all together, 3, 2, 1...

Back when G-bot was in grades 7,8 and 9 he was on his high school's robotics team. Due to academic trouble, he wasn't on the team in grades 10 and 11, however, now he is a mentor on the team.

Back when he was on the team, 4+ years ago, I went with him to a few of the competitions that the robot would participate in. I decided to go again this past weekend. He (G-bot) did not organize himself sufficiently to actually make the team bus, so while I had purchased my travel and lodging a full month in advance, I ended up adding him to my booking at the last minute.

Friday morning early, we caught the night bus to get into the city, walked to where the intercity-bus terminal is, and caught the 6AM bus to Sherbrooke. Conveniently, the first stop in Sherbrooke that the bus would go to was at the University, which is exactly where the robotics event would take place.

Once I got in and settled myself, this is my first photo of the 'field'; what they call the area where the robot competition is supposed to be.

Here is the video that shows what the competition is about:


Here is a photo taken at the end of a round, where some of the robots managed to suspend successfully:

G-bot's team's robot seemed to be matched on very successful alliances on the first day of competition (Friday) which kept them near or at the top of the rankings for almost the full day. This was in sharp contrast to their robot's abilities. Their robot managed to score in three specific ways:
1. During autonomous play (the first 15 seconds) their robot very consistently put three power cells (the yellow balls) into the lower power port. This would generate six points, and also move the team closer to completing stage 1.
2. During tele-operated play, the robot was able to pick up to four power cells and then deliver them into the lower power port, one point for each power cell delivered. The driving was not particularly smooth, the ball retrieval system wasn't always successful, shooting the power cells into the lower power port succeeded almost all of the time. During this phase the team would generally produce between 4 and 10 points.
3. At the time there is only 30 seconds left during the tele-operated play, a warning signal sounds giving the teams a notice that they should put their robots into the shield generator and see about suspending there. If a robot succeeds in being suspended and remaining suspended five seconds past the end, the robot earns 25 points. If two robots suspend and make it so that the bar is level, an additional 15 points are awarded. The team's robot suspended successfully perhaps a little more than half the time, and on two occasions, was on an alliance that gained the 15 points bonus.

So in a good match there'd be 6 points for the autonomous play, 10 points during tele-operated play, 25 points for suspending successfully, and potentially a share of the 15 point bonus, for having a level bar, so we'll count that as 7.5 points. A good match would generate 48.5 points while a round where the autonomous failed, only a few power cells were put into the lower port, and the robot just managed to get to the shield generator, the robot would generate 7 or 8 points.

Some of the strongest robots of the tournament would be able to shoot into the upper port their three starting power cells, pick up three more, and launch those into the upper port, all within the autonomous period. Then, during the match, they'd be able to launch between 10 and 25 power cells into the upper port, about a quarter of the time into the inner port which gets the most points. And finally, they would consistently be able to suspend.

On that Friday evening, I walked to the AirBNB while G-bot went with the team. Then I walked to the restaurant where the whole team was gathering to eat. I arrive second after a family had already arrived and I sat with them and we chatted. Then the whole team arrived at once. G-Bot and I walked back to the apartment after dinner.

The next morning it was -11C outside, and the apparel I had brought was not appropriate for that temperature, so we were going to Uber to the university, but Uber told us there was nothing available, so we took a taxi instead. Later on in the day on Saturday a band came and played during some of the down time of the competition.

They covered some popular songs and also sang some French songs.

During the alliance selection, it worked out that though their team ranked 7th, they ended up being captain of Alliance #4. Their team was eliminated, losing to Alliance #5 in two matches.

I stuck around to the end, and also to all of the awards that were granted; there wasn't a rush as our bus home was leaving at 8PM, and everything wrapped up by 6PM. What was interesting was to see the actual size of represented teams. Here is an award that was granted to a team with a fairly typical size of members:

And then a different award was given out and this team was massive:

I did not want to summon a taxi at the sports center where this event was taking place as there was so much traffic of people leaving in buses and cars, so we walked through the University campus to end up on the other side of it, and summoned a taxi there. I had an app on my phone where we could track where the taxi was going and it kept getting further away from us. Eventually we cancelled it, called a taxi company, and were picked up soon after.

We grabbed a burger and fries from a restaurant adjacent to the bus stop, caught the bus okay, and got back home before midnight.

Their team is also competing at an event in my city, at the Olympic Stadium, taking place Easter Weekend. I will most definitely go to that one too. If their team can be more consistent and get 40-45 points in every match, I think that ought to place them better.

when the couch counts to 79

So, COVID-19 is becoming more and more of a thing.

