The match is broken into two distinct

sections— an Autonomous and Tele-

operated stage. What Kilroy Robotics

chooses to do during these two times

will be important in being competitive in

Recycle Rush. Our “game plan” is as

follows:

The first fifteen sec-

onds of the game is the

autonomous phase.

This is when the robot

only runs solely on

code. Kilroy Robotics

plans to be able to pick

up a yellow tote from

the staging area and

moving it to the auto-

zone. In total this

scores 10 points, 6

from the tote and 4

from the robot pro-

gressing into a different

zone. If our alliance

partners also move into

the autozone with a

tote and we stack them

all that’s 20 points not

including the 12 points from the robots in

the autozone.

The second phase is tele-operated. This

is when the drivers are in control of the

robot. We plan on being able to pick up

three totes at a time, then being able to

create a stack of six in total and put a

recycling bin with a piece of litter on top

of the stack. We are also keeping a low

center of gravity, so that we can avoid

tipping over when working on stacking

totes. Lastly, in the last few seconds of

each match Kilroy wishes to be able to

push the litter into the landfill zone so

that our opponents will not receive

points from “unprocessed litter” in our

autozone or staging zone.

The 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition

Challenge is Recycle Rush— a game

played by two alliances of three teams

each. Alliances compete simultaneously

to score points by stacking totes on Scor-

ing Platforms, capping those stacks with

Recycling Containers,

and properly disposing

litter, represented by

pool noodles, in desig-

nated locations. These

locations are two-inch

high platforms that are

throughout the field.

Saturday January 3rd

and Sunday January

4th consisted of all-day

strategy and design

brainstorming at Coloni-

al Forge High School in

Stafford. The team had

to not only decide how

we wanted to approach

the challenge of Recy-

cle Rush, but also how

we were going to con-

struct a robot to do so.

At the end of the design days, the team

had decided upon four primary goals to

focus on, which were then prioritized—

1. Be able to stack three totes high with

a container

2. Be able to cross the scoring platform

3. Be able to Push Litter

4. Be able to flip totes upright

In order to do this, Kilroy Robotics then

voted on general design aspects for the

robot. We are for the twice year in history,

using a mecanum drive train, with a fork-

lift to manipulate totes and containers.

Similar to last year, the robot will have a

modulus design enabling different parts

of the robot to be worked on inde-

pendently.

Kilroy’s Strategy By Sidd Rao and Jessica Salinas

CURRENT MEMBER COUNT:

39 STUDENTS

FROM STAFFORD, SPOTSYLVANNIA, KING

GEORGE AND CAROLINE

COUNTIES

January 2015

FRC TEAM KILROY 339

Schedule of Events 2

Kilroy News 3

3-D Printer 3

Sponsor of the Month 3

Mid-Build Update 4

Pictures

Special Thank You 5

Get Involved 6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

KILROY IMPACT TRACKER:

3,520 PEOPLE

FROM THE COUNTIES OF STAFFORD SPTOSYVANIA KING GEORGE AND CAROLINE

KILROY Newsletter

Editor: Jessica Salinas

January Page 2

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

3/6— Demo @ Englund Run Library in Stafford

3/13—Demo @ Porter Library in Stafford

3/19-21—Regional Com-petition in Richmond, VA

Regular Weekly Meetings will be Thursdays at the Lab in Stafford from 6-9pm

Kilroy Advisory Team Meet-ings will be Tuesdays at the Lab in Stafford from 6-8pm

Additional Meetings will be added as needed.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3

KAT

4 5

Meeting

6

Demo

7

8 9 10

KAT

11 12

Meeting

13

Demo

14

15 16 17

KAT

18 19 20 21

22 23 24

KAT

25 26

Meeting

27 28

29 30 31

KAT

March

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

2/17—End of Build Season

2/17—Demo @ Freedom Middle School in Spotsylva-nia

2/24— Kilroy Advisory Team Meeting @ Lab

2/26—Regular Weekly Meeting @ Lab

Week of 2/1— regular lab meetings will be Tues., Wed., and Thurs., at the Lab from 6-9pm.

Week of 2/8— regular lab meetings will be every week day from 6-9pm

Week of 2/15— regular lab meetings will be Mon., Tues., and Wed., from 6-9pm .

We will meet the first two Sat-urdays of the month from 9am– 4pm at Lab

We will meet on the second and third Sunday of the month from 1-5pm

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3

Meeting

4

Meeting

5

Meeting

6

7

Meeting

8

Meeting

9

Meeting

10

Meeting

11

Meeting

12

Meeting

13

Meeting

14

Meeting

15

Meeting

16

Meeting

17 Meeting Demo

18 Chairman Meeting

19 Chairman Meeting

20

21

22

23 24

KAT

25 26

Meeting

27 28

February

Chairman’s team will continue to meet 2/18 and 2/19 following the conclusion of bagging the robot.

Virginia Regional Competition

FIRST FRC Team 339 Kilroy Robotics Page 3

Kilroy Robotics is currently raising

money to attend a second Regional

Competition. Historically, the team

attends two competitions each sea-

son. This year, we are trying to raise

$5,000 to attend a second competi-

tion. To achieve this goal, Kilroy

Robotics is holding an online dona-

tion campaign, through piggybackr.

KILROY NEWS

The url to the Kilroy Page is:

https://www.piggybackr.com/

david_shotwell/kilroy-robotics-

help-us-go-to-chesapeake-

regional-fundraiser

Check it out with this QR code:

Kilroy Robotics has awarded the title

of Sponsor of the Month to SimVen-

tions.

SimVentions is local small business,

with specialties ranging from sys-

tems engineering to program man-

agement. Employees work daily

through the various government

contracts the company acquires a

year, specifically with products

meant for military use.

With an emphasis on customer sat-

isfaction, SimVentions goes above

and beyond their clients’ expecta-

Sponsor of the Month by KC Cowan

tions in order to meet their criteria

and more. Besides a stellar track

record in the private sector, the

company stresses building strong

relationships with the general pub-

lic, specifically students with an

expressed interest in Science,

Technology, Engineering, and

Mathematics (STEM) careers.

Every year, SimVentions opens its

doors to various schools and

STEM-based activities to provide

an insight into the world of engi-

neering as early as possible.

Many opportunities are also of-

fered for those looking for work

experience in their respective

fields and technical certifications.

SimVentions has helped shape

the country’s next generation of

engineers, and Kilroy 339 thanks

you for your gracious donation to

our team!

After a long wait, we finally have our Ekocycle 3D printer! The Ekocycle uses recycled plastic bottles as the material in their spools as a way to promote environmentally friendly practices. It can print anything within a 6x6x6 inch area. The 3D printer lays down one layer of plastic at a time and as such doesn’t waste any material and allows for both stability and structural strength. As an added bonus, our Ekocycle can print two colors simultaneously, sadly no orange yet but more colors will become available. So far we are planning on using the printer this build season to make sonar horn, which will be used to direct sound

EKOCYCLE Cube 3-D Printer by Sidd Rao, Luke Gentry, Ben Hellmann, Jacob Puckett

waves so that our receptors only read what is necessary, and brackets for holding air tanks in place.

We have just printed out our first Kilroy designed piece for Kilroy 16—an air tank bracket.

January Page 4

The mechanical and construction

subteam of Kilroy Robotics is hard

at work with the design and physical

building of the 2015 season's robot.

The frame for the robot was entirely

designed on AutoDesk Inventor, a

Computer Aided Design program.

After finishing the designs, we sent

the designs to Night Vision Labs at

Fort Belvoir. There, the pieces were

cut to out our specifications using an

abrasive jet cutter. The parts were

then sent back to us and were im-

mediately sent with Chris Blackburn

with Commonwealth Technology to

be powdered coated a bright safety

orange.

After powder coating, Mr. Blackburn

sent the parts back so that they

could finally be pieced together into

an actual drive train. Transmissions

were then assembled. Due to our

use of mecanum drive, each of the

four wheels requires its own motor

transmission. Once all were con-

structed, the complete drive train

was put together and was handed

over to the programming focused

subteam while design of the forklift

was initiated.

nary list of items like motor control-lers and sensors that would be nec-essary for autonomous and teleop. Code was then begun.

Once the 2015 frame had been completed by the mechanical and construction subteam, two meetings were spent transferring all of the hardware occur.

In the next few minutes to come, the focus will be on calibrating the motor controllers for the new drive train.

With the significant influx of new programming members this season, the subteam of Kilroy Robotics dedi-cated to programming the robot. In order to more effectively and effi-ciently finish the code the robot they divided into three sub-groups—one for teleop, one to focus on autono-mous, and one for “engineering”.

The subteam spent several meet-ings deciding what needed to be done for each portion of the match. This allowed us to create a prelimi-

Additionally, work will be done to create a function that will compen-sate for strafing errors

Mid-build Update

Programming Team by Noah Golmant

Mechanical and Construction Team by Nicholas Pacheco

FIRST FRC Team 339 Kilroy Robotics Page 5

We would also like to express our

gratitude to Mr. Blackburn with Com-

monwealth Technologies. The mem-

bers and mentors greatly appreciate

your willingness to come to lab to

receive our frame parts and weld and

powder coat them orange.

Kilroy Robotics would like to extend

a special Thank You to the following

generous contributors:

Joanne C. Close

Vic and Grayce Lechtenburg

Nancy Espeland

Kurt and Marie Heindrichs

Daniel and Jennifer Hammond

Kilroy Robotics would not be able to

attend the Chesapeake Regional

without your donations! Thank you

again for helping with out piggybackr

campaign.

Pictures Credits to Brittany White and Jessica Salinas

A Special Thank You to:

"FIRST is a network of Gracious Professionals, passionately developing compassionate

leaders from the youth of the world that will solve our global challenges by applying

technology and scientific solutions to the hard problems humanity has yet to solve."

Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor

robot; however we may be able to find use of it in another aspect of the team.

Partnership is a form of sponsorship that Kilroy Robotics holds on a much different regard. In es-sence, the relationship between the team and a partner is much more inter-active than with a sponsor. Businesses are allowed the opportunity to Partner with Kilroy Robotics and offer mentors and support with specific projects. Currently the team has two mentors from sponsors—who are greatly enjoying their time with FIRST Robotics Com-petition Team 339 Kilroy Robotics and whose time and efforts are appreciated more than words can ex-press. Additionally, organi-zations can choose to be instrumental in the planning and implementation of out-reach events and impact efforts. The team is always looking for businesses who have “been there and done that” to bounce ideas off of—ideas concerning any-thing from robot fabrication to possible summer camps.

Anyone can donate and all donations and sponsorship is accepted with an abun-dance of gratitude. Sup-porting Kilroy Robotics is an opportunity to spread the word of FIRST and highlight the importance of

Our success quite simply depends on you.

Interacting and cooperat-ing with local businesses is vital for financing our oper-ations and most important-ly, inspiring the community about FIRST and STEM.

Tax deductible monetary donations to our non-profit organization will allow us to purchase parts and pay for Regional Competition Registrations and the as-sociated costs. Financial support can be specified to aid a specific goal or branch of the team—computer programming, mechanical fabrication, spirit organization, general team organization, safety organization…etc.. Previ-ously, business support has enabled Kilroy Robot-ics to fund FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Lego League teams in High Schools and an Ele-mentary School in Stafford County.

Sponsorship can also come in the form of dona-tions in kind. These dona-tions can come in the form old equipment or useful supplies. The team is very good at recycling and reus-ing old technical and me-chanical resources. There are certain materials that FIRST does not allow the team to use in the actual

STEM. Robotics is so much more than a club that simply builds a robot. Robotics is a club that builds people—the future generations of profession-al engineers, scientists, technicians, grant writers, CEOs, mathematicians, and entrepreneurs.

Prompting leadership, determination, persever-

ance, motivation, interest,

and inspiration all that is missing from

Kilroy Robotics is you.

Get Involved!

FIRST ROBOTICS COMPEITION

FIRST TECH CHALLENGE

FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

www.usfirst.org

FRC TEAM KILROY 339 CONTACT INFO

COMMONWEALTH GOVENOR’S SCHOOL

http://www.cgsva.net/cgs/default.aspx

DAVID SHOTWELL, HEAD COACH

kilroyrobotics@gmail.com

(540) 658-6115 ext. 125

Lockheed Martin

SimVentions

Atkinson Aeronautics

Stafford Economic

Development Authority

HDT Robotics

National Defense

Education Program

NAVSEA Dahlgren

CGS PTO

Fredericksburg PC Users Group

Commonwealth Technology

C&S MillWorks

Sherri Oesterheld

Amy Night Vision Labs, Fort Belvoir

KILROY 339

AND THE COMMONWEALTH

GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL

WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR

SPORNORS: