Downingtown Area Robotics
From DEW Robotics
Watch this page for snow announcements.
There is another storm coming for mid-week. Watch this space for updates.
DEWBOT VI build season has started! You can track progress in each area by clicking the links in the Left Navigation Bar, under 2010 season. For example, pictures of the field from kickoff are under Field Components.h
DEWBOT VI moved under it's own power and drove over the bump four times Wednesday night. This is a major build milestone. There is still lots of work to do, but having a rolling robot is a good sign!
Please look at the FRC 2010 Calendar to see all of the build nights coming up. The times we will be at the shop are marked on the calendar. Please note that it's an agressive build schedule. Students are encouraged to come as much as they can, but SCHOOL WORK COMES FIRST
VEX Robotics Challenge has started for the 15 week winter season - 6:30-8:30 PM at the Downingtown Education Center Parents should read the Clean Sweep Newsletters all of the information you need is there. See the robot article at the DASD.org website about the FLL and VEX teams! Pictures from the most recent build night can be found at Clean Sweep Build Season.
VEX Mentor Workshops have started,We will meet in the cafeteria starting at 6:30PM. Contact DEWBotRobot at yahoo dot com if you are interested in attending. This is a seven week session, the last two cover programming. You will need your own laptop for those nights.
Remember to read about Current Events coming your way, and the News of what we've done!
Contents |
Who we are
Downingtown Area Robotics is a group of Students, Mentors and Sponsors, that knows it's important to get students interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) based careers. We do this through competition robotics. Our robots work in teams of two or three, working together as team on a common goal (not the robots that try to destroy each other.)
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.
Contact us at DEWBOTROBOT at Yahoo dot com.
Competitions
We build robots for two different competitions, FIRST Robotics Competition and the VEX Robot Challenge.
- FIRST Robots are large, at 28" * 38" * 60" and weigh up to 120 pounds. You are given an inital kit of parts. You can buy or fabricate most any other part that you need from any source. The robot can be either bolted or welded, no glue or tape is allowed. The robot must be designed, built and testing in six weeks. There is a limit on the numbers of motors that you can use. The robot is powered by a single 12 volt battery.
- Team 1640 is registered for Finger Lakes (RIT, Rochester NY 4-6 Mar-2010) and Philadelphia (Drexel, Philadelpha PA 25-27 Mar-2010) Regional Competitions!
- VEX Robots must fit into an 18" cube and do not have a weight limit. Parts may only be purchased from VEX, but they can be cut and shaped any way provided there are no sharp edges. Parts may only be bolted together, no assembly with glue or tape is allowed. There is a limit of ten motors and/or servos. The robot is powered by a single 7.2 volt battery.
- VEX teams are going to Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage on December 5, DockBot'10 on January 23, 2010 and will also hold and attend the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Championships on March 13, 2010
Teams
There are a number of teams that make up Downingtown Area Robotics:
- VEX Robot Challenge -- VRC Team 80 -- our "All girl team" for 2009-2010
Meeting Information
There is a very important FRC Team 1640 Parents - Students - Mentors Meeting at DEC on 6-January from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. The meeting will cover:
- Build Season and Competition schedule
- logistics for the Saturday, 9-January Kick-off at Upper Darby High School
- logistical plans for our two competitions (Rochester NY & Philadelphia)
- the build process and the types of jobs we'll will need to do (and when we'll need to do them)
- the decision tree
- organization
- expectations
- rules
FRC Team 2010 Season -- DEWBOT VI - Please look at the FRC 2010 Calendar to see all the work nights in the build season
VEX 2009-10 Season -- Wednesday 6:30-8:30 Downingtown Educational Center. Our 2009-2010 season playing Clean Sweep (info and schedule) has started. VEX parents please read Clean Sweep Newsletter 9 December
Watch this Clean Sweep Video and think of cool ideas.
We have started an "All-Girl" VEX Team 80 - Pegasus, come join them
There is also a FIRST Lego League team.
Come to one of our team meetings or contact us: Dewbotrobot at Yahoo dot com
Other sessions
The Steering Committee meets on the last Friday of the month at 6:15PM With build season going on and there being a large number of the Steering Committee at the build sessions, there are no formal meeting until the last Friday in April. If you have an item for the Steeering Team contact them at the build session.
People
Thank you very much to all of our sponsors!
We would like to express our appreciation to all of our Mentors that work with the roboteers on a day to day basis.
Each student that worked on a robot is listed with that robot. Across the years we have graduated some very impressive students, you may be or soon will be working for our Alumni.
And a final thank you to all the parents that help us out.
Engineering
Click here for Engineering references and links.
