STEMRobotics - User contributions [en]

User:Foster

2022-01-08T14:55:20Z

Foster:

STEMRobotics works with Downingtown Area Robotics and other places

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="40.008749" lon="-75.713933" zoom="16" selector="no">
40.008749,-75.713933, Downingtown Education Center
335 Manor Road
</googlemap>

Here is the Church Farm School

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="40.032250" lon="-75.59422" zoom="15" overview="yes" controls="small" type="map">
(C) 40.03200, -75.59392
The Church Farm School
1001 Lincon Highway
Exton PA 19341
</googlemap>

File:FosterRobotLabEast.JPG

2016-12-14T18:52:22Z

Foster: Foster's Robot Lab, East Wall

Foster's Robot Lab, East Wall

FosterLab

2016-12-14T18:51:29Z

Foster: New page: This is where I build Robots (and electronic projects, Ham Radio, etc.) This is the East Wall. It's active storage, things I need on a daily basis are here. Across the top are VEXIQ an...

This is where I build Robots (and electronic projects, Ham Radio, etc.)

This is the East Wall. It's active storage, things I need on a daily basis are here. Across the top are VEXIQ and Hexbug samples.

Row two is more of the EDR stuff (note the octagon base on the left)

The next rows down are all parts, I try to keep things in boxes so I can find them quickly. While it looks pretty messy, all of the boxes have labels on them so I can find them pretty quickly. Small trays come to the workbench, get used and then cleanup goes pretty fast.

South wall is my build table, it's wood so I don't have a static problem when I do electronics. The two displays are for Raspberry Pi's or other projects. One is a TV so I can watch OTA TV or stream entertainment from the media server.

West wall has the printer, the last few paper books that I own. It's also home to the Plano boxes that I use for demos and building robots with teams. The Plano's are nice, I have a few of every part in them so I'm not searching for parts. You may remember across the room is thin trays of parts, that lets me build here in the lab. But I can grab the 2 VEX EDR Plano's and be good to go, or the three IQ boxes and I'm on my way.

North wall is a huge closet, mostly off line storage. Behind it is another huge closet that I can access from the other side

Starting VEXIQ Teams

2016-04-21T14:55:44Z

Foster: New page: Lots of families are teaching their roboteers at home. This page will give you some tips and ideas on how to set up your own team. This page covers the VEXIQ (plastic parts) competition...

Lots of families are teaching their roboteers at home. This page will give you some tips and ideas on how to set up your own team. This page covers the VEXIQ (plastic parts) competition. There is a similar page for [[Starting Teams]] for VEX EDR metal.

== Team size ==

A VEXIQ team has at least two people on it, but three is the optimum size. The robots are small, so four or more makes it hard to work on the robot. Each team needs two drivers, a third roboteer is good to have as a backup. Having a team member from another family also gives you access to a second adult that can be backup transportation.

Siblings are a great choice for your team. Having a younger sibling lets them work with you, but having a friend from another family helps take some of the sting of the cost.

== Adult acceptance ==

Transportation logistics and build / practice locations are the next big item, and getting parents to be agreeable and maybe enthusiastic about it. This section describes some of the things to think about.

Competitive teams spend at least 4 hours a week building and driving robots during the season (September through April). That is a pretty big time commitment.

You will need a place to build and practice. Picking up after a build session and putting everything away is pretty easy. You are going to need storage for an 18 x 18 x 18 robot, parts, controllers, battery packs, game practice elements, etc. You can easily fill a 3' wide 4' tall book case (I like the bakers racks. This keeps roboteers from just tossing small parts on the shelves, they fall through. They soon learn to put things back in the storage box)

Practice space is a problem. The full sized field is 12 feet square which is quite a bit of space. In most years you can get away with setting up 1/4 to 1/2 of the field. Setting up and tearing down the field will take extra time out of your build sessions.

You will need to get transportation to and from at least 2 events and your State Championship. These are day long events that an adult is going to need to stay for. For small states like Delaware, events and States are no more than an hour away, so it's not a big deal. A bigger state could be a multi hour drive each way.

It's important that the adults involved understand the commitment they are about to make.

== Cost of VEX Competitive Robots ==

The cost of VEX Competitive Robots is about the same as the full cost of competitive tennis, golf, swimming, etc. so don't panic.

A robot will cost about $1,200 in parts. Depending on the complexity of the game and your design you can easily spend more on parts. The programming tools are another $50 (More details below)

Registration is $75

Each event will cost about $75 (not including transportation and food)

State championships cost about $100 to $150

You are looking at an outlay of $1,600 to $1,800.

Many teams buy the official field perimeter ($800) floor tiles ($250) and a full set of game elements ($300) for a total of $1,500 (including shipping). This is something that can be shared across multiple team, check in your area to see if there are other teams that you can work with.

You can build a practice field for about $100 and when you register your team you will get some game elements, that is the lower cost way to go.

== Sponsors ==

The easy way to get money is to get your team to pay for everything. For most teams that's not an option, so the second option is to get some external sponsors. This is going to take about as much work as building a robot, so be prepared!

First off, make a business plan to map out costs. Mark out the activities that need to be done with a timeline so you can tell if you are making progress.

Pick a good team name, get a gmail account with that name. (ie STEMBots@Gmail.com) You will be giving this email out, you don't want to give out your personal email.

Create a marketing flyer. One page with:
* What VEX Robotics is and how it supports your team's STEM education plan
* What two events you will be going to (so they know where their logo/name may be seen)
* What the costs are (but say that it's about the same as other sports
At the bottom ask for sponsorship and put the email address so they can contact you.

Using the flyer as the start, create a 1 minute speech. You'll be handing someone the flyer and while they look at i, you will be talking to them. Important to not just read the flyer to them. But here is your chance to add facts and details about your team and robot, the hours you will be spending working on it, the cost for events, the cost for the robot, (motors and controllers are $30 and you need 10, what your school plans are and why robotics are important, etc.

Practice giving it. Get feedback about the flyer and pitch from some adults.

Decide on sponsor levels. For example at $100 they get their name on the back of the team shirts. For $250 they can get their name on the shirt and a logo on the robot.

Next, create a list of possible sponsors. Remember that only about 5% of businesses you talk to will give you any support, and lots of times it's only $10 or $20. (But $20 is a new motor, $10 is the controller). While it helps to go to robotics related companies to get sponsors (like electronics, engineering, mechanical, electrical, machining, etc.) think outside the box. One of early my supporters ran a nail salon.

Lots of businesses have processes for giving money. If they have one follow it. A number of businesses will not give you money, but may give you something they sell. My first teams kept parts in tackle boxes donated by the local sporting goods store. Home Depot has given small tool boxes.

Remember, if you don't ask, the answer is always no. But if they say no, thank them. But keep them on your list for next year when you come back and say "We won at the State Level, would you like to sponsor us now?"

Go get sponsors!!

Template:HotTopic

2016-04-21T14:45:33Z

Foster: /* Start Your Team! */

== Current Events ==
Check out the full schedule of [[STEMRobotics:Current_events | our current events.]]

== Mentor/Coach Training: Get a Chance to Build a Robot Yourself! ==

We are working to arrange a place to meet. When we have that, we will begin scheduling these "Coach-the-Coach" sessions again.

Maybe you can help? Have a place that we could meet to build some robots? Any room will do.

== Learn to Program Your Robot! ==

[[image:robotc_logo.png|right|50px]]
When we have a place to meet again, we will start programming our robots with RobotC.

When we program, we will be programming with ROBOTC and a Vex IQ controller and various motors, servos, and sensors. If you don't have a robot, maybe you can get the Robotics Academy - Robot Virtual Worlds module, and program your robot that way! Either way, you need a laptop running some version of Windows and a licensed copy of RobotC. ([http://www.robotc.net/support/rvw/ RobotC Virtual Worlds Support])

We will be running through the RobotC environment and programming our robots.

We will also be looking at the sample programs and going through as many as we can over the course of several Wednesdays.

You really need to set up your laptop before you come to the class. Here are the prerequisites:[[Setting Up Your Laptop To Program RobotC]].

Here is the link to download the [http://www.robotc.net/download/vexrobotics RobotC for Cortex and IQ] to program the Vex. Please make sure that you get the latest version (Platforms: Cortex, IQ (Version 4.25 RC 1 - 09/01/2014)

Don't forget to load the Prolific Driver to use the USB-to-Serial adapter. This lets you plug in the orange programming cable to put code on the robot. There are specific versions for the Windows OS that you are running, make sure you have the right one. The drivers are found on the same page as the demo copy of RobotC.

== Start Your Team! ==

See this set of pages on [[Starting Teams]] but really consider looking at [[Starting Clubs]]. If you are interested in VEXIQ see [[Starting VEXIQ Teams]].

There is still grant money available for new teams! Contact Info at stemrobotics dot org for more details.

Starting Teams

2016-04-21T14:37:49Z

Foster: /* Starting your own team */

Lots of families are teaching their roboteers at home. This page will give you some tips and ideas on how to set up your own team. This page covers the VEX EDR (metal) competition. (Look for a similar page for VEXIQ coming soon)

== Team size ==

A VEX team has at least two people on it, but three to four is the optimum size. Four gives everyone access to the robot to build without lots of crowding. Driving / Coaching duties can rotate around between the members. Having a team member from another family also gives you access to a second adult that can be backup transportation.

Siblings are a great choice for your team. Having a younger sibling lets them work with you and it helps take some of the sting of the cost of doing VEX robotics.

== Adult acceptance ==

Transportation logistics and build / practice locations are the next big item, and getting parents to be agreeable and maybe enthusiastic about it. This section describes some of the things to think about.

Competitive teams spend at least 4 hours a week building and driving robots during the season (September through April). That is a pretty big time commitment.

You will need a place to build and practice. Picking up after a build session and putting everything away is pretty easy. You are going to need storage for an 18 x 18 x 18 robot, parts, controllers, battery packs, game practice elements, etc. You can easily fill a 3' wide 4' tall book case (I like the bakers racks. This keeps roboteers from just tossing small parts on the shelves, they fall through. They soon learn to put things back in the storage box)

Practice space is a problem. The full sized field is 12 feet square which is quite a bit of space. In most years you can get away with setting up 1/4 to 1/2 of the field. Setting up and tearing down the field will take extra time out of your build sessions.

You will need to get transportation to and from at least 2 events and your State Championship. These are day long events that an adult is going to need to stay for. For small states like Delaware, events and States are no more than an hour away, so it's not a big deal. A bigger state could be a multi hour drive each way.

It's important that the adults involved understand the commitment they are about to make.

== Cost of VEX Competitive Robots ==

The cost of VEX Competitive Robots is about the same as the full cost of competitive tennis, golf, swimming, etc. so don't panic.

A robot will cost about $1,200 in parts. Depending on the complexity of the game and your design you can easily spend more on parts. The programming tools are another $50 (More details below)

Registration is $75

Each event will cost about $75 (not including transportation and food)

State championships cost about $100 to $150

You are looking at an outlay of $1,600 to $1,800.

Many teams buy the official field perimeter ($800) floor tiles ($250) and a full set of game elements ($300) for a total of $1,500 (including shipping). This is something that can be shared across multiple team, check in your area to see if there are other teams that you can work with.

You can build a practice field for about $100 and when you register your team you will get some game elements, that is the lower cost way to go.

== Sponsors ==

The easy way to get money is to get your team to pay for everything. For most teams that's not an option, so the second option is to get some external sponsors. This is going to take about as much work as building a robot, so be prepared!

First off, make a business plan to map out costs. Mark out the activities that need to be done with a timeline so you can tell if you are making progress.

Pick a good team name, get a gmail account with that name. (ie STEMBots@Gmail.com) You will be giving this email out, you don't want to give out your personal email.

Create a marketing flyer. One page with:
* What VEX Robotics is and how it supports your team's STEM education plan
* What two events you will be going to (so they know where their logo/name may be seen)
* What the costs are (but say that it's about the same as other sports
At the bottom ask for sponsorship and put the email address so they can contact you.

Using the flyer as the start, create a 1 minute speech. You'll be handing someone the flyer and while they look at i, you will be talking to them. Important to not just read the flyer to them. But here is your chance to add facts and details about your team and robot, the hours you will be spending working on it, the cost for events, the cost for the robot, (motors and controllers are $30 and you need 10, what your school plans are and why robotics are important, etc.

Practice giving it. Get feedback about the flyer and pitch from some adults.

Decide on sponsor levels. For example at $100 they get their name on the back of the team shirts. For $250 they can get their name on the shirt and a logo on the robot.

Next, create a list of possible sponsors. Remember that only about 5% of businesses you talk to will give you any support, and lots of times it's only $10 or $20. (But $20 is a new motor, $10 is the controller). While it helps to go to robotics related companies to get sponsors (like electronics, engineering, mechanical, electrical, machining, etc.) think outside the box. One of early my supporters ran a nail salon.

Lots of businesses have processes for giving money. If they have one follow it. A number of businesses will not give you money, but may give you something they sell. My first teams kept parts in tackle boxes donated by the local sporting goods store. Home Depot has given small tool boxes.

Remember, if you don't ask, the answer is always no. But if they say no, thank them. But keep them on your list for next year when you come back and say "We won at the State Level, would you like to sponsor us now?"

Go get sponsors!!

Template:HotTopic

2016-04-21T14:34:22Z

Foster: /* Start Your Team! */

== Current Events ==
Check out the full schedule of [[STEMRobotics:Current_events | our current events.]]

== Mentor/Coach Training: Get a Chance to Build a Robot Yourself! ==

We are working to arrange a place to meet. When we have that, we will begin scheduling these "Coach-the-Coach" sessions again.

Maybe you can help? Have a place that we could meet to build some robots? Any room will do.

== Learn to Program Your Robot! ==

[[image:robotc_logo.png|right|50px]]
When we have a place to meet again, we will start programming our robots with RobotC.

When we program, we will be programming with ROBOTC and a Vex IQ controller and various motors, servos, and sensors. If you don't have a robot, maybe you can get the Robotics Academy - Robot Virtual Worlds module, and program your robot that way! Either way, you need a laptop running some version of Windows and a licensed copy of RobotC. ([http://www.robotc.net/support/rvw/ RobotC Virtual Worlds Support])

We will be running through the RobotC environment and programming our robots.

We will also be looking at the sample programs and going through as many as we can over the course of several Wednesdays.

You really need to set up your laptop before you come to the class. Here are the prerequisites:[[Setting Up Your Laptop To Program RobotC]].

Here is the link to download the [http://www.robotc.net/download/vexrobotics RobotC for Cortex and IQ] to program the Vex. Please make sure that you get the latest version (Platforms: Cortex, IQ (Version 4.25 RC 1 - 09/01/2014)

Don't forget to load the Prolific Driver to use the USB-to-Serial adapter. This lets you plug in the orange programming cable to put code on the robot. There are specific versions for the Windows OS that you are running, make sure you have the right one. The drivers are found on the same page as the demo copy of RobotC.

== Start Your Team! ==

See this set of pages on [[Starting Teams]] but really consider looking at [[Starting Clubs]].

There is still grant money available for new teams! Contact Info at stemrobotics dot org for more details.

Starting Clubs

2016-04-21T14:33:11Z

Foster: New page: = Starting VEX Robotics Clubs = While starting a new VEX team is fun, it's actually better to start a club. Setting up clubs is far more effectual for STEM learning. A few kids buildin...

= Starting VEX Robotics Clubs =

While starting a new VEX team is fun, it's actually better to start a club. Setting up clubs is far more effectual for STEM learning. A few kids building awesome robots is good but does not decrease the general STEM gap any more. A few kids setting up shop, isn't a huge help, they are already geared towards a STEM career.

Larger scale involvement and clubs are needed to make any significant dent in the STEM gap. Lots of teachers are not technically savvy enough to do so and there is a limit to the coverage per teacher. School funding as it is will not turn the tide either. More competitive teams tend to seem to come from home schooled kids or clubs or private schools where money is less of an issue for proper focus.

There are a number of things that can be spread across a number of teams, reducing the direct cost to a team. For example, a full official field set with game elements will cost $1,500. That's a lot for a single team to cover. But split 5 ways, it's only $300 per team.

Starting Teams

2016-04-21T13:04:40Z

Foster: New page: = Starting your own team = Lots of families are teaching their roboteers at home. This page will give you some tips and ideas on how to set up your own team. This page covers the VEX E...

2010-09-13T12:40:52Z

Foster:

'''Welcome to STEMRobotics!'''

We are a non-profit group that is bringing '''S'''cience '''T'''echnology '''E'''ngineering and '''M'''athematics ('''STEM''') to students by using competition robotics.

Driving the robots in Competitions is a small part of what we do. From the beginning we teach each roboteer valuable life skills like communications, planning, getting a group consensus, cooperation and negotiations. We also bring to life STEM skills in areas of electronics, mechanics, pneumatics, programming by planning, designing, building (and sometimes rebuilding), testing and driving our robots.

{{HotTopic}}
== Steve's Email Blast ==
About twice a month Steve sends out [[Steves Email Blast]] to the mailing list. To get on it, contact him at Steve.Rhoads at STEMRobotics dot org.
== PSU Scrimmage ==

We had a 21 robots at the [[Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage]], played 23 matches, saw some amazing play and ate 50 pizzas, 6 dozen cookies and 10 dozen doughnuts.

We also had an amazing team of Combat Coders help everyone at the event with their RobotC programming: Mike Long, Taylor Gore, Sadat Shaik, and Shashank Bhargava. These young men tackled every robot brought their way.

Here is a link to pictures taken at the event:

PennState.2009.12.05
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=steve.rhoads&target=ALBUM&id=5412216148305104689&authkey=Gv1sRgCPbCqZnkt4GOwAE&invite=CLjaqcsB&feat=email

== Compete in Vex Clean Sweep ==

Here is the [[Vex Clean Sweep|Game Animation]].

== Throw-down at Christopher Dock High School ==

[[image:Cd 091106 IntoJaws.JPG|600px|left]]On our left, Christopher Dock's Peter Matus attempts to show the robot who is boss.

We had another throw-down at Christopher Dock on Nov 6th. Chief Roboteer, Steve Rhoads brought a playing field, 4 robots, and plenty of excitement to the Christopher Dock robotics team. Team members had a chance to learn the programming environment (RobotC) and try out some "claw" robots which Steve had designed.

This is in preparation for our first competition of the year at Penn State Abington on December 5th. The robotics team meets during Activities periods on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is led by Mrs. Gail Anderson.
 

== Throw-down at Regency Apartments! ==
[[Image:Regency_Apartments_Throwdown_PreStart.jpg|600px|right]]
On Thursday, Steve met up with our new mentors at Regency: Crystal, Blake and Amy for the first of the 2009-2010 throw-downs.

They turned on the music, assembled the field, set up the robots and began competing in fast-paced, heart-pumping 2 minute rounds.

There were 10 kids and a number of parents cheering the action on. Each kid was Driver, then Operator, then Field Reset. They also rotated through all of the robots that were on the field.

There were two converted ProtoBots (the intake wheel had been converted to a paddle), and two Explorer Claw robots, one of each type for each alliance. They played a variation of the Elevation game from last year

All-in-all, it was a great time.

'''Next throw-down is October 22 at the [[Church Farm School]] from 7:00-9:00PM. See you there!'''

== Combat Coding ==
Wednesday (Nov 18, 2009), we met again.

This time, Foster had the programming team working on mechanical construction with their respective teams, BUT Taylor Gore took a moment off building to demonstrate some solid Combat Coding! He programmed a holonomic drive for another team (?Team 84?). He made sure that he enabled the Y-Axis of both joysticks plus the buttons on the back of the transmitter all worked together to strafe, drive forward, rotate and back up.

Very impressive! Good job, Taylor!

Previous [[Combat Coding]] demonstrations!

== Low-Cost FIELD! ==

Note the field in the picture above! I built that field using the [http://www.vexrobotics.com/docs/vex-robotics-competition-field/low-cost-perimeter-rev-c.20090427.pdf Vex Robotics site instructions] and PVC.

There is NO REASON for every club/team not to have a field! It was easy to put together, and the cost was nominal (at most ~ $100. I think that my costs were closer to about $75.00) The result is very lightweight, yet sturdy, and transportable! Join us at one of our throw-downs and take a look.

== Workshops ==
Tuesday nights: 6:30-8:30pm. We will be working through the Yolande Petersen Guides below in Resources. (Downingtown Education Center, 355 Manor Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335) Our primary resource is ''VEX for the Technically Challenged''.

See [[Mentor Workshop]] for a week by week description on what is planned and [[Summer 2009 Mentor Workshop]] for what happened at each session.

== Events: Throw-downs, Workshops and Competitions! ==

The [[STEMRobotics:Current_events | Current Events list]]!! Don't miss the [[Summer of Fun 2009]]

Some of our past events have been:

;Radcorp Summer of Fun 2007: We held a number of robot build nights and some competitions.

;[[Summer of Fun 2008]]: More events and more competitions!

== STEM Sites ==
We are setting up [[STEM Sites]] has incubators for robotics teams. Click the link to learn more.

== Resources ==
[[Image:VexRoboticsCompetitionLogo.png]]

[[Media:Steps_to_starting_a_VEX_robotics_program.pdf]] -- CMU's guide to Starting a Vex Robotics Program.

[[Media:VEX Robots for Beginners.pdf]] -- a guide to building VEX robots

[[Media:VEX for the Technically Challenged.pdf]] -- a detailed guide on building VEX robots, we use this for the Mentor's class.

[[Media:Robot Recipes.pdf]] -- a collection of cool VEX robots that you can build

[[Media:Clueless Coach.pdf]] -- timeless tips and ideas on how to be a competition robotics coach

Carnegie-Mellon's Summer Programs for Educators: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/educators/professional_dev/index.htm

[[VEX Programming]] Information about the VEX Programming environments

== Mid-Atlantic VEX Partner ==
STEMRobotics is one of the groups that make up the VEX Partners in the Mid-Atlantic area. Teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virgina work together sharing ideas and resources. The [[Mid-Atlantic VEX Partners]] also coordinate events and workshops.

== Sponsors ==
'''STEMRobotics is sponsored by:'''

[[Image:Kaloke logo.gif]]
::''[http://www.kaloke.com Kaloke Technologies]'' is an inital sponsor of our events.

[[Image:radcorp_sm.png]]
::''[http://www.radcorp.com RADCorp]'' is another of our inital sponsors.

