift from using basic building blocks in Lego to metal parts in the basic sets provided. However, CAD software is also provided and these parts are allowed in the rules. Programming can be done in Labview or RobotC and this will allow for an option between GUI coding and C. However, the starting cost is rather hefty at SGD800 for the first 50 kits purchased  and SGD1600 from there on. This does not include registration fees or the purchase of any parts or services such as CNC milling. Here are some pictures taken at the briefing:

 Picture of the demo robot with a blue team flag. The front attachment is used for collecting the batons and is driven by 2 wheels with an Omni-wheel in the front to allow dual axis of freedom. This runs on the NXT processor and has a wireless module, a multiplexer among other components. From the looks of it, the metal frame is assembled from the basic set.

 This is the general playing field although the presenter was quick to point out that there were some flaws in terms of dimensions and emphasized that Science Center will get it fixed quickly. There is a mountain in the middle flanked by 2 balancing boards. On the sides are ramps as well as the collection points of the batons. The four corners are where the robots start from and the 4 movable trolleys are also dumping points for the batons.

This is another sample robot with the red flag. Almost all modules look the same except that this robot is driven by tank tracks instead of an Omni wheel + 2 motors system. In this picture, it is perfectly balanced on the bridge and hence scores a point! 

 This is the same robot as the one in the first picture, just from a different angle.

 This would be the baton dispenser loaded with batons. Essentially, there are 3 types of batons, the multiplier, which is completely colored and is not in the picture (2 of them), the regular baton as well as the magnetic baton. The scoring for each one is different but I will not bore you out here. If you need any additional details, please visit the FTC site (the link is posted below)

 This will be the front view of the second demo robot. Apparently, the battery pack take 3 months to ship so the organizers have allowed this homemade battery pack. You might notice that the robot is not symmetrical- something that I place much emphasis on in my creations to ensure an even drive.

 This is the movable scoring trolley. The 4 containers at the edges are for regular batons while the middle one will only be scored if it holds the magnetic baton. However, this looks the same as the regular baton and teams would be required to find some way of differentiating them.

 This is the blue version of the baton dispenser.

 This is a closeup view of the mountain, ramp as well as the balance board.

 This would be the field viewed from another angle.

 There is an infrared beacon placed beneath the medium height baton dispenser which is located in the middle of each side of the field. The presenter recommended that teams use this during the autonomous period to locate the dispenser.

 This would be the standard NiMH battery pack on the left and the homemade battery pack on the right. As you might have noticed, the size is the same and the specifications has to be the same for the homemade pack to be used as a replacement.

 This are the batons. The fully colored ones are the multipliers which were missing in the picture above as well as the regular batons. The double striped batons are loaded onto the robots (5 of them) while the single ones are placed in the dispenser. Among them, there will be one magnetic baton.

This is the identifier flag which is to be placed on the robots and indicates which team it is on.

The rules are really quite complex so I am afraid I am not able to summarize them here. You could go to the FTC site at http://www.ftcsg.com.sg/. I hope that I have helped with some pictures to give you a better idea!
Thanks for visiting!

NJRC Entrepreneurship Award

Hey guys! Did a basic poster for NJRC that I thought I'd like to share. Some really simple typography at the bottom right corner is done with a mixture of angles, colors and font sizes for a dynamic feel. Also, there is a small school crest in the number 4 to give a more graphical representation of our team. However, although the lower half of the poster is very dynamic, we need to have some order to control the overall feel so I have placed the screen shots as well as the main details of our poster at the same angle. Information is also clearly separated with spaces between them as well as the different angles. To ensure that the information does not look disjointed, I have typed 4 in an extremely large font. This takes secondary focus from the word Raffles and Team which are in the most outstanding colors. This is done while maintaining the green black white gold colors of our school. Do not hesitate to email me should you need any specific help. Thanks!

Robocup/NJRC/RafflesRoboticsBlog

Hi guys!
Finally back on my blog! Just some updates to start off. Team Raffles has represented Singapore in Robocup International 2011 in the Lightweight A Secondary category. The journey was generally smooth sailing and ended with us attaining Individual as well as Superteam second. This is, by our record, the best showing from Singapore in this category. Throughout the round robin stages, we remained undefeated and had a goal ratio of 209 scored to 6 conceded. This included victories over Australia by a scoreline of 58-2 to games as close as 1-0 in the case of SPQR, a team from Rome. In the Individual finals, we met strong opponents in Luwan Senior High School. Winning that encounter 3-2, we proceeded into the finals facing Cenatax Light. Having some technical difficulties, we trailed 5-0 in the first half. However, we managed to get the second robot running in the second half and pulled back 2 goals. Unfortunately, that only gave us a 5-2 score line overall and allowed us to attain second position. In the Superteam semifinals, we were up against Iranian team Fast and Smart. We eased past this match with a score of 8-2 and allowed us to proceed to the finals However, we were up against Cenatax Light again the finals. This time, we lost 5-1 and hence clinched the second position.This is just the second time that our School is participating in the international round of Robocup and attaining 2 awards was indeed a surprise for us. However, we have found some areas of improvement and plan  to incorporate these details for the robot participating in the national round next year. Here is the robot:

This is our robot when viewed from the top.

This shows the processor as well as some sensors.

This is the font view of our robot.

 This is the driving base of our robot.

This is the picture of our robot with the ball.

 This is Team Raffles in Istanbul.

This is a picture of our robots with the trophy in Turkey. As you are able to see, the carpet has a lot of fluff on it and affected our robot performance as the wheels were unable to turn after the end of each half. The video of our robot can be found on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixrYPhvU8W4. For more pictures, visit my facebook profile!

Currently, I am working on the National Junior Robotics Competition (NJRC) . This competition selects the best teams to represent Singapore in the World Robotics Olympiad (WRO). The team did well in the presentation preliminary rounds, getting into the finals of the Best Mechanical Design Award as well as the Best Research Award. The challenge week starts on Thursday next week and we will hope to achieve a good result there. The awards for the presentation will also be announced during the prize presentation.

Another new project would be the Raffles Robotics blog. This will provide updates on competitions as well as general announcements and will be the means that our club reaches out to the public. The  link can be found here: rafflesrobotics.blogspot.com.

I will conclude this post and proceed on to work on the entrepreneurship as well as booth design awards for NJRC.

Thanks for visiting!