Our Robot



Robot Fast Facts:

Number of Attachments: 11

Number of Programs:  11

Amount of Memory Used: Full

Most Consistently completed Mission:  Bowling and Retrieve/fix chair 

Strategy

How we chose our missions and their order:

We chose our missions first by the odds of them being completed successfully.   Nest we chose missions close by, so hopefully we could complete more of them faster.

Favorite Mission and why:

It is too hard to pick.  We liked bowling because it was like a game within a game.  We also liked the cardio one because it was fun to turn the when and it was worth a lot of points.  We also liked ending on the ramp, because that made us feel successful as a team at the end, and really cheer.

Design Process 

When we went to our qualifier we had three different robots, but before we competed we learned that we could really only use one at the table at a time.  This kind of threw us off.  We took one robot design to the table first and a second design to the table the second time.  Whichever  robot was more successful was the one that went to round three.  For today’s competition we redesigned the robot based on the robot that was the most successful at our qualifying round.

 

This was our other robot that we don't use anymore.

We also have a different attachment for each mission we run.  

For example, the attachment on the robot below is for the mission to retrieve the dog. The long arm pushed the button to release the dog and the hook brings the dog back. 

 This is another one one of our attachments.  

Programming

        We were lucky enough to have four robots to work with, so four different pairs of us could program at a time.  Each pair picked different missions they thought they could achieve and worked together to create the programs.  For most of us this was our first time using this program, so our programs are very simple.  

Team Work -- Core Values

Core Values are teh principals that FLL would like you to learn as you work together as a team to accomplish your goals.  FLL lists the core values as:

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

Whether or not we earned a medal or went to state will not be the biggest part of what we take away from out FLL experience.  What we will really take away is the freinds we have made, the expereinces we have hard and everythign we learned.

We discovered many things in the last few months we have worked together.  We discovered:  

· Elder can’t do everything we can

· How to program

· How to divide up work

· How to work together

· How to research

· How to present information

Integration

Everyone helped with different parts (see our pictures?)  We focused on the strongest skills of each team member.

Inclusion

· We combined everyone’s ideas

· We had discussions and voted on ideas

· We had great communication

Coopertition

· We went to other competitions to support other team

· We made friends from other teams

 · We addressed the problems we came upon by always being friendly and helpful

· We always showed respect to each other

· We have great team spirit

 

Our Project -- The Petavator 3000

This is the mock-up of the Petavator 3000.  It is an elevator to raise and lower pet food to the ground. 

One member of the Mec Del team, Jack, went to visit his grandma over the summer.  He noticed that she had a hard time bending over to pick up her dogs food bowl to feed him because she had arthritis.  The arthritus made it painful for her to bend over. 

As the team discussed this observation, they decided they wanted to solve her problem.

While doing their research they learned that in addition to arthritus, there are other issues that could prevent an elderly person from caring for a pet such as, parkinson's disease or being in a wheel chair, but they also learned that bending over to feed the pet could cause the senior to fall.  Falling is a big probelm:   

• Falls are the leading cause of death due to injury among the elderly

 • About one third of the elder population over the age of 65 falls each year, and the risk of falls increases proportionately with age. At 80 years, over half of seniors fall annually.

•Documented statistics fall short of the actual number since many incidents are unreported by seniors and unrecognized by family members or caregivers.

•Falls account for 25% of all hospital admissions, and 40% of all nursing home admissions 40% of those admitted do not return to independent living; 25% die within a year.

http://www.learnnottofall.com/content/fall-facts/how-often.jsp

Other Statistics about the other people this invention could help:

· An estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease.

· Incidence of Parkinson’s increases with age, but an estimated four percent of people with PD are diagnosed before the age of 50.

http://www.pdf.org/en/parkinson_statistics

·      people who have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis:  50 million

·      adults with osteoarthritis        27 million

·      adults with rheumatoid arthritis 1.5 million

http://www.statisticbrain.com/arthritis-statistics/

We also learned that having a senior own a pet is a very good thing.

Pet Ownership

There are approximately 78.2 million owned dogs in the United States

Thirty-nine percent of U.S. households own at least one dog

There are approximately 86.4 million owned cats in the United States

Thirty-three percent of U.S. households own at least one cat

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html

Why Seniors Should Own Pets…

• Seniors with pets have more emotional stability in times of stress.

• Pet owners have lower systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

• Cardiac patients who have owned pets live longer than those who don’t have pets. For example, people without cats are 30 to 40 percent more likely to die of heart disease than those who own cats, the study shows.

• It's healthy for seniors when their pets are nearby. Pets can stabilize a person of any age's heart rate and blood pressure when faced with a challenge.

• Fewer doctor visits per year for elderly dog owners than non-owners.

http://www.pawssf.org/document.doc?id=15

Besides, owning a pet gives the senior a reason for waking up in the morning.  It gives them a sense of pride, responsibilty and independence, so the longer they can keep their animal with them, the better. 

New Year -- New Team

Introducing the Mec Del Team

Last year when the programming padawans shared thier information at the school where most of the kids attended, St. Joseph Catholic School in Ogden, Utah, it inspired their teachers.  One little goup of friends at home inspired the creation of two new teams. 

When the new coaches singed up the teams they needed to enter a name so since the school colors were yellow and blue, they called them the yellow team and the blue team.  Can you guess which team we are?  Two of the older members, 7th graders Kevin and Conner, went to the blue team, while 5th grader Hailey joined the yellow team.  All seven of Hailey's other teammates were new to FLL this year. 

As the yellow team researched senior solutions they decided that they would change their name to the Mec Del team.  Mec Del is short for mechanical delivery, which represents the project they created. 

We are sad to report that the blue team did not make it past the regional qualifier, but they still had a lot of fun.  They created a great project for parkinson's pateints.  Their project was a knife designed for safe cutting for people who shake a lot. 

Since most of team Mec Del was all new this year, including the coaches, they have been working really hard to fullfill all of the requirements of a great team, which include sharing their information with others, so although this website is a little late in comming we did finally get to it!  I hope you enjoy what we share with you!