Robocup Nationals 2012

Hi guys,

It has been a while since I have last updated this blog. Also a while since Robocup Nationals. But definitely, it wasn't because we didn't do well. In fact, we did superbly. Here's our track record:

Event name (total number of categories): Achievements
Nationals 2009 (2): Cat A 2nd, Cat B 2nd
Internationals 2010 (2): Cat A Indiv top 12, Cat A Superteam top 12, Cat B Indiv top 20
Nationals 2011 (3): Cat A Light 1st, Cat B unknown
Internationals (3): Cat A Light Indiv 2nd, Cat A light Superteam 2nd
Nationals 2012 (3): Cat A Light 1st, Cat A Open 1st, Cat B Open 1st, Overall 1st


Here are some videos of the journey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pUmmUuYJVU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQmBPysY6o0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiNggX3zEDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxbGaqM41Tc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM-qLEOzmjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olcAPq1F4Cs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRH0H5mgo0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbXf94OLs_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlDkxxfZBW8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMONsAHniW8
Channel URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/Kenchow96?feature=mhee
(hope I didn't miss out any)


That's right, 3 teams, 3 golds, overall champions. This is the absolute quantifiable pinnacle of excellence. Our route to Mexico seemed almost too easy. Resistance was almost negligible in the group stages as we cruised to victory after victory, racking up hundreds of goals in the process while hardly conceding. What we did not expect were the other factors that eventually stopped us from proceeding to represent Singapore in the World Cup of Robotics. In spite of long negotiations with the school, they cited several concerns:

1) Price. Mexico is hardly a cheap destination. Getting there alone will cost over 3k. Eventually, we did come to a consensus that this was OK with us. But the next factor cropped up.
2) Danger: Living in a place as safe as Singapore, Mexico struck fear into the school. Drug rings, gangs, rampant kidnapping. Never mind that it rarely happens in the city itself. The school simply would not move.

Of course, there could be, and probably were other undisclosed reasons but that is not for me to speculate in such a public space.

On another note, organizers of robotics events could do with slightly more mainstream locations. After all, this was not the first time that a trip was called off.

World Robotics Olympiad (Manila): Called of due to high terrorist threats
FIRST Lego League (US): Called off due to natural disaster

However, we are not going to let these freak events set us back. In fact, we have recently displayed our robots running a totally radical and redesigned program. Although they were completely un-tuned at the time of display (I finished the program past 2 the previous day), it was already outperforming the program utilised during the national rounds. Hence, look out for much improved results next year. By nationals next year, expect radical hardware changes. Although nothing is confirmed, I am planning on changing the ball sensors, adding a kicker, dribbler and LDR-based capture zone sensing, as well as dual processor processing. With these much changed in terms of hardware, do expect some new algorithms to fuel the robot's hardware.

Having taken a long break (by my standards) in robotics, NJRC preparations is still in its infancy but do expect me to be out in full force after my final exams. Till then, there are always other blogs to read! :)

Thanks for reading!
Kenneth

[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.

[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!

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!