Apr
13

Michael Jordan in Robot Form

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March 10th, DECC Arena, Duluth. FIRST robotics team 2169, KING TeC, brought home gold from the Lake Superior Regional. In a game based off of basketball, KING TeC’s robot was so efficient at scoring that it was compared to Michael Jordan. After the second week of competition it was ranked second in the world for offensive power.

Starting the regional off strong and winning 8 out of 9 qualification rounds, KING TeC was the most powerful offensive robot on the field.  As elimination round alliances were created, KING TeC was chosen first out of 63 competing teams to partner with the top seeded team in the final rounds.  This power house alliance went on, undefeated, and won first place, becoming the Lake Superior Regional Champions.

Not only was KING TeC the regional champions, they also won the most prestigious award at the competition, the Chairman’s Award. This award celebrates the team that best inspires engineering and technology in their community and is the best role model for other teams to emulate. This is the fourth year KING TeC has won the Chairman’s award and the team will now advance to the World Championship where they will compete both on the competition floor and for this honorable award.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports the spread of science and technology globally by sponsoring and hosting yearly robotics competitions worldwide.

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Apr
13

High Scores for Prior Lake

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4/24/2012 – US Cellular Arena Milwaukee – FIRST Robotics Team 2169, KING TeC traveled Milwaukee where the “Michael Jordan of Robots” scored more points than any of the other teams competing at regionals that weekend.

In the Basketball based game Rebound Rumble, KING TeC was a shooting machine, scoring over three hundred points in 11 two minute matches. A member of Wave Robotics, one of the teams that won first place, described KING TeC’s scoring ability as “frightening.”

KING TeC and alliance partners 168, The Children of the Corn and 2481, Roboteers won second place at the competition. The first of two finals matches had “one of the greatest combined elimination round performances at any event so far” Commented the announcer at Milwaukee’s Cellular Arena. The match scores were 98-77 giving a combined score of 175.

Along with winning second place in the overall competition KING TeC won the Entrepreneurship Award which recognizes the team that has developed the best comprehensive business plan while displaying entrepreneurial enthusiasm and the vital business skills necessary to ensure a self-sustaining program. “We finally broke through with this award and given the level of competition I am very pleased with the team’s efforts,” stated team leader Joe Passofaro.

Team 2169’s next competition will be the World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri where they will face off against over 350 of the best robotics teams from 54 countries. “We are going into this competition as a strong contender with one of the highest offensive power rankings in the world right now” continued Mr. Passofaro. “Right out of the gate teams will be gunning for us but that’s what will make it exciting.”

In addition to competing on the field, KING TeC will be competing for the Championship Chairman’s Award which “honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate.” It remains the highest honor FIRST bestows upon a team. Only regional event Chairman’s winners can vie for the coveted prize and the winning team is invited to the White House. “It is an honor just to be able to be competing for this award. While we don’t expect to win, we know we will give it a grand effort” Mr. Passofaro commented. This will be the fourth time in four years that KING TeC has won a Regional Chairman’s Award and competed at the World Championships. For a team coming from a small Minnesota town, they continue to compete on a very large stage.

 

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports the spread of science and technology globally by sponsoring and hosting yearly robotics competitions worldwide.

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Feb
25

Tech Victory

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Prior Lake High School – For the third year, a Prior Lake FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team was on the first place alliance at the Minnesota Snow Drift FTC Championship robotics tournaments.

The alliance consisted of team 2887, Bucket Brigade from Edina; Team 4509, The Men from Prior Lake MN; and Team 4001, Exitium, from Waconia. Bucket Brigade being the alliance captain will proceed to the world championships in St. Louis later this year.

Not to be left behind, the two other Prior Lake High School teams, 3387, I.C.E (Intelligent Chicks in Engineering), won the motivate award, which celebrates team spirit, and was nominated for two other awards while 3385, Mashin’ Taters, were finalists for the Inspire award, the highest honor at the competition. In addition, both teams advanced to the final rounds of the competition.

Team 4509, The Men, are the newest addition to the high school’s robotics teams; the team’s debut was at last year’s competition where they were picked by the third seed alliance as partners for the final matches.
For both of its years, 4509 has run without a dedicated adult mentor. The team, consisting of sophomores and freshman, was mentored by two Senior, KING TeC Captains, Sophie Sampson and Julie Ganser, who guided the team through the design and build process. The team developed its own leadership for the competition.

Now that the Prior Lake’s FIRST Tech Challenge has been completed, the stage turns to the varsity robotics team, KING TeC for their first 2012 competition in Duluth from March 10th – 12th.

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Jan
25

Engineering Excellence

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FIRST Robotics team 2169, KING TeC designed and built a robot that competed in multiple competitions winning several awards, in the 2011 game Logo-Motion.