[http://www.techentourage.com Techentourage] is a new sponsor for 2009 and 2010.

If you would like to sponsor competition robotics and getting '''STEM''' education to middle and high school students please contact us!

Mid-Atlantic VEX Partners 2010

2010-08-14T18:43:42Z

Foster: /* Tournament Manager */

The Second Annual partners meeting took place on 14 August at the Strand Theater in Baltimore. Teams from Maryland. There were people from Virgina, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Brad came down from Connectut to run the meeting. Thanks to Miller for setting us up at the Strand.

== RECF and VEX ==
Robotics Education and Competition Foundation is the non-profit set up to manage events. They will be doing all of the Education programs for schools. Product comes from VEX they help set up the events.

== Partner Support ==
As we need help, contact RECF to tell them what you want / need etc. Since there is limited manpower try to be detailed in what you ask for and need.

== Middle School Divisons ==
Lots of places are having Middle School only events. Middle school is defined to be less than 8th grade and younger than 14 (Birthday is after Worlds 30 April)

== TSA Tie in to VEX ==
$9 per student to join, min 10 kids. What they do is award points for going to VEX meetings participating in a tournament, teaching a session, doing a bulletin board, etc. Rather than the engineering book they post to the wiki website. Pictures, drawings and code are posted.

== TIME Center and Community Colleges ==
The TIME Center in Western Maryland is starting to push the VEX robotics at the Community College level. For STEMRobotics, this is an interesting idea with the large number of Community Colleges in our area. See [[http://www.time-center.org/ TIME-Center.org]]. They are also doing research into how much Robotics makes a difference in learning.

== RobotEvents Software Upgrade ==
We are now able to change all the information about a team.

They have fixed the billing and payment process. There are new tracking reports to allow us to follow the money. All 2009-2010 accounts will be closed 8/21. Karthik is managment of the software.

== Tournament Manager ==
You can open up previews of windows to see what the display looks like.

There is a window that will show how far ahead/behind the match is.

They will work on the reconnect wireless issues.

== Fun days ==
A two day event where teams can come with parts and build a robot and compete during the second day.

== Events ==
There are a ton of new events this year. People should be checking RobotEvents.com for details.

Mid-Atlantic VEX Partners 2010

2010-08-14T16:25:45Z

Foster: New page: The Second Annual partners meeting took place on 14 August at the Strand Theater in Baltimore. Teams from Maryland. There were people from Virgina, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey....

RobotC Resources

2010-07-10T13:58:41Z

Foster: /* Program a VEX Spike */

We use RobotC to program the VEX robots.

This page has a number of RobotC resources you might find useful.

== RobotC Class ==
Albert Schueller, one of the professors from Whitman College, has written an excellent course called [http://carrot.whitman.edu/Robots/notes.pdf ''Programming with Robots''] based on RobotC.

It covers all the bases, variables, conditionals, loops and arrays, you name it. Each new concept is accompanied by example code and every chapter ends with a series of exercises that you can use to test if you have grasped the new concepts covered thus far. The examples use the NXT computer, but are transportable to the VEX.

== RobotC Tasks ==
You can run up to three different tasks at one time.
<source lang="c">
task taskA()
{
while(true)
{
// your code here
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}

task taskB()
{
while(true)
{
// your code here
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}

task main()
{
StartTask(taskA); // Start the first task
StartTask(taskB); // Start the second task
while (true)
{
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}
</source>

When this code runs, the three tasks (taskA, taskB and main) will all run their code. It's very important that you put the Wait1Ms(time) statement in. Once a task ''waits'' it releases the CPU to work on other tasks.

If you want to have more than 3 tasks you need to do a StopTask(task_name) to stop it from running and then do a StartTask(new_task_name) to start the new task.

== Setting Task Priority ==
The default task priority is '7'. You can assign priorities between 0 and 255 by setting the nSchedulePriority value.

<source lang="c">
task taskA()
{
nSchedulePriority = 15; //Raising the Priority
int pri_taskA = nSchedulePriority;
}

task taskB()
{
nSchedulePriority = 5; //Lowing the Priority
int pri_taskB = nSchedulePriority;
}

task main()
{
int pri_main = nSchedulePriority; //Defaults to Priority '7'

StartTask(taskA);
StartTask(taskB); //This task won't run because it has lower priority than "Main"
}
</source>

The variable '''nSchedulePriority''' is the CPU scheduler priority for the current task. ROBOTC shares CPU execution time among various tasks by giving each task a “time slice” where it will execute a group of instructions. Each task can be assigned a priority from 0 to 255. The scheduler gives execution time to the highest priority task that is waiting to run. A round robin scheduling scheme is used when there are multiple tasks ready to run all with the highest priority. Lower priority tasks will not execute until there are no tasks of higher priority that are ready to run.

Values higher than 15 are not recommended since there are system level tasks that run.

== Not using the competition template==
Key thing is to use ''bVexAutonomousMode = false;'' that allows the remote controls to work.

Below is a sample from one of our protobots

<source lang=c>
task main()
{
bVexAutonomousMode = false; //Activates Remote Control Mode
bMotorReflected[LeftFront] = true; //Port 2 Motor Direction Flipped
bMotorReflected[LeftRear] = true;
bMotorReflected[LeftArm] = true;
bMotorReflected[RightArm] = false;
while (1 == 1) {
motor[RightFront] = vexRT(Ch3);
motor[RightRear] = vexRT(Ch3);
motor[LeftFront] = vexRT(Ch2);
motor[LeftRear] = vexRT(Ch2);
motor[LeftArm] = vexRT(Ch5);
motor[RightArm] = vexRT(Ch5);
motor[Claw] = vexRT(Ch6);
}
}
</source>
== Program a VEX Spike ==
The [[VEX Spike]] page has how to program a VEX Spike. You need to make a special cable to attach the Spike to the VEX.

STEMRobotics:Current events

2010-06-15T13:34:21Z

Foster: /* Nearby Events, Coming Soon ‎ */

STEMRobotics sponsors and organizes events in South Eastern Pennsylvania (draw a 50 mile circle around Newtown Square PA). In additon, we attend and help out at events that are no more than a two hour drive. This is a list of events in our area.

== TechnoMages - Programming and Software Inspection Team ==
We have recently formed a ''NEW'' elite group, the TechnoMages. This group travels with Steve Rhoads, and volunteers to be the Software Inspection and Programming Assistance team at an event (scrimmage, tournament, workshop and seminar). We travel throughout the PA, NJ, DE, MD area. We may consider reaching up to NY and over to RI and MA.

Currently our super-powers are around RobotC and easyC. MPLab will have to find another set of Super Heroes to support it. Keep checking back to see when the next set of programming challengs will be held.

== June 2010 - Cub Scout Day Camp ==
As part of our ongoing presentations to both Girl and Boy Scouts we will be at Camp Jarvis doing a 1/2 day event. We will be talking about robots and having the scouts drive the robots to earn their robot drivers licences.

