Blog | Black Thunder

Beaming Beams FLL The FLL team have made a breakthrough, we realised that the problem we were encountering was that the bot was going too fast into the holes of the house and therefore lost accuracy, but by using our previously-made acceleration and deceleration code in unison we can better control the velocity of the bot. The next problem is that we can only knock down four out of the six beams while keeping the house stable on top of them. This problem does not affect us as much, as we can make up those points in the stacks.  FLL - Rerun The post SUMO competitors have been taught, in a lesson by two of our FFL team members. They have been tasked to finally create their bots to tackle the mission models they made attachments for the previous sessions. They will be able to test out their code on the map later but fro now they have to imagine going around the map and doing missions.

More Code Refining FLL The FLL team has been refining the code for Mission 9, to get 65 points on top of our goal for 400 points. The code is nearly finished for mission 9 it will be tested to see how many times out of 10 it will work, so we can see if any further changes are required. We are also finishing our robot design executive summary, ready for the nationals in 24 days time. The robot is now the best we think it can be. FLL - Rerun The FLL rerun teams are upgrading their robots so they can complete the maximum amount of tasks to win the competition. Some teams are adding complex gearing for their attachments, they are making it easy to add on their attachments. Some attachments are shaping up well and the teams are making progress.

Continuing Beams FLL The FLL team is tackling each challenge by itself in order to not be distracted by ideas for other challenges, although that might be good in some scenarios for example when a team is just starting to build their bots and attachments they need lots of ideas, but seeing as we already have that we just need to focus on improving certain attachment's efficiency and fulfilling the potential that is Black Thunder. FLL - Rerun The Year sevens and eights have the opportunity to choose one mission and build an attachment to complete that mission. This is a good use of time as it allows the recruits to build on their previously acquired skills and try something new, the other reason is that because we are allowing them to try it on their own, their ideas will be new and 

Developing safety factor FLL Today we have been perfecting mission no. 9 which is Safety factor, by getting the prongs (which is an attachment for the linear actuator) into the building's windows. We are attempting to complete the woman's swing in the same run. We currently working on beams extremely as we need to lift the building, flatten the 6 beams and lower the building onto the lowered beams.  FLL - Rerun The teams are rebuilding their robots, knowing what they need to do to optimise it for the FLL Rerun. Some teams are making a small compact robot so that when it turns it won't hit any tasks and lose them points. They are also making it easier to attach and detach their attachments. This is essential as changing attachments is important to be able to complete as many missions as possible.

REFINING FLL CODE FLL We have mostly been coding and testing today for our combo run for Missions 8 (Elevator) and Mission 12 (Design and Build) and have managed to get it working to perfect it. We also realised as we were testing that the surface under the mission models and mat, had a small bump, which seemed to hindering our progress, but we soon solved that issue. Aside from that we also tested Missions 2 (Crane). FLL Rerun Today, the young competitors were being taught the invaluable skills by two veterans (using a PowerPoint) in coding and the making of their robot. Firstly, they were taught how to use light and colour sensors. This could be used for line following which could help them in reaching a mission accurately and help with overall efficiency and help them get points. They were also taught how to gear there wheel and motor system to maximise rotations per second. This will contribute to time management due to excellent speed and effectiveness of runs....

We are now continuing coding. FLL  The coding team is now coding the robot as we are trying to combat robot drift by monitoring the rotation distance of both motors and seeing if they are equal; the drift immensely affected the robot's performance. We are continuing work on Missions 9 (Elevator) to perfect it and get it completed with Mission 12 (Design and Build) in the multi-mission run. This will give us 80 points if all the objectives, balancing the elevator and getting a fully balanced 8-stack of beige blocks, are completed. FLL rerun  The FLL rerun teams are now coding functions to the buttons on the front of the ev3 brick. Sida  also gave a presentation on advanced coding e.g loops functions, mathematical operations and also switches.Using this they will be able to complete more tasks and gain more points. 

WORKING ON PROJECT FLL Today, we mainly focused on Project and improving the aesthetic appearance of the Parking Bot app by using Google's material design, which is a design format. We are doing this as most people complained about the design format and people would be more comfortable with Google's design as they use it on lots of different apps; Google maps, etc. FLL Rerun Today, the competitors continued with their task of making their bot turn in circles. This manoeuvre could help them a lot in the missions. Some of the coders finished making their code and continued to developing the structure their bot physically and on LEGO DIGITAL DESIGNER. They will soon have more lessons on how to code successfully in EV3-G and will then be able to start to code for the missions.

5 Weeks till Nationals FLL Today, we have been working on a combo run including Missions 8 (Elevator) and 12 (Design and Build). We are aiming to balance and 8-stack of beige blocks (colour matching) with an upgrade and also to balance the elevator. We are working on positioning of the robot and the making sure the robot is turning correctly turning, to make sure we get the most points.  FLL Rerun The Competitors are continuing to expand their coding knowledge as they are learning, today, to code their bots to turn around in circles. A circle on the spot, a circle around a wheel and a circle around a fixed point (away from their bot). A lot of groups are also changing the structure of their bots (as some teams had slow and tank like robots to have maximum success in the SUMO Competition) to have quicker and more efficient robots in order top complete more missions.

Experimenting With New Attachments FLL Today, we have been making minor changes to attachments by adjusting them to maximise efficiency. We have also been adjusting code for the better to do 2 missions in one run. This will help us make more points and do more missions due effective time management (we only get 2:30 to do as many missions as we can). We have also made the code for mission 9 (Safety Factor) better by being able to insert prongs into the windows of the small structure that needs to be lowered. FLL Rerun Today, the competitors were introduced basics of the coding language (EV3-G) and were given a presentation about it and then began to explore the IDE (Integrated Design Environment) by making code. They were also talked about large and medium motors and also how to tank turn and steering. They then began to code their robot to turn around in circles and in squares. Using this code, they will soon be able develop it and make their robot do the required missions....

New Year's Greetings! FLL Nationals After a long break (with one one meet up) the team was back together and was ready to resume coding and building.We worked on missions and one of our coders was attempting to make a cubic equation in order to calculate turning values after line following for mission 9 (Safety factor). Also, we have worked on mission 12 (Design and Build) and now have increased our height of blocks to make the maximum possible height of stacks we can. FLL Rerun Shortly before the holidays, the participants were introduced to the FLL map and mission models; in preparation for the rerun that they would be doing. Today, they were showed our robot that we use in FLL and had a chance to look and take ideas from it. They also had a more detailed rundown of the mat and mission models with also some very successful examples of missions being done.