I have two travel events happening in the next four weeks. The first is a local trip, taking an intercity bus to Sherbrooke on Friday morning, and then an intercity bus from Sherbrooke Saturday evening. This is a very much low risk event as it is closer to the present and does not involve leaving the country (or the province).

March 26 I fly to Miami, the 27th get on a cruise which returns on the 1st of April when I fly back home again. This has higher risk as it is further into the future, which allows COVID-19 to expand its reach, and it is a trip in a different country, where travel rules can change at any moment.

Perhaps I should get insurance for the bigger trip.

At this moment there is no news from the organizers of the CTTE that anything is different. So this is good.

I was going to go to the gym today, but I forgot the access pass at home. I will be sure to bring it tomorrow.

This post is so flush with reality it is like eating dry ice.

when lemmings serve you herring

So the trip to the Rochester Institute of Technology did not actually end up happening.

We got back from the Grand Oasis Palm Cancun and I was very sick with a fever, headache, sore throat and some very ineffective coughing. I had started to get sick the third to last day in Mexico with it getting particularly bad the last day.

Instead of driving to Rochester Thursday morning I drove to see a doctor who did a strep test whose quick response came up negative.

I went back on Sunday morning to complain that still I wasn't doing much better and found that the more comprehensive 48 hour strep test also came up negative. The doctor on Sunday did a more thorough investigation but could find nothing that could be treated antibiotically.

Here we are Thursday again and I'm mostly better; the fever is gone, as is the headache, but I'm left with a pesky cough that I fear I will not be rid of in some time.

Tomorrow and Saturday are the last two days that the robot that my son's Robotics Team compete. Their robot was not particularly effective this year as I watched last weeks tournament from afar. They may have made some adjustments, so we'll see if there is any improvement tomorrow. I will see if I can post a video to show you.

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yep, like a moron playing golf in his underwear

We will have arrived at around 11AM in Cancun, Wednesday morning. The resort we are staying at, the Oasis Palm, has internet available at a rather exorbitant price, so it isn't likely that we will have paid for any.

Once I get back on the 15th of March, my son and I will be heading south to Rochester, NY, for a Robotics tournament where the hotel I'll be staying at does have internet at no charge, so I may return to post then.

In the mean time, I have these pre-posted posts.

stock brokers who lose at chess

Over the past few days I've had almost half a dozen instances of SLI take place. The wiki article indicates there is no scientific evidence for this, and while I agree without scientific evidence there is no rational or reasonable explanation, however, my own experience tells me that there is some causality that is not presently explainable.

I will be building the top half of the boiler that will be used as the high efficiency furnace to turn fuel into steam.


From Kijiji I'll be getting a three foot long 16" sonotube that will mimic the 15" tube of the top of the boiler. On top of the sonotube I need to make the funnel that is six inches wider than the tube. Then I'll bring this to the lab where the robot is being built and they can make use of it for target testing.

trip

We left the high school at about 17h20 on Monday, April 25th. We stopped for supper at an onRoute, then crossed into the US in the wee hours, then had breakfast somewhere and then lunch in St. Louis at White Castle. Stopped at the convention center to register and get our passes, then went to the St. Louis Art Museum, then went to a spot across the river from the Arc and took some photos, then picked up a couple of people then went to the hotel where we ordered in pizza.

Wednesday morning we visited a Sacred Heart school and then we had lunch in St. Charles, then we went to the dome and convention center where it was crazy with the 600 teams unloading their equipment to bring it into the pit. In the late afternoon there was a practice round.

Thursday and Friday were qualification matches all day, G-Bot's team's robot didn't do well - at the end of qualifications it placed 55th out of 75 teams. Thursday evening team 296 (G-Bot's team) and team 3990, another Quebec team, had supper together. They were crowded a little into a hotel conference room and just around the corner outside of the room was an access corridor to the hotel's bar/lounge. There were five parents in all (including me) who decided to eat there and we had a nice time for adult conversation. The service took long, however, and by the time we were done, the kids had all filed back into the bus and had been waiting for some amount of time.

Saturday morning was alliance selection and team 296 did not get selected, so some of us were free to roam while others started packing up the pit and the robot. I went to a different division and watched that division's quarter and semi-finals. I had to leave before the finals were played as we had organized a place/time for lunch. It ended up that a few loaves of bread, sandwich meat, mustard and mayo had been bought along with some chips and soft drinks and we found a spot in the student lounge in the convention center where the championship was held where we took two tables and had lunch.