== Regional Robot Events ==

August 7th, 2010 --- the 4th annual FRC Battle O'Baltimore (NEW!)
Hosted by the Baltimore Area Alliance teams
Website and Registration info --- [[http://www.battleobaltimore.com]]

Sept TBD, VEX Round Up Middle School Qualifier - Chichester Middleschool, Boothwyn, PA

Sept 25 - BEST Kick-Off, Villanova University, Villanova, PA

Sept 26th - VEX Round Up Qualifier, Montclair Community Robotics

Oct 9th - VEX Round-Up Qualifier, DC Knights - Newtown Square, PA

Oct 16 - BEST Robot Day, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA

Oct 30- NW Maryland VEX Robotics Competition, Westminster, MD (capped at 32 teams)

Nov 6 - BEST Game Day, High School of the Future, Philadelphia, PA

Nov TBD - VEX Round Up Middle School Qualifier - Downingtown Area Robotics

Dec TBD, VEX Round Up Tune Up, Penn State Abington

Jan 22nd - VEX Round-Up Qualifier, DockBots'11

Jan 29th - Philadelphia FIRST LEGO League Challenge, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (Looking to add Philadelphia VEX Tuene-Up here)

March 4 & 5th - VEX Mid-Atlantic Championship, Westminster, MD (capped at 100 HS and 32 MS teams)

March 12th - VEX Round-Up Qualfier, Downingtown Area Robotics, Eastern Regional Championships

STEMRobotics talk:Current events

2010-06-15T13:28:45Z

Foster: New page: ==01/09/2009 - FRC Kick-off == Upper Darby High School ==01/09/2010 - Vex @ Summit HS, NJ == http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/nj-vex-summit-high-school-c...

==01/09/2009 - FRC Kick-off ==
Upper Darby High School

==01/09/2010 - Vex @ Summit HS, NJ ==
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/nj-vex-summit-high-school-clean-sweep-event.html

Steve Rhoads will be going to this event. Some of the TechnoMages may also go (details to follow).

We will support software inspection, followed by software assistance (focusing on RobotC) and supporting EasyC as required.

We will also bring a VEXnet practice switch and a robot with VEXnet, and do some walkthroughs of VEXnet and the standard competition template, the autonomous skills challenge and the driving skills challenge template.

Come join the fun!

==01/23/2010 - Vex @ Christopher Dock HS, Lansdale, PA ==
DockBots 09 was a blast, 24 high quality teams compteted. This year the competition will be even tougher.

8:00 Doors open 
9:00 Team meeting 
9:15 First match 
12-1 Lunch 
(Skills event will be held across lunch) 
1-4 PM Afternoon matches and playoffs 
4 Awards Presentation 

Food and drink will be available at the DockBots concession stand.

[[http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/christopher-dock-hs-competition.html Register Here!]] This is a STEMRobotic sponsored event.

==01/30/2010 - Delaware FTC ==
Steve will be the RobotC/Software Inspector and Programming Support for this event.

Come be a TechnoMage with me. If you already use RobotC with Vex, it is easy to make the jump to support the Lego/Tetrix.

==01/30/2010 - Philadelphia FIRST Lego League - Vex Demo ==
We will be running a practice Vex Clean Sweep match with demo robots at the FLL tournament. Come help run the mini-competition!

Here is the event information:

:Saturday, January 30, 2010
:Philadelphia FIRST LEGO League Tournament
:THEME: "Smart Move"
:University of Pennsylvania - Irvine Auditorium
:9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

==02/06/2010 - NJ FTC Regional ==
Steve is going to be the RobotC/Software Inspection and programming support person! If you know RobotC come be a TechnoMage with Steve. You will be able to say that you support multiple platforms!

==02/20/2010 - Vex - Middle School Competition, Baltimore, MD ==
This is limited to just middle school teams in Baltimore. But it is a chance to see young engineers create some amazing robots.

==02/26 and 02/27/2010 - Atlantic Coast Championships ==
This is a two day event with the possibility of over 100 teams competing on four fields!

The Mid-Atlantic VEX Championship Event is open to any registered VEX Robotics Competition Team. They are hosting this event to provide teams with an opportunity to compete against a large number of teams in an exciting two-day format. They expect to have over 100 teams competing for a spots at the VEX Clean Sweep World Championship Event.

[[http://www.midatlanticvex.org More details on the Mid-Atantic Vex site.]] [[http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/mid-atlantic-vex-championship-event.html Register Here!]]

== 03/06/2010 - East Brunswick HS, NJ Vex Clean Sweep Qualifier ==

http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/new-jersey-vex-clean-sweep-qualifier.html

==03/13/2010 - Vex - Eastern PA Regionals at Downingtown, PA ==

Doors open at 8 AM 
Team meeting 9 AM 
First match 9:15 AM 
Lunch 12-1 AM 
(Drivers and Programming challenges will be run across lunch) 
Afternoon matches will end at 4PM with awards to follow 

Food and drink will be available all day at the Downingtown Area Robotics concessio stand.
[[http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/eastern-pennsylvania-regional-championships.html Register Here!]]
Sponsored by STEMRobotics and Downingtown Area Robotics

== 03/18/2010-03/20/2010 Create Foundation: Championship of the Americas ==
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/vex-robotics-championship-of-the-americas-by-the-create-foundation-1.html

== 03/20/2010 NJ Vex Championship ==
Either at RUTGERS College Avenue GYM, or at Bridgewater-Raritan High School in Bridgewater, NJ

==04/10/2010 - Vex - La Plata, MD ==

==04/22/2010 - Vex - World Championships ==
These are held in Dallas TX, its a three day event. Hope your robot is good enough to make it!
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/2010-vex-robotics-competition-world-championship.html

STEMRobotics:Current events

2010-06-15T13:28:25Z

Foster:

== Nearby Events, Coming Soon ‎==
STEMRobotics sponsors and organizes events in South Eastern Pennsylvania (draw a 50 mile circle around Newtown Square PA). In additon, we attend and help out at events that are no more than a two hour drive. This is a list of events in our area.

We have recently formed a ''NEW'' elite group, the TechnoMages. This group travels with Steve Rhoads, and volunteers to be the Software Inspection and Programming Assistance team at an event (scrimmage, tournament, workshop and seminar). We travel throughout the PA, NJ, DE, MD area. We may consider reaching up to NY and over to RI and MA.

Currently our super-powers are around RobotC and easyC. MPLab will have to find another set of Super Heroes to support it.

Planned VEX Events

2010-05-20T10:39:55Z

Foster: /* May 2010 */

This page, is a list of events that have either been planned or are in the planning process. It's set up to be a coordination location only, check [[http://Robotevents.com Robotevents.com]] for actual event details. Dates in '''BOLD''' ( i.e '''25 December''') are locked in dates. Other dates may move. We've noted the ''FRC weekends'', the regionals have not been announced, once the regionals in our area (NJ,PA,DC, Chesapeake, etc) are scheduled they will be added in.

== April 2010 ==
*16 April - VEX demo at Sugartown Elementary School, Paoli PA - 7 PM
*22-24 April - VEX World Championships Dallas Texas

== May 2010 ==
*19 May - S.T.E.M Defined - Downingtown Elementary - 7-9:30 PM
*29 May - [http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/bridgewater-raritan-vex-new-event-new-jersey.html VEX Round Up at Bridgewater Raitan] Spend your Memorial Day Weekend with Robots!

