Skynet Students Turn their Drawings into Realities

With a pencil in one hand and a sheet of paper on top of a classroom desk, Hollace Avent and Aislyn Clark were able to turn their drawings into a reality that has been an important part of our team promotional materials.

Avent spent long hours working on this project and completed it almost entirely independently. He sat down in our robotics classroom to sketch out some ideas and a few practices later, was able to learn some graphic design from our mentors to develop a professional banner.

Clark was also developed a team avatar to match our team mascot, the Terminator. She frequently works on her tablet and pixel by pixel, created an 8-bit Terminator avatar.

How about a game of "Where's Waldo?" to see if you can find our mascot.

-Skynet Team 2550

How About Self-Driving Robots

With a dedicated programming team lead by Nathan Walker and assisted by Brayton Kerekffy, the result was just as good as self-driving cars which was our self-driving robot!

After dedicated work, hours of practice, and a whole lot of encoders, the result was priceless and flexible autonomous programs.

-Skynet Team 2550

Teams PowerUp

How do you PowerUp?

Skynet working on the project.

At our Lake Oswego competition, Skynet's business team members created and shared their PowerUp as a way to welcome teams to the event. Lacy Bott, Alaina Clar, Aislyn Clark, Hailey Brown, and Nick McKinney along with Skynet's alumni Jared Bott made over 35 "Pacman" medallions to go along with this year's theme, FIRST PowerUp which features arcade-like components.

Check out our team PowerUp!

-Skynet Team 2550

2018 Competition Season Recap

Although we did not get to proceed forth to the PNW Championships, it does feel as if we did win our own championship after the growth and learning that bloomed this season.

For mechanical, we have had a lot of graduating members prior to our season as well as incoming members. This allowed for a chance to grow and develop new skills as a team. One thing that flourished out of this was the willing and eagerness to learn new things, an abundance of perspectives and aspirations for robot designs, and the perseverance to continue improving our robot design especially from our students leading projects including Chris Ashby, Reece Elledge, and, Jeremy Sneed.

Although they may be hidden away in a quiet room to themselves, the programming team made significant strides in developing and using sensors. Nathan Walker, Skynet's programming lead, dedicated time to researching encoders, gyroscopes, ultrasonic, and was successfully able to program each of them. 

If you have been to a robotics competition before, you will understand that there is one important practice that almost everyone in the stands participates - scouting. This was the first year our team was able to develop a strong scouting system that we can reliably receive and analyze data. Lead by 

Brayton Kerekffy, the team was able to purchase new tablets, have a strong system, and thoroughly analyze data. 

A "Pacman" gift to teams. 

Thanks to our business team, we were not only able to welcome and thank teams attending our home event at Clackamas Academy of Industrial Sciences, but we were also able to demonstrate Gracious Professionalism, a FIRST robotics principle. Our business team created fun and memorable gifts to hand out to teams ranging from Candy Robots to Pacman medallions to implementing the "arcade" theme of this year's challenge. 

Banner designed by Hollace Avent

Lastly, our Safety team received the Safety Pit Award this competition season! So be sure to always wear your safety glasses when working in the pits and our shop so they can keep up their streak. 

-Skynet Team 2550

Lake Oswego Competition

See you soon!

Join us this Friday, March 30th and Saturday, March 31st to watch our robot compete at our second competition of the season! 

Where: Lake Oswego High School (2501 Country Club Rd, Lake Oswego, OR 97034)

When: 10AM Opening Ceremonies (qualifications matches begin immediately after)

You can find more event details here. Can't make it? You can livestream the event here!

Extended Build Season Update

The theme of this past week for Skynet students was...encoders! Mechanical and programming teamed up to finalize our encoder research and installation process as after our first competition, we recognized how vital a reliable and safe installation of encoder sensors are. 

In addition to the finalization of encoders, mechanical is continuing to improve our manipulator designs and programming, is prepared to fine tune those adjustments in our code. 

Scouting spent this last week analyzing how our new scouting system was perceived at the competition. So far, this has been the strongest scouting system we have had as a team! They also added some new improvements on the user side to make it more detailed. 