Saturday afternoon was the championship where the winning alliances of the eight divisions battled it out. We were sitting very high and so it was harder to get into it and to see what was going on. The alliance that we were rooting for ended up losing in the tiebreaker of the final.

Soon after that we met up with the bus, loaded it up with our possessions and the pit equipment and left, it was about 18h50 that we left. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for supper at around 21h45, crossed the border at around 4h, had breakfast and lunch at onRoute stops and got back to the high school at about 17h on Sunday.

After this experience of being with the team I have decided I will play a more active role with the team next year, though what that means, exactly, I do not know.

sadly, the isotope smelled of zebra urine

Waking up in a quagmire of ski lessons mixed with proctology visits is unlike any Saturday morning recreational activity that a teenaged lemur would suggest to an electron.

Continuing to do something that has already stopped is not a recommended procedure when referring to using a toaster to heat up ice cream. I should know.

An elocutionist who specialized in speech impediments lisped uncontrollably while barbecuing a submerged Kit Kat bar. This reminded no one of something that they should have kept from not remembering.

The foot step sounds of a coworker are extremely identifiable, especially considering this coworker's gait. I make little noise when I perambulate, rendering my identification by foot step sound insoluble.

A meritocracy went disco bowling on a Tuesday night and scored a high score: J.

There was a time when time was not made of cream cheese. There was also a time, way back, that it could be argued that cream cheese did not exist. Time renders inexistential the capacity for cream cheese to wallow vacuously. I should know.

That even Mod would make it into a Ceremonial Soup post begs the question of appropriateness. Given my quality but paltry-numbered readership, I don't think it matters even a scintilla. Of course, if Mod were ever to read this blog, it is doubtful that Mod could make sense of four sevenths of it.

The sordid bits scraped off a partially used soap bar did not go down well in Gertrude's Rice Krispies cereal on Monday morning. That I introduce a character at this point in the post

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The previous map and this one are one continuous trip with likely a few stops to eat. I broke it up roughly in London, Ontario, as it is probably around about there that we cross into April 26th in or near that town. Team 296 chartered a bus and this time I am traveling with the team and staying at the same hotel with the team. My son, G-Bot, and I are sharing a room in the hotel. The hotel is 30 miles outside of St. Louis, so each morning the charter bus will take us into the Convention Center and each evening it will bring us back out again.

This severely limits any flexibility I have in terms of going off to do things on my own, but it is likely the least expensive way for me to have gone on this trip.

The team's robot will compete in the Championship tournament taking place from April 27-30, so tomorrow it begins.

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On Friday morning at around 4:15AM I was getting into my van to drive to Oshawa, Ontario.

My son's robotics team had arrive late Wednesday, but the actual competition started Friday morning, so I wanted to get there as close to the start as possible.

Here's the team's (Team 296) first round:

From the start to the 15 second mark the robots are autonomous, and by crossing the defenses and being clearly separated from the defenses, the robots earn 10 points for their alliance. Once the autonomous mode is done, the robots become remote controlled and they gain points by:
1. Breaching a defense for the first time 5pts
2. Breaching a defense for the second time 5pts
3. Putting a boulder into the lower hole 2pts
4. Launching a boulder into the upper hole 5pts
5. Being on the apron at match end 5pts
6. Raising the robot up by grappling onto the tower bar and being above the lower door 15pts.

In the video above, G-Bot's team's robot scored the highest score for the event: 44 points made up of 10 points autonomous, three defenses breached, two balls scored into the lower hole and then ending on the apron.

The next video their team scored fewer points, but it was thrilling to see them score so many low hole balls.


The team who ranked highest through qualifications and whose robot's alliance won this event is shown in this one:


I stayed at an AirBNB apartment associated with a hotel, so I got to eat breakfast at the hotel on the Saturday morning. I stayed for the first half to see the remainder of the qualification rounds, then G-Bot's team got picked fifth in the selection round to see what teams would make it into the finals tournament. The alliance that had G-Bot's team lost both quarter final matches and so they were eliminated from the tournament.

I watched the first two semi-finals and then left.

I was fairly impressed with the fuel efficiency of my Dodge Grand Caravan which usually hums along at 12L/100KM (the Canadian way of expressing mileage). But for the long haul back the car told me this:

9.1L/100KM is pretty good for a V6 3.8L engine.

I got home around 21h30 and then had to pick up my son as the team arrived at around midnight.