== September 2010 ==
*'''14 September''' - Adult Mentor Training Starts (7 weeks) - Downingtown PA

== October 2010 ==
*'''TBD''' - VEX Competition - Westminster MD

== November 2010 ==
- California, PA
*'''TBD''' - Robodoves VEX Championship - Baltimore, Maryland

== December 2010 ==
*TBD - Mendham High School Event
*'''4 December''' - Penn State Abington VEX Scrimmage (Located approximately 15 mi north of Center City Philadelphia in Abington, Pennsylvania)
*'''11 December''' - VEX Competition - Western High School, Baltimore MD

== January 2011 ==
*'''TBD''' - VEX Competition - Summit NJ
*22 January - VEX Competition - Christopher Dock High School - Landsdale PA

== February 2010 ==
*TBD - VEX Competition during the Duleney HS STEM Science Fair
*19 February - Open date for VEX College Challenge at the Baltimore Convention Center (the field is set up for the event on the 20th so it could be used.)
*'''20 February''' - Middle School VEX competition - 2nd Annual BEYA VEX Robotics Championship - Baltimore Convention Center
*''20-21 February - Crunch weekend for FRC teams, multiple pre-ship events in many locations''
*''23 February - FRC Ship date''
*27 February - Eastern PA Regionals - Downingtown PA
*27 February - East Brunswick Regional ( these two event planners will work on moving these events)
== February 2011 ==
Mid-Atlantic VEX February 25-26, 2011 - Shipley Arena in Westminster MD

Knights of The Olde Robotic

2010-05-20T10:21:48Z

Foster: New page: The ''Knights of The Olde Robotic'' won the College Excellence Award at the 2010 VEX World Championship. KTOR is one of the teams that STEMRobotics helped start in 2010. Congrats to team m...

The ''Knights of The Olde Robotic'' won the College Excellence Award at the 2010 VEX World Championship. KTOR is one of the teams that STEMRobotics helped start in 2010. Congrats to team members Andrew Adaman, Melissa Quigley, Chuck Glick and Patrick Kneass.

News

2010-05-20T10:20:54Z

Foster: /* College Team - KTOR - Wins Excellence award at VEX World Championship */

== VEX Mentors of the year Award at World Championship - Foster Schucker and Steve Rhoads ==
Steve Rhoads and Foster Schucker received the 2010 Mentor of the Year awards at the VEX World Championship in Dallas. Their work in starting new teams, adult mentor workshops and running events in Southeastern PA was listed as part of the reasons for the award. Thanks to Teams 80 and 81 for submitting them!

== College Team - KTOR - Wins Excellence award at VEX World Championship ==
The ''[[Knights of The Olde Robotic]]'' won the College Excellence Award at the 2010 VEX World Championship. KTOR is one of the teams that STEMRobotics helped start in 2010. Congrats to team members Andrew Adaman, Melissa Quigley, Chuck Glick and Patrick Kneass.

== STEMRobotics Founder wins Volunteer of the Year Award! ==
Steve Rhoads was honored on Saturday March 20 with the Volunteer of the Year award at the New Jersey VEX Championship. Steve is well known in both VEX and FTC circles as a software wizard. He has brought his '''''Technomages''''', a crew of skilled software students to many events. He is also one of the driving forces behind the PSU Scrimmage, DockBots and the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional. Congrats Steve!

== PSU Abington Scrimmage - December 3, 2009 ==
With snow in the forecast 21 teams met at the PSU library to participate in the first Clean Sweep Scrimmage of the season. Fields supplied by STEMRobotics and Driven were set up to maximize the play action for the day. The Driven field was used for practice and both the Drivers and Programming Challenges. The STEMRobotics field was set up in the auditorium for head to head matches. Head Referee Clem McKown and his field crew ran 23 matches.

In the early part of the day there were robots that worked, robots that needed work and robots that were mostly unassembled parts. As the day went on, mechanical issues became fewer. Programmers from Downingtown Area Robotics lead by Steve Rhoads helped get programming to work and created autonomous programs for a number of teams.

It was a great start to the Clean Sweep Season. Award details can be found at [[Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage]]

== STEMRobotics and Girls In Gear ==
On November 14, 2009 STEMRobotics set up a VEX driving station for the [[Girls In Gear]] program. It was a great day showing 70 Girl Scouts that Robots Rock!

== STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo ==
[ http://www.gamexpo.us/expo/robotics/images/roboshowlogo.png]

We are doing demos of Clean Sweep, the new VEX game at the 2009 GameX event at the Oaks Convention center. We will be there Saturday 9AM -6PM and Sunday 10AM 5PM. Come play Clean Sweep with us and help us introduce new roboteers to competition robotics. We have 14 passes, contact us and we'll get you in as our guest. This is being billed as a premiere game industry event. There will be lots of games, music and of course Robots!

== STEMRobotics participates in Lights On Afterschool - October 22, 2009 ==
The Afterschool Aliance is dedicated to supporing afterschool programs around the United States. There are 1500 afterschool programs in this area. They provide homework support and other activities to keep school children engaged. At the Lights On event Foster did a short demo and then most of the 28 students available drove robots, ate browies and other food prepared by their fellow classmates.

STEMRobotics supports the program at the Regency Center. Starting in November Regency will begin an eight week unit on creating and building robots. We are please to be part of the mentor training and support of their robotic activities. We've done other presentations and a throw-down there last month at the center.

== Throw-down at the Church Farm School - October 22, 2009 ==
The sounds of robot competion (and some rock and roll music) filled the gym at the Church Farm School on Thursday. Steve took his portable field and the foam cubes to play some simple games. The event was well attended with 12 students from the school driving robots. There was interest from the administration, the are looking at robotics as a scheduled activity. Thanks to John for setting this up and to Bob and Nathan for helping Steve keep the robots running.

== STEMRobotics.org and Downingtown Area Robotics travel to Reading - September 24, 2009 ==
Foster Schucker of STEMRobotics.org and Faith McKown of Downingtown Area Robotics traveled to Reading to inaugurate the Reading Red Riders Robotics Program. Foster gave two presentations to over 400 students while Faith kept 10 VEX demo bots running and and answered 100's of questions. Both Faith and Foster spent time with 12 middle school students from a nearby science magnet school.

STEMRobotics and Downingtown Area Robotics will continue to work with the Reading school district in getting their program up and running.

RobotC Resources

2010-05-19T19:19:55Z

Foster:

We use RobotC to program the VEX robots.

This page has a number of RobotC resources you might find useful.

== RobotC Class ==
Albert Schueller, one of the professors from Whitman College, has written an excellent course called [http://carrot.whitman.edu/Robots/notes.pdf ''Programming with Robots''] based on RobotC.

It covers all the bases, variables, conditionals, loops and arrays, you name it. Each new concept is accompanied by example code and every chapter ends with a series of exercises that you can use to test if you have grasped the new concepts covered thus far. The examples use the NXT computer, but are transportable to the VEX.

== RobotC Tasks ==
You can run up to three different tasks at one time.
<source lang="c">
task taskA()
{
while(true)
{
// your code here
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}

task taskB()
{
while(true)
{
// your code here
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}

task main()
{
StartTask(taskA); // Start the first task
StartTask(taskB); // Start the second task
while (true)
{
Wait1Ms(100); //important, this allows other tasks to run
}
}
</source>

When this code runs, the three tasks (taskA, taskB and main) will all run their code. It's very important that you put the Wait1Ms(time) statement in. Once a task ''waits'' it releases the CPU to work on other tasks.

If you want to have more than 3 tasks you need to do a StopTask(task_name) to stop it from running and then do a StartTask(new_task_name) to start the new task.

== Setting Task Priority ==
The default task priority is '7'. You can assign priorities between 0 and 255 by setting the nSchedulePriority value.

<source lang="c">
task taskA()
{
nSchedulePriority = 15; //Raising the Priority
int pri_taskA = nSchedulePriority;
}

task taskB()
{
nSchedulePriority = 5; //Lowing the Priority
int pri_taskB = nSchedulePriority;
}

task main()
{
int pri_main = nSchedulePriority; //Defaults to Priority '7'

StartTask(taskA);
StartTask(taskB); //This task won't run because it has lower priority than "Main"
}
</source>

The variable '''nSchedulePriority''' is the CPU scheduler priority for the current task. ROBOTC shares CPU execution time among various tasks by giving each task a “time slice” where it will execute a group of instructions. Each task can be assigned a priority from 0 to 255. The scheduler gives execution time to the highest priority task that is waiting to run. A round robin scheduling scheme is used when there are multiple tasks ready to run all with the highest priority. Lower priority tasks will not execute until there are no tasks of higher priority that are ready to run.

