The students gave me these blog posts a few meetings ago, but I neglected to post them! I'll have to find a way to streamline the process for future blogs. I've combined the two into one.

Pearland, TX (January 5, 2019) - Update to the Robotics Room
 
On January 2, Pearadox 5414 was finally able to move into the newly renovated room. Though the room isn’t fully completed, it was amazing to see what improvements were made to the space. The room now includes a big tool and storage area, as well as a Chairman’s room and a computer room. Though seeing the new room was delightful, we still had to transfer all our materials from our temporary small room(s), to the new space and organize. The task was strenuous, but we were able to move a lot of our materials, prepping for the start of the new build season. We are so excited to see what wonders the new room will give to our 2019 robotics journey, and we can’t wait till build season starts. 

Pearland, TX (January 5th 2018) – 2019 FIRST Kickoff
           
     With 2018 having ended, the Pearadox robotics team started off the new year strong, being gathered to prepare for the 2019 kickoff of the most recent challenge from FIRST. 30 plus members arrived at 8 am to prepare for the reveal of the game, accompanied by 15 mentors and numerous alumni. Four other teams were also in attendance (7410, 5908, 6547, and 5932), in total 150 individuals being present for the exciting unveiling of the newest provocation from FIRST. Before all the attending parties were bombarded with details of the activity, one of two guest speakers were introduced. Kris Davis, a mechanical engineer for NASA, presented the students of Pearadox with an introduction on topics related to designing materials capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of space, this subject reflecting the topic of the newest FIRST challenge; deep space.
     After this, the livestream of the game was displayed, students furiously taking notes as the game was revealed. The game manual was also released, detailing everything about the space-themed challenge, from field pieces to human player actions and the restrictions placed on competing robots. Members individually then split off into groups, went over guidelines, discussed strategic elements that would come into play during a match, everyone making sure that they thoroughly knew the rules and understood the game. A short lunch break followed, the second guest speaker, Sarah Brubaker, discussing afterwards the importance of scholarships and specifically about the upcoming opportunities for junior and senior Pearadox members - High School Aerospace scholars and the Rodeo Scholarship. Group discussions about observations and ideas about the game were also held, a simulation involving students in place of the robots also being done to better help the students conceptualize how the matches would look like. By the end of the day, with a firm grasp of the rules of the game, the team began to brainstorm ideas, theorize about possible paths that could be taken with the robot, and even build parts of the field needed in order to fully realize the possibilities and challenges that FIRST had presented. In the upcoming weeks, Pearadox will face said difficulties head on with the determination and strength provided by its students and mentors, in order to accomplish their goals and start off the new year successfully. 

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Pearadox Robotics Team 5414 is a robotics team that competes annually in FRC competitions. Besides competing in robotics, our student members also mentor junior robotics clubs and teams, earn internships and scholarships, and host government representatives and business organizations that tour our facilities. We partner with Pearland Independent School District.

NOTE: This blog post was written by Andrew, a Pearadox mentor.

What a weekend! We had 4 teams attend kickoff with Pearadox at Turner High School for our annual Pear Up! event. We do this because we hope that we can share our experience with analyzing a game with teams that may have a lot of new team members or rookies, or are looking to strengthen the start to their season. We also had people from the IEEE Galveston bay Section Women in Engineering group, someone speak about the Rodeo Scholarship and the High School Aerospace Scholars, and someone talk about their day job of designing space suits!

Some initial thoughts after we spent all day Saturday reading the rules and discussing robot tasks and strategy, and much of Sunday doing the same + building field:

• Scores will be pretty low compared to past years (absolute max score is 154).
  • We estimate seeing playoff scores range roughly 55-85 at district events and 80-120 at the district championship. It'll be interesting to come back and see how far off we were!
• We think the way to win will be to have an alliance that can do as many Hatch Panels (HPLs) and Cargo ( C) as possible
  • There are 12 total bays available at the lowest level. With HPLs being worth 2 points and C worth 3, that's 60 points available by focusing at the lowest level.
• Beyond winning, to get the extra ranking point, teams have to either complete a Rocket or get 15 points in the Habitat Zone
  • To complete a rocket by yourself, you need to be able to do a total of 12 cycles (6 HPL and 6 C).
  • You can't get 15 points by yourself, but you can get 12 by getting to level 3 so that only 1 partner has to get on the ramp, and another could keep scoring
  • If you have 2 robots that can get to level 2, then with all 3 robots you can get the RP. This means that no one can keep scoring HPLS and C though.
• The new sandstorm mode is interesting
  • We think some teams will feel good about just slapping a camera on and thinking you can complete a task. Driving with only a First Person View will be hard! Do you have last years robot? Your driver could start practicing now!
  • Up to 5 HPLs could be scored during the sandstorm period
    • This is unlikely for most matches - getting two hatch panels requires you to do something like score a pre-loaded one in 3 seconds, then you have 6 seconds to go grab the next one from the loading station, and 6 seconds to go score it.
    • While there's no explicit auton "bonus" or "multiplier", every hatch panel scored essentially gives you 3 free points from the preloaded C
    • If you put NULL Hatch Panels on, you potentially limit your max score
      • This is especially true if you can only do the low level Hatches, or your alliance can only do low level HPLs and C
    • If you don't put NULL Hatch panel on, you potentially have between 3 and 8 Cargo rolling around your half of the field on the floor
    • We currently think it's more likely that teams opt to allow C to clutter the field vs limit the points available from HPLs, except in the cases where more of the alliance is better at C than HPLs. This may not be the best decision for teams to make however
      • Smart play actually requires you to estimate how many HPLs and C your alliance can score - you want to optimize to score cargo more than optimize to scote HPLs to get more points/cycle. Stated another way - unless all three teams can only do low level, and all three teams are confident they can combine for more than all 12 cargo and and 6 hatch panels by match end - NULL hatch panels may be the way to go. 
• We came up with a skill-tree for the robot on Saturday. I have expanded on it below. Where are you going to be spending your resources at? 

It was also awesome to have alumni out. Some of our students are writing a blog about the actual kickoff event - but I just wanted to share how rewarding it is as a mentor to see our alumni come back for kickoff to help out. They cut a lot of lumber for us and gave us a huge leg up. Also using our new CNC router and track saw helped a ton too! We've already got a rocket and Levels 2 and 3 built!

    Our robotics team, Pearadox 5414, is currently going through a temporary change of working environment. From a robotics room (former band hall) to a small classroom and from this we are temporarily losing a lot of space. We are packing up and sorting all of our supplies in order to make it an easy transfer to and from our temporary storage space. This has been a challenge to plan appropriately, but there are both positive and negative aspects to it. For example, it gives us a chance to become more organized and it shows us how lucky we are to have a great facility. None the less, we will achieve our goals.
    This whole process is to allow for changes to the room that will allow us to open up our space so that we aren’t in separate rooms. It also helps keep us safe and connected. This renovation will benefit us in the long run for future competitions. So through this slight bump in the road we will reach greater heights than we have ever even imagined all  because through this we will adapt as a team and that well bring us closer together, so once our more open and capability facility is complete we will be ready and excited as team to overcome new and exciting challenges this build season!

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Note from lead mentor Andrew Hartnett:

Much of our team graduated in 2018. Due to this we recruited earlier (specifically to  take rookies to TRI), and we have seen a huge improvement in being able to engage and prepare rookies this year - we have nearly 30 rookies! Some of these rookies have formed a new "marketing" team and have begun outlining blog posts. While they're new to FIRST, I think you'll see how quickly they've become engaged on the team and they're doing a great job! Now on to their first blog post that they asked me to post...
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      From July 16-26, Pearadox 5414 members volunteered to help children learn about robotics in PEAR Camp. PEAR Camp is a STEM based academic camp run by Pearland ISD that enables kids to have fun while exploring different STEM pathways. This past year, Pearland ISD asked us to help run the robotics portion of the camp!
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      When first introduced to robotics, the campers seemed very excited to learn. Each day, campers learned about the different components of autonomous robots. They learned about bases, wheels, gears, manipulators, sensors, and programming. It was a great experience being able to help the kids. For instance, one of the volunteers helped a girl construct a manipulator during camp. This was a great experience for the girl to learn how to build robots and for the volunteers to improve their teaching skills. Some kids were able to grasp the information that was given to them and worked well. Others needed a little more guidance in which the volunteers were able to successfully assist them. Overall, it was a good experience working and teaching the children. Check out this recap video here: https://youtu.be/tVxuMWoabQs 

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Pearadox Robotics Team 5414 is a robotics team that competes annually in FRC competitions. Besides competing in robotics, our student members also mentor junior robotics clubs and teams, earn internships and scholarships, and host government representatives and business organizations that tour our facilities. We partner with Pearland Independent School District.
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            At the Lone Star South Regional this weekend, FIRST Robotics Team 5414, Pearadox, won the Chairman’s Award- the highest honor any FIRST team can receive- recognizing the team’s outstanding success in growing science, technology, engineering, and math awareness in their community and “best representing a model for other teams to emulate.” The team was applauded for their work expanding robotics programs in Pearland ISD, working with organizations such as the Houston Rockets to bring engineering to economically disadvantaged students, and connecting girls to female engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The most prestigious award in FIRST recognizes Pearadox’s work over the past four years to, in the words of the judges, “grow the leaders of tomorrow.” This award automatically qualifies teams for the World Championship, making Pearadox-a team representing all Pearland ISD high schools- double qualified for this elite event\. Four-year senior, Daniel Farner from Dawson High School, was honored to receive such a coveted award that “represents years of hard work and is the highlight of [his] robotics experience”
            Pearadox also experienced great success on the field, coming out of the qualification rounds ranked seventh. Throughout the competition they ranked third and fourth in points scored during the human controlled portion of the game and the autonomous portion, respectively. Other teams took note and they were the fourth team picked in the competitive alliance selection process. After advancing to the semi-finals, Pearadox is excited to compete against the best teams in the world at the upcoming World Championship.
            This weekend’s event, where Pearadox came home with the highest honor out of thirty teams, is the end of a successful season for this young team. This season, Pearadox has been recognized as a Regional Finalist, earned the Entrepreneurship and Gracious Professionalism awards, and had their own Anyssa Castorina, a Pearland High School junior, be recognized as a Dean’s List Finalist. This marks the first season that Pearadox will be represented off the field with a Chairman’s submission and a Dean’s List nominee as well as on the field with a world-class robot. The team will wrap up their award-winning season at the World Championships in Houston, Texas at the George R. Brown Convention Center from April 18-21, 2018. For more information about this free event, visit www.firstchampionship.org/houston-home
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T​hey may have been far from home, but that did not stop FIRST Robotics Team 5414 Pearadox from dominating at the Colorado Regional in Denver, CO.

Out of 52 teams, Pearadox impressed judges and the competition in both technical and non-technical aspects. They brought home the Entrepreneurship Award, recognizing excellence in developing a business model and a sustainable plan for team growth.

On the playing field, Pearadox was picked for the first-seed alliance, rounding out an impressive line-up excelling at such tasks such as scoring points autonomously and working with alliance members to have two robots lifted at least twelve inches off the ground.

Pearadox swept the Quarterfinals and Semifinals, earning a finalist spot and a coveted ticket to the World Championship. This makes the third year in a row that Pearland ISD will be represented at the FIRST World Championship.
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By combining a strong robot with excellence in communication, entrepreneurship, and both technical and non-technical skills, Pearadox showed that they are a world-class team, both on and off the field.

​The public is invited to watch Pearadox for free at their upcoming competitions:​  
FIRST World Championship
April 18-21
George R. Brown Convention Center

today we had pre inspection and our open house. A couple of quick notes from Andrew:

- we had more teams show up than anticipated. 6 teams and us. Thanks to everyone that came!

- dont assume teams will know what to bring for pre inspection. Flyers next year should say to bring the lock out form, and bring a laptop and joysticks if they want a full pre-inspection

- we're fortunate to have both Kevin and Lyndon around. I know inspections take awhile, but I dont feel like I planned enough time between starting the inspection process and opening the doors to the community and sponsors. Kevin and Lyndon probably spent 3 hrs going through the inspections. Fortunately, disco and awty had practice bots so they didnt care. Maybe next year have sign up slots?

-I think making it an event maybe made teams more likely to get pre-inspected. I think its beneficial to be pre-inspected. I know it slightly adjusted our game plan to hopefully get us out on the field sooner.

-Having teams all come to one place to get pre inspected hopefully made lives easier for our local lead inspectors.

-I really liked having extra teams there as we opened the doors to the community, but it may have been too busy. We may break this up into two separate events next year.

Unfortunately I got busy and didn't share our students' blog posts, so we get a double post today.
WEEK 4
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Week four has passed, and Pearadox is hunkering down for the start of crunch time and the end of build season. Our team has been very occupied with assembling parts of the robot together to prepare to send off to be water jetted or welded, and non-technical parts of the team are preparing for the sound of competition season coming around the corner. On Tuesday, we were quite busy, with members from the team visiting the Microsoft store in Baybrook Mall to present to members and the public about our team and to secure a potential partnership for the coming years. While that was occurring, memebers at the facility where building parts to the robot and programming, while also having to discuss with multiple tour groups containing 8th graders stopping by our room about STEM, and the advantages of Pearadox. It was quite busy, and a great experience for team members to rack up on public speaking and public outreach. Base has milled and put together the competition frame of the robot, which has been sent off to be welded by our sponsors. Programming has been occupied fixing the PCM of one of our practice bots, doing PID tuning, and as well exploring future programming languages to use later in the future. The collector team has been occupied with conceptualizing a smaller static intake for use, while the manipulator team has been assembling a claw mechanism, and has mounted/assembled the parts that were sent to waterjet earlier in the week. Milling cuts are being made on the arm. Chairmans has finished main editing of the essay and short answers, and is committing final revisions and outside readings to ensure everything is good before submitting. The business team has finished the rough SARs for the submission and diagrams; revising is occurring. Imagery is also setting into high gear, with shirt designs, buttons, and an ambitious pit design being made for this year. We can’t wait to reveal that when it is competition time! Team Pearadox is now entering the final weeks of build season, and with that, we expect to be able to have a robot prepared for competition by bag day. Until next time!

P.S. If you haven’t already, check out our great new video here. Enjoy!

​WEEK 5
Its week five, and Pearadox has been occupied in constructing parts/assembling them on our robot to be prepared for bag day. We had a guest team, team 6645, at our facility during the weekend; it was a great time for both teams to see what can be done working together, and we assisted their robot construction. Base has been occupied making competition gearboxes and wheels, and is assembling the competition base parts bit by bit. Information leading up to final creations of each robot subsystem is being recorded, so that it may be placed in the teams tech binder for future robotics members to look back upon previous team designs. Programming has been occupied placing encoders on the practice robot, and designing rough autonomous modes that could be used in the future. They have been also occupied on refining PID loops, which will come in handy for moving the robot around in autonomous more precisely. The manipulator subsystem has been occupied in testing out the design they created, and are currently making a new claw for the current claw manipulator that will be used to grab cubes. The collector subsystem has been occupied in prototyping on a new, low-profile collector to rapidly collect cubes and allow the claw manipulator to work in unison with it. The electrical team has been occupied on making electrical boards so that everything can be wired neatly and be easier to maintain during competitions. The chairmans team has submitted the chairmans essay and short answers after many weeks of toiling, and is now moving on to preparing for presentations at competitions and doing public relations projects to help spread the Pearadox name. Business team has finished for the most part their short answers and statistics, and expect to finish on time for the submission deadline all revised materials. With the end of build season looming, Pearadox rushes to make the deadline on time. While we may have progressed farther than before, we know the road to success at competitions is only just beginning. Until next update!

Week 3:
Week three has passed, and Pearadox has been busy with attempting to reach the week 3 deadline set of a functioning version of the robot. Although we did not make the deadline, we have a functioning base and we are finalizing designs for the robot, along with assembly of our manipulator starting. We’ve been very busy and over the weekend, we hosted Tomball Robotics’ team and assisted them with their robot construction. We also gave them various tools and taught them how to operate them, so they can be used for future years and assist them greatly in their robot building. Base has been occupied finalizing final specifications for the base so material can be prepared/milled and later sent off to be welded and put together by our sponsors. They have also been cading the base together with bumpers to test specifications and finalize final image of base. Programming is continuing the rough program, along with tuning PID loops that would be used in this year’s robot. The collector team has been finalizing prototypes after extensive testing, and is finalizing mounting with the base. The lifting team is busy with designs and is currently looking at an elevator mechanism to lift the cubes. Chairmans has been updating the essay and is nearly done with new material that needs to be added with the Chairmans essay. They have also been finalizing rough drafts for the short answers and are currently being revised. Business has been finishing its rough drafts for the business plan and short answers for this year, and is beginning revising/finalization of parts of the business plan. While we may have not reached our goal, Pearadox has been accelerating farther than before with the designs and progress of building the robot. Until next update!