In Logo-Motion, two alliances of three robots each competed to score inner tubes on pegs at various
heights: the higher the peg, the more points. In a fifteen second autonomous period, robots placed uber
tubes to double the points from any other tube on that peg. During the last ten seconds, robots could
deploy a minibot in a race to climb a ten foot pole for bonus points.

Everyone contributed to the design utilizing a white board process. After analyzing several options team
2169 decided to build a double jointed arm with a pneumatic pinching claw. The arm and claw extended to a maximum height of eleven feet, easily reaching the highest peg. The claw boasted 270 degrees of rotation so that it could pick up and place tubes at any position. The team used pneumatics to deploy their minibot and were one of the fasted in the country. To help the driver align, a camera on the robot sent a video signal to the drive computer, and an alignment mechanism angled the robot inward to decrease the margin of error. The minibot itself went through 13 iterations, finally ending with a speed of 1.3 seconds to the top of the ten foot pole

For driving, KING TeC decided that a six wheel drive system with drop center wheels would be best. The team also used a two speed shifting transmission for the first time. The shifters were geared at 18ft/ s and 4ft/s. With this set-up, KING TeC had quick maneuverability while being able to push other robots across the 54 foot field.

In the Duluth regional competition KING TeC won them the Excellence in Design award for their
innovative robot design, and were finalists in the tournament competition. The team also won FIRST’s
highest honor, the Chairman’s award, winning the team a ticket to the world competition. At the
Minneapolis regional, KING TeC took home the Engineering Excellence award and again were finalists
for the competition. The cohesive and effective design continued to pay-off at the World Championships
in St. Louis, where KING TeC won the Imagery Award which celebrates attractiveness in engineering
design and outstanding visual aesthetic integration.

The team continued with their building efforts for the 2012 game, Rebound Rumble, and is only a few
weeks away from shipping their robot to its first competition.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports
the spread of science and technology globally by sponsoring and hosting yearly robotics competitions
worldwide.

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Jan
07

“Sport of the Mind” Returns

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The 2012 FIRST Robotics competition season has begun with the announcement of the new
game for 2012: Rebound Rumble

January 7th, 2012 – “Greetings techno overlords and welcome to the 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition
Kick-Off,” – proclaimed Stephen Colbert.

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) began with celebrities, presidents, and CEOs presenting the next
technology challenge, Rebound Rumble, to an estimated crowd of 60,000 people worldwide.

Based loosely on basketball, the goal of Rebound Rumble is to have robots fire foam balls into 4
regulation basketball hoops at various heights while navigating a field with 6 robots, steel girders and
balancing ramps as obstacles. Finally teams try to balance their robots on the teeter-totter like bridges
at the end of the two and a half minute match for bonus points.

FRC robotics high school teams only have six weeks to build robots that will perform what takes
professional athletes years of dedication to accomplish. Accuracy of shooting is paramount along with
agility, maneuverability and team work. Robots compete 3 on 3 in the fast paced matches.

This year, there are 154 active Minnesota FRC teams preparing to test their hoops skills against each
other. As the fastest growing FRC state in the country Minnesota hopes to figure prominently among top
FRC states.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports
the spread of science and technology globally. The organization is sponsoring three competitions in
Minnesota: The Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, the 10,000 Lakes Regional and the North Star Regional
both at the University of Minnesota.

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Dec
17

Technology with Flair

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Prior Lake High School – December 17, 2011 – The largest in-house middle-school Vex robotics competition in Minnesota took place in the high school’s gymnasium. The gym was filled with over two hundred Prior Lake Robotics members and parents.

For the last five years, members of KING TeC have created the game and hosted the VEX tournament. This year, the game was named Solar Flair and involved three scoring components: a comet, a moon ball, and the sun ball(a football, a rubbery basketball, and a 20” round exercise ball respectively). The goal was to move these game elements to each side of the field for points or into an off-field crate for even more points. Whoever was in possession of the large sun ball at the end gained a massive amount of points!

From its humble beginning with only six teams, the program has grown to sixteen teams and sixty-seven members from Hidden Oaks and Twin Oaks.   With only nine weeks, and assistance from KING TeC members, these teams each devised different ways to complete the challenge. From pushing and carrying balls to launching them via a trebuchet, the kids found unique design strategies to effectively play the game and in the process learn mechanical engineering, programming, strategy development problem solving and more. “The kids don’t even recognize all they are learning” commented Joe Passofaro, director of the program. “When you put the kids in a fun competitive environment, it doesn’t matter how tough the challenge is, the kids will rise to the occasion.”

Robots, competition, and fun went hand in hand during the tournament. The stands were filled with cheering parents and fellow students. Even before the stressful final match, a new member to the program exclaimed “My team made it to finals in my first year; I don’t care whether we win or lose. This is awesome.”