Values higher than 15 are not recommended since there are system level tasks that run.

== Program a VEX Spike ==
The [[VEX Spike]] page has how to program a VEX Spike. You need to make a special cable to attach the Spike to the VEX.

VEX Spike

2010-05-19T19:16:52Z

Foster: New page: The VEX Spike is a 20 Amp, H-Bridge Relay Module that is small enough to be remotely mounted almost anywhere on your robot. Spike is designed for driving small motors in forward, reverse, ...

The VEX Spike is a 20 Amp, H-Bridge Relay Module that is small enough to be remotely mounted almost anywhere on your robot. Spike is designed for driving small motors in forward, reverse, or stop (brake). Spike is opto-isolated at the signal input to protect the Robot Controller against motor noise and return currents. Requires a 3-wire cable for connection to the Robot Controller.

,--W \
| R | digital output 1
| B /
/ W----'
to Spike | R----.
\ B--. '--W \
| R | digital output 2
'----B /
W,R,B = White, Red, Black

Code in EasyC
<source lang=c>
Channel5=Get RxInput (1,5);
Channel6=Get RxInput (1,5);

if (Channel5 == 1) {
// forward
Set Digital Output (1,1);
Set Digital Output (2,0);
} else if (Channel6 == 1) {
// reverse
Set Digital Output (1,0);
Set Digital Output (2,1);
} else {
// stop
Set Digital Output (1,0);
Set Digital Output (2,0);
}
</source>

<source lang=c>
//Code in RobotC
Channel5=vexRT[5]; // using the button on the back
if (Channel5 >= 50) {
// forward
SetDigitalOutput[1] = 1;
Set Digital Output (2,0);
} else if (Channel5 <= 200) {
// reverse
Set Digital Output (1,0);
Set Digital Output (2,1);
} else {
// stop
Set Digital Output (1,0);
Set Digital Output (2,0);
}
</source>

[[http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/spike-blue-guide-sep05.pdf VEX Spike User Guide]]

[[http://www.vexrobotics.com/products/vexpro/spike-relay-h.html VEX Spike H-Bridge at VEXRobotics]]

RobotC Resources

2010-05-01T21:03:50Z

Foster: New page: We use RobotC to program the VEX robots. This page has a number of RobotC resources you might find useful. == RobotC Class == Albert Schueller, one of the professors from Whitman Colle...

VEX Programming

2010-05-01T20:37:13Z

Foster: /* RobotC */

There are a number of different ways to program the VEX microcontroller.

== MPLabs ==

[http://www.microchip.com MicroChip] gives away to students and sells the [http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en019469&part=SW007002 MPLabs IDE]. The IDE supports programming in both C and assembly.

== Easy-C ==
[http://www.intelitekdownloads.com/easyCV2/ Easy-C] and Easy-C Pro is the best drag and drop VEX programming tool out there. It allows beginning roboteers to drag motors, sensors and transmitters to the code stream. There is a pretty decent interactive debugger.

== RobotC ==
In 2008 [http://www.robotc.net/ RobotC] was released. It is positioned between the MPLab compiler and the drag and drop of Easy-C. The advantage of RobotC is the interactive debugger. It's far more detailed and has more features than Easy-C.

RobotC also works with the Lego Mindstorms system.

We have a number of [[RobotC Resources]] that you may find of use.

== WPILibrary ==
At the center of Easy-C is a linkable library that can be used to do robot functions. The library makes the MPLabs C compiler easier to develop code with.

== Code Resources ==

One of the most popular robots to build is an Omnibot. We have a sample of [[Omnibot Code]] for teams to use.

News

2010-04-25T01:30:11Z

Foster: /* STEMRobotics Founder wins Volunteer of the Year Award! */

== VEX Mentors of the year Award at World Championship - Foster Schucker and Steve Rhoads ==
Steve Rhoads and Foster Schucker received the 2010 Mentor of the Year awards at the VEX World Championship in Dallas. Their work in starting new teams, adult mentor workshops and running events in Southeastern PA was listed as part of the reasons for the award. Thanks to Teams 80 and 81 for submitting them!

== College Team - KTOR - Wins Excellence award at VEX World Championship ==
The ''Knights of The Olde Robotic'' won the College Excellence Award at the 2010 VEX World Championship. KTOR is one of the teams that STEMRobotics helped start in 2010. Congrats to team members Andrew Adaman, Melissa Quigley, Chuck Glick and Patrick Kneass.

== STEMRobotics Founder wins Volunteer of the Year Award! ==
Steve Rhoads was honored on Saturday March 20 with the Volunteer of the Year award at the New Jersey VEX Championship. Steve is well known in both VEX and FTC circles as a software wizard. He has brought his '''''Technomages''''', a crew of skilled software students to many events. He is also one of the driving forces behind the PSU Scrimmage, DockBots and the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional. Congrats Steve!

== PSU Abington Scrimmage - December 3, 2009 ==
With snow in the forecast 21 teams met at the PSU library to participate in the first Clean Sweep Scrimmage of the season. Fields supplied by STEMRobotics and Driven were set up to maximize the play action for the day. The Driven field was used for practice and both the Drivers and Programming Challenges. The STEMRobotics field was set up in the auditorium for head to head matches. Head Referee Clem McKown and his field crew ran 23 matches.

In the early part of the day there were robots that worked, robots that needed work and robots that were mostly unassembled parts. As the day went on, mechanical issues became fewer. Programmers from Downingtown Area Robotics lead by Steve Rhoads helped get programming to work and created autonomous programs for a number of teams.

It was a great start to the Clean Sweep Season. Award details can be found at [[Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage]]

== STEMRobotics and Girls In Gear ==
On November 14, 2009 STEMRobotics set up a VEX driving station for the [[Girls In Gear]] program. It was a great day showing 70 Girl Scouts that Robots Rock!

== STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo ==
[ http://www.gamexpo.us/expo/robotics/images/roboshowlogo.png]

We are doing demos of Clean Sweep, the new VEX game at the 2009 GameX event at the Oaks Convention center. We will be there Saturday 9AM -6PM and Sunday 10AM 5PM. Come play Clean Sweep with us and help us introduce new roboteers to competition robotics. We have 14 passes, contact us and we'll get you in as our guest. This is being billed as a premiere game industry event. There will be lots of games, music and of course Robots!

== STEMRobotics participates in Lights On Afterschool - October 22, 2009 ==
The Afterschool Aliance is dedicated to supporing afterschool programs around the United States. There are 1500 afterschool programs in this area. They provide homework support and other activities to keep school children engaged. At the Lights On event Foster did a short demo and then most of the 28 students available drove robots, ate browies and other food prepared by their fellow classmates.

STEMRobotics supports the program at the Regency Center. Starting in November Regency will begin an eight week unit on creating and building robots. We are please to be part of the mentor training and support of their robotic activities. We've done other presentations and a throw-down there last month at the center.

== Throw-down at the Church Farm School - October 22, 2009 ==
The sounds of robot competion (and some rock and roll music) filled the gym at the Church Farm School on Thursday. Steve took his portable field and the foam cubes to play some simple games. The event was well attended with 12 students from the school driving robots. There was interest from the administration, the are looking at robotics as a scheduled activity. Thanks to John for setting this up and to Bob and Nathan for helping Steve keep the robots running.