Safety has been preparing the procedures for what will come in the post-competition and 2019 seasons. Our marketing team is eager to demonstrate our team's Gracious Professionalism (a key principle in robotics) by providing support to teams at our Lake Oswego competition. 

Watch our Robot Compete!

If only we could go back in time...

Although our robotics team has yet to invent a way to reverse time, you can still watch our matches from our CAIS competition. Click here to access a playlist of the CAIS competition.

CAIS Competition Recap

The leadership team of Skynet took a seat at a large conference table Saturday morning across from our robotics lab. With two weeks left of build season, we needed to finalize a manipulator design and make some serious decisions. So there we were, sitting across from one another to only wonder how far we could make it in the competition without a fully developed manipulator…..

This was our team two weeks ago and fast forward past a week of cancelled practices due to weather, to our first competition, and we become part of the top 8 alliances of week 1 competition!

Competing in the quarter finals could not have been possible without our mentors and the aspirations of every Skynet team member coming together.

Something new this year was our pit crew. Skynet members jumped into action and were ready to solve any problem that our robot encountered, allowing our drive team to focus, collaborate and compete hard (with gracious professionalism of course!)

Programming developed complex autonomous programs that were mastered at a high success rate.

Scouting has the strongest system our team has ever had and it could be a potential solution to other teams and their scouting as well.

Every team department has made some monumental steps this season and we still have five weeks to go!

Mr.Busse (Woodie Flowers Nominee)

CAIS Competition Awards

Pit Safety Award

Woodie Flowers Nomination – Mr. Busse

-Skynet Team 2550

See you tomorrow at our CAIS Competition

See you tomorrow!

Join us this Friday, March 2nd and Saturday, March 3rd to watch our robot compete at our first competition of the season! 

Where: Clackamas Academy of Industrial Sciences (1306 12th St, Oregon City, OR 97045)

When: 10AM Opening Ceremonies (qualifications matches begin immediately after)

You can find more event details here. Can't make it? You can livestream the event here!

Autonomous Programming with 2550

Sensors, sensors, and more sensors!

Team 2550 has experienced monumental marks with their programming after successfully implementing various sensors including ultrasonic, gyroscopes, and encoders.

Build Season Week 6

Week 6 of build season is just wrapping up as we head into the next week towards STOP build day on February 20th. Although our build season has been busy and full of learning opportunities, we have had some monumental changes for the team.

Mechanical was able to complete two robots and have learned important skills and necessities moving forward as a team.

Revolutionary development took place in programming and is currently being implemented. Many of the sensors established this year will assist us in our autonomous and teleop code.

Scouting is testing a newly implemented system on tablets that has been proven to be reliable and a potential solution for the challenges many teams face scouting.

Business and safety have also created some fantastic themed promotional materials to go along with this year's game, PowerUp and giving our team an arcade-like appearance.

Build Season Week 5

This week, our team has shifted our focus to making it a priority to develop a stronger robot with its current capabilities.

With this in mind, each team department has really solidified a lot of their projects and are in the midst of preparing to spend the last week of build season practicing for competition.

Mechanical has updated their CAD model to our most recent plans and are continuing to work on building two robots for the season.

Programming has completed projects with various sensors for competition use and has been successful with development and testing. Additionally, scouting has completed their forms and data analysis strategies that are ready to be tested by other departments.

In our business department, students have made official submissions with our 8-bit arcade themed logos as well as implementing the "arcade" look to our promotional materials.

Additionally, the safety team pulled yet another winner from our weekly safety drawing. Great job, Skynet for making safety first!

-Skynet Team 2550

Competition Dates

Be sure to mark your calendars for our upcoming events! Stay tuned for more updates as we come closer to these events.

CAIS Competition: March 1st - March 3rd

Location: 1306 12th St Oregon City, OR 97045

Lake Oswego Competition: March 29th - March 31st

Location: 2501 Country Club Rd, Lake Oswego, OR 97034

PNW Championships (Tentative): April 4th - April 7th

Location: Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Build Season Week 4

With only two weeks left of build season, Skynet has been wrapping up some major projects.

That does include a fully built and wired robot! We are excited to announce that we have an operating drive base with some awesome manipulators on the way. Stay tuned for our final robot soon.

We have also concluded many business projects, safety systems, programming research and development, and scouting analysis. 

Thank you to all the team members, mentors, and team alumni who have been making this season possible!

-Skynet Team 2550

Autonomous Programming

Getting our team's ultrasonic sensors to work very accurately has been a challenge but this year, the Skynet programming team is excited to use last year's robot to thoroughly test their newest code.

-Skynet Team 2550

Build Season Week 3

Can you believe we are already halfway through the FRC build season?

That means we only have three more weeks for our competitive robot to be built, wired, programmed, and ready to go for competitions.

While our mechanical team has been finalizing designs and prototypes, they completed two robot drive bases. Our programmers have been testing sensors and other competition code in addition to working with our scouting team to have a server up and running for data collection.

Our safety team has developed a useful incentive system for team members to continue to engage in safe practices in the shop as well as in the classroom. Safety first! 

Other team departments have been developing sketches and potential designs for our promotional materials to be given an arcade feel to match this year's PowerUp theme.

Happy build season teams!

-Skynet Team 2550

Build Season Week 2

Think. Innovate. Create. Repeat. 

That may be the story of most STEM students but for FRC students, we are just wrapping up week 2 of the build season which means our days go a little bit more like this: Eat. Sleep. Robotics. Repeat.

Skynet Week 2 Updates

We have completed almost all of our designs and prototypes as well as almost two drive bases. Our programmers have taken the lead on our sensor and vision development and many other team departments are in the heat of their current projects. Let the countdown continue...only 4 more weeks of build season.

-Team 2550 Skynet

Check out what our STEAM Students can do!

This year, we have had an increase of students with strong talents for various works of art which is an excellent addition to the team. A lot of times people associate robotics with solely STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) incorporates unique perspectives from students.

Check out what Aislyn and Hollace from team 2550 are working on!

 Aislyn (8th Grade) is working on turning our logo into an 8-bit logo to portray an arcade/retro look to go along with this year's theme, FIRST PowerUp. She currently has various designs for our team logo and mascot. 

Hollace (8th Grade) is currently sketching and planning designs to go on the exterior of our robot. Hollace has an interest and experience with the 80's theme and is hoping to incorporate colors, themes, and other aspects from this time period to help our team engage in the FIRST PowerUp theme.

-Team 2550 Skynet

Build Season Week 1

Week 1 down which means that we only have 5 more weeks left! This year, Skynet has taken a different approach to our robot development. We are currently developing, prototyping, modeling, and simulating our designs before building our robot which will allow us to develop a more thorough design.

Our programming and scouting department have been working on sensor support and development for both the robot and our new scouting system this year.

Our safety team has been enthusiastic in promoting safe practices as a team and maintaining good organization for our important safety supplies.

Skynet has a very talented group of students and every year grows as new students join the team. This year, we have had an increase of students with incredible artistic abilities.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to finalize our robot designs and work through week 2 of the build season.

Good luck teams!
-Team 2550 Skynet

2018 Kickoff Livestream

If you can't make it to kickoff in person, remember you can still access the 2018 Kickoff Broadcast from your home.

2018 Kickoff Broadcast Here!

2018 Kickoff

Come join us at the University of Portland for the 2018 PNW FRC kickoff, PowerUp!

 

Event Details

Location: University of Portland - 5000 N Willamette Blvd, Portland, OR 97203

When: January 6th, 2018 at 7AM

Doors open for team registration at 6:30AM following opening ceremonies at 7AM. There will be a scavenger hunt, a mock competition field, a virtual field to test robots in Synthesis, and of course the 2018 game reveal. 

Can't Make it in Person?

Don't worry, we have got you covered. Just be sure to watch the live feed here and you will be able to follow along the same broadcast.

Happy Kickoff!

-Skynet Team 2550