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Dec
15

BOMBS AND ROBOTS

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December 15th, Prior Lake High School Auditorium – Prior Lake High School FIRST Robotics Team 2169, KING TeC and the Bloomington Bomb Squad presented to over 200 kids about robotics technology,

The topic of the presentations was practical robotics, as well as its applications in the real world.  The bomb squad comprised of six members, three of which were at the event, brought two robots that they use to destroy, disarm, or contain bombs along with their custom bomb suites the team members where when a robot just doesn’t work.  The squad drove their robots around and demonstrated their abilities which included a water cannon, several cameras and a “jaws of life” like claw mechanism for tearing into metal vessels.

Along with the demonstration a bomb squad member explained the possibilities with technology saying “Take a look at these big robots; there are all kinds of careers around it”.  Robotics team mentor, Joe Passafaro agreed telling the audience that “in playing with technology, everyone can go pro”.

KING TeC brought two competition robots to contrast the big bomb squad machines. They demonstrated the robots’ functions, such as an arm that can grab tubes eleven feet in the air and a shooting mechanism on one of their smaller robots.  While the robots were very different in construction, there were many similarities. “I’m very impressed at what the kids have built, and especially building the big robot in just six weeks” commented the lead Bomb Squad robot operator. The bomb squad and KING TeC rounded off the presentation by allowing the crowd to come on stage and see the robots up close.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports the spread of science and technology globally by sponsoring and hosting yearly robotics competitions worldwide.

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Nov
24

Minnesota Tech Competitions Underway

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Prior Lake High School – November 24th 2011 – FIRST Robotics Teams from Eagan, Edina and Prior Lake hosted the Minne Mini-Regional involving twenty-five teams from across the state and one team from North Dakota in what is called the “competition of the mind.”

The game, played at the Minne Mini- Regional, is based off of the 2011 FIRST Robotics season: Logomotion.  Logomotion requires robotics teams with students ages 14-18 to engineer and build a robot that can score tubes on a ten foot rack and deploy a small robot up a ten foot pole.

FIRST robotics teams 2052, 2847, and 3883 from New Brighton MN, Fairmont MN, and Cottage Grove MN, respectively, scored big and took home first place medals in the competition. Prior Lake team KING TeC took home Gracious Professional award and advanced to the semi-finals where they were eliminated when one of their alliance partners committed a red card penalty disqualifying the alliance.

This regional allowed new team members from teams across Minnesota to prepare for the upcoming FIRST Robotics Kick-off on January 7th when the new 2012 game will be released to FIRST robotics teams.

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Sep
09

Local Robotics Team Meets with Boston Scientific Founder

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Minneapolis Convention Center, Minnesota – September 9, 2011 – Well-known medical company Boston Scientific invited FIRST FRC Robotics Team 2169, KING TeC teens to their annual convention with over 4,000 Boston Scientific employees and VIPs.

KING TeC members spoke to hundreds of employees on industry and business including John Abele, co-founder of Boston Scientific and supporter of FIRST Robotics programs. John Abele gave key advice such as “Perfect is the enemy of Good” to “Work outside of your comfort zone” for innovation to the small crowd of listening teens.

The members of KING TeC demonstrated their robot which the team used to compete in robotics competitions this year. The robotics team had shown the robot at other events but not under the eyes of the Boston Scientific co-founder.

The robotics team left the convention with a greater knowledge of business and of the real job world. “This kind of interaction is invaluable to the kids in bringing them a greater awareness of how the business world works” says KING TeC mentor Joe Passofaro. And the kids couldn’t agree more, “We never get this kind of insight from the classroom” commented Tyler Thostenson, current head of KING TeC’s strategy department.

KING TeC is a FIRST Robotics team based in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Boston Scientific has sponsored KING TeC since the team’s creation six years ago and continues to support other FIRST Robotics teams.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that supports the spread of science and technology globally by sponsoring and hosting yearly robotics competitions worldwide.

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Sep
03

State Fair Competition Day

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The Great Minnesota Get Together was also a Great Robotics Get Together! Teams across the state came together for one more competition at the State Fair. KING TeC competed with 2220, Blue Twilight in a demonstration for fair-goers. Each team had to complete five tasks for points: Scoring tubes, parking in a corner, de-scoring tubes, stacking tubes, and scoring mini-bot. Teams had three chances to demonstrate their robots and to score as many points as possible. Every demonstration, KING TeC completed each task with style, using methods no other team had tried, such as de-scoring tubes by using an already de-scored tube. Between each demonstration members of KING TeC talked to fair-goers about FIRST robotics programs and the life benefits the programs offer. Kids also had a chance to drive KING TEC’s robot! Kids enjoyed driving and seeing the robot in action, they were excited knowing that they too could build a robot in the future. At the beginning of the day, the high score for the competition was 365. By the end, KING TeC set a new high score at 465 points! KING TeC ended the demonstration by telling the entire education building our team number. 2169!

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