Sunday will be our traditional pre-ship demonstration from 4:00-6:00.
Come and see Meshach 5.0 navigate the lunar regolith, and try to collect moon rocks.

We'll also have demonstrations of the NeXTGEN FIRST LEGO League robot that will be going to the new US OPEN in Dayton Ohio, and the FIRST Tech Challenge robot that will competing in La Plata MD on Feb 21st.

Prepare to be amazed and entertained.

FIRST Robotics Competition Teams Attending Washington DC Regional

This recent radio address sent a shiver up my spine.

Radio Address

Here's an extract....

Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bio-terror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs - today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore Americas place as the world leader in science and technology.

Our FTC robot is starting to shape up. The puck pickup works pretty well, and now we're actually scoring in Auto Mode.

Here is a fun video below that shows the robot scoring in Autonomous.

Click for Video

NeXT GEN team members with their first place Robot Performance Award and
first place Champion's Award LEGO trophies. Front Row: Daniel Adams, Andrew
Hauser, Rachael Huxford, and Devon Jobe. Middle Row: Levi Lantz, Rebecca
Lee, Zachary Frick, and Colin Lynch. Back Row: Student Mentor Aaron Lantz
and Coaches Willie & Arlene Lantz, Phil Malone, and Jason Jobe. (Coach Roni
DiGioia not pictured)

Hosted by beta-test Team 1629 and the Garrett Engineering And Robotics Society, Inc.

Date: Sunday Dec 14th, from 10:00am to 5:00pm (or whenever you get bored).
Scroll to bottom to Sign Up for this event.

What: 2009 Controller Clinic.

Bring your early-shipment controller Bin-Of-Parts and leave with a fully functional control-system, mounted on a board ready for bench testing or robot prototyping.

I added some fun SuGO game videos to you-tube today.

Check out This Link

If anyone has some other game videos, send them to me and I'll post them as well.

Phil.

About a year ago, I wrote an article about SuGO and sent it to a hobbyist Robot magazine.

This month (November) it appeared in Servo Magazine ( www.servomagazine.com )

This is a pretty fun monthly magazine with lots of good robot construction articles.
You can order a subscription online, or just pick up the November Issue at a large bookstore (like Barnes and Noble).

On Sat Nov 1st, I'll be presenting information about the new 2009 Control system hardware/software at the Baltimore Area Alliance workshop being held at the Community College of Baltimore County, ESSEX.

This is an alliance of FIRST Robotic Competition teams in the Baltimore area.

I'll be bringing our retrofitted 2007 robot with me, and showing off the new hardware and software.

We've just officially completed the required steps for the Beta Test program, but we'll continue to work with the system and develop training materials.

FTC team 2818 tried their hand at making a puck shooting mechanism this weekend. We wanted to be able to pick the puck up, and deposit into a bin that can be dumped into the scoring mechanism.

This video shows our second attempt.

You-Tube video