== STEMRobotics.org and Downingtown Area Robotics travel to Reading - September 24, 2009 ==
Foster Schucker of STEMRobotics.org and Faith McKown of Downingtown Area Robotics traveled to Reading to inaugurate the Reading Red Riders Robotics Program. Foster gave two presentations to over 400 students while Faith kept 10 VEX demo bots running and and answered 100's of questions. Both Faith and Foster spent time with 12 middle school students from a nearby science magnet school.

STEMRobotics and Downingtown Area Robotics will continue to work with the Reading school district in getting their program up and running.

News

2010-04-11T15:20:38Z

Foster: /* PSU Abington Scrimmage - December 3, 2009 */

== STEMRobotics Founder wins Volunteer of the Year Award! ==
Steve Rhoads was honored on Saturday March 20 with the Volunteer of the Year award at the New Jersey VEX Championship. Steve is well know in both VEX and FTC circles as a software wizard. He has brought his '''''Technomages''''', a crew of skilled software students to many events. He is also one of the driving forces behind the PSU Scrimmage, DockBots and the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional. Congrats Steve!

== PSU Abington Scrimmage - December 3, 2009 ==
With snow in the forecast 21 teams met at the PSU library to participate in the first Clean Sweep Scrimmage of the season. Fields supplied by STEMRobotics and Driven were set up to maximize the play action for the day. The Driven field was used for practice and both the Drivers and Programming Challenges. The STEMRobotics field was set up in the auditorium for head to head matches. Head Referee Clem McKown and his field crew ran 23 matches.

In the early part of the day there were robots that worked, robots that needed work and robots that were mostly unassembled parts. As the day went on, mechanical issues became fewer. Programmers from Downingtown Area Robotics lead by Steve Rhoads helped get programming to work and created autonomous programs for a number of teams.

It was a great start to the Clean Sweep Season. Award details can be found at [[Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage]]

== STEMRobotics and Girls In Gear ==
On November 14, 2009 STEMRobotics set up a VEX driving station for the [[Girls In Gear]] program. It was a great day showing 70 Girl Scouts that Robots Rock!

== STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo ==
[ http://www.gamexpo.us/expo/robotics/images/roboshowlogo.png]

We are doing demos of Clean Sweep, the new VEX game at the 2009 GameX event at the Oaks Convention center. We will be there Saturday 9AM -6PM and Sunday 10AM 5PM. Come play Clean Sweep with us and help us introduce new roboteers to competition robotics. We have 14 passes, contact us and we'll get you in as our guest. This is being billed as a premiere game industry event. There will be lots of games, music and of course Robots!

== STEMRobotics participates in Lights On Afterschool - October 22, 2009 ==
The Afterschool Aliance is dedicated to supporing afterschool programs around the United States. There are 1500 afterschool programs in this area. They provide homework support and other activities to keep school children engaged. At the Lights On event Foster did a short demo and then most of the 28 students available drove robots, ate browies and other food prepared by their fellow classmates.

STEMRobotics supports the program at the Regency Center. Starting in November Regency will begin an eight week unit on creating and building robots. We are please to be part of the mentor training and support of their robotic activities. We've done other presentations and a throw-down there last month at the center.

== Throw-down at the Church Farm School - October 22, 2009 ==
The sounds of robot competion (and some rock and roll music) filled the gym at the Church Farm School on Thursday. Steve took his portable field and the foam cubes to play some simple games. The event was well attended with 12 students from the school driving robots. There was interest from the administration, the are looking at robotics as a scheduled activity. Thanks to John for setting this up and to Bob and Nathan for helping Steve keep the robots running.

== STEMRobotics.org and Downingtown Area Robotics travel to Reading - September 24, 2009 ==
Foster Schucker of STEMRobotics.org and Faith McKown of Downingtown Area Robotics traveled to Reading to inaugurate the Reading Red Riders Robotics Program. Foster gave two presentations to over 400 students while Faith kept 10 VEX demo bots running and and answered 100's of questions. Both Faith and Foster spent time with 12 middle school students from a nearby science magnet school.

STEMRobotics and Downingtown Area Robotics will continue to work with the Reading school district in getting their program up and running.

News

2010-04-11T15:20:18Z

Foster: /* STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo */

== STEMRobotics Founder wins Volunteer of the Year Award! ==
Steve Rhoads was honored on Saturday March 20 with the Volunteer of the Year award at the New Jersey VEX Championship. Steve is well know in both VEX and FTC circles as a software wizard. He has brought his '''''Technomages''''', a crew of skilled software students to many events. He is also one of the driving forces behind the PSU Scrimmage, DockBots and the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional. Congrats Steve!

== PSU Abington Scrimmage - December 3, 2009 ==
With snow in the forecast 21 teams met at the PSU library to participate in the first Clean Sweep Scrimmage of the season. Fields supplied by STEMRobotics and Driven were set up to maximize the play action for the day. The Driven field was used for practice and both the Drivers and Programming Challenges. The STEMRobotics field was set up in the auditorium for head to head matches. Head Referee Clem McKown and his field crew ran 23 matches.

In the early part of the day there were robots that worked, robots that needed work and robots that were mostly unassembled parts. As the day went on, mechanical issues became fewer. Programmers from Downingtown Area Robotics lead by Steve Rhoads helped get programming to work and created autonomous programs for a number of teams.

It was a great start to the Clean Sweep Season. Award details can be found at [Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage]

== STEMRobotics and Girls In Gear ==
On November 14, 2009 STEMRobotics set up a VEX driving station for the [[Girls In Gear]] program. It was a great day showing 70 Girl Scouts that Robots Rock!

== STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo ==
[ http://www.gamexpo.us/expo/robotics/images/roboshowlogo.png]

We are doing demos of Clean Sweep, the new VEX game at the 2009 GameX event at the Oaks Convention center. We will be there Saturday 9AM -6PM and Sunday 10AM 5PM. Come play Clean Sweep with us and help us introduce new roboteers to competition robotics. We have 14 passes, contact us and we'll get you in as our guest. This is being billed as a premiere game industry event. There will be lots of games, music and of course Robots!

== STEMRobotics participates in Lights On Afterschool - October 22, 2009 ==
The Afterschool Aliance is dedicated to supporing afterschool programs around the United States. There are 1500 afterschool programs in this area. They provide homework support and other activities to keep school children engaged. At the Lights On event Foster did a short demo and then most of the 28 students available drove robots, ate browies and other food prepared by their fellow classmates.

STEMRobotics supports the program at the Regency Center. Starting in November Regency will begin an eight week unit on creating and building robots. We are please to be part of the mentor training and support of their robotic activities. We've done other presentations and a throw-down there last month at the center.

== Throw-down at the Church Farm School - October 22, 2009 ==
The sounds of robot competion (and some rock and roll music) filled the gym at the Church Farm School on Thursday. Steve took his portable field and the foam cubes to play some simple games. The event was well attended with 12 students from the school driving robots. There was interest from the administration, the are looking at robotics as a scheduled activity. Thanks to John for setting this up and to Bob and Nathan for helping Steve keep the robots running.

== STEMRobotics.org and Downingtown Area Robotics travel to Reading - September 24, 2009 ==
Foster Schucker of STEMRobotics.org and Faith McKown of Downingtown Area Robotics traveled to Reading to inaugurate the Reading Red Riders Robotics Program. Foster gave two presentations to over 400 students while Faith kept 10 VEX demo bots running and and answered 100's of questions. Both Faith and Foster spent time with 12 middle school students from a nearby science magnet school.

STEMRobotics and Downingtown Area Robotics will continue to work with the Reading school district in getting their program up and running.