Today during this session we have all been working on different roles:

1. Alicia and Esme are designing stickers to add branding for out sponsorship support
2. Jessica is buying the hoodies for everyone and finalising the designs.
3. Toby and Henry are further developing the build for the robot
4. Beatrix and Jamie have been writing a speech for the end of term assembly to present to the whole school to outline what our robotics group is about and the competition.

Almost coping with errors - A little more practice is needed.

Robot picking its self up after a fall.

It does not always go as planned. Pt1 - Life of a robot

Opps not holding the sample to the lower bar

Scrimmage Day 4th December

The day began with two guest speakers. The first was a student studying mathematics at Oxford University who had participated in many of these competitions in previous years.

The second speaker represented Oxford Dynamics, sharing insights into the history of robotics and how they have evolved to be used in challenging environments, such as hazardous areas.

Today, we went to Oxford High School for a scrimmage. We worked on attaching two bars to our robot to make it taller so it can reach the top bar. We also helped other groups by assisting them in attaching chains to their builds.

We’d like to express our thanks to three potential sponsors—Oxford IT Solutions, Oxford Education Robotics, and Versantus—for showing interest in supporting our competition journey. Their support means a lot to us!

At the scrimmage, we focused on practising for the main competition day by taking turns as drivers. Each of us had 1-minute practice rounds to see who could collect the most samples and either clip or place them into a basket within the time limit. It was exciting and gave us a chance to test our skills.

Next, we’ll be working on programming the first 30 seconds of the autonomous section of the competition. This is where the robot will need to act on its own without any human control.

Overall, the day was really fun, and we made a lot of progress!

4th December Scrimmage Day @ Oxford High

Just Hanging On!

A huge well done to the team for successfully navigating the robot to hook a sample. Next up: the challenge of getting the robot to lift off the ground! Stay tuned for more exciting progress!

It's alive! Well almost!

This week, the students have made great strides in bringing the robot to life! They’ve been busy developing their programs and working collaboratively as a team to fine-tune the robot's movement and control the arms. It’s been amazing to see their coding skills and teamwork in action as the project comes together. The robot’s almost there!

🚀 Progress Update! 🤖

Our team is making amazing strides! The robot can now collect samples, drop them off, and even do a pull-up! 💪 Now, it’s all about refining the design and honing our strategy.

We’re thrilled to be heading to our 1st ever-scrimmage day at Oxford High in early December —time to put the hard work to the test!

Stay tuned for updates! 🙌

Henry, Toby and Josh have been testing and programming the robots and moving it around the classroom. Esme and Bae have been working on the sponsorship letters. Poppy and Jessica did badges.

• Henry
• Beatrix
• Jamie 
• Esme
• Emily 
• Poppy 
• Alicia
• Jessica 
• Josh 
• Toby
• Righley
• Vivian

There are two more members that have joined robotics today.

Great work today by the Outreach Team and everyone who contributed! The students organised a cake sale to raise funds for the competition. I'm pleased to report that they raised a total of £96.

Well done to everyone involved! Your teamwork and organisational skills were truly impressive.

Today at robotics,Jamie,George and Righley are building the upper section of the robot.

Poppy and Bea are making out badges to put on our blazer.

Jessica and Esme our adding the price total of our hoodies together

Amy and May are working on the engineering portfolio.

We have our first cake sale tomorrow to raise some money for our hoodies!

We also have our first scrimmage of the season on 4th december!

Today some students have been building and programming the robot grabber to allow the robot to grab the samples.

Program is being developed for the autonomous mode part of the competition and also teleop mode

We have a new member who joined our GEAR team: George. George has been assisting with the robot build today. We will post more updates about the build shortly.

Today at robotics,Emily and Bea are creating a letter for businesses about donating money to us.While Jessica and Poppy are printing out are cake sale posters and displaying them around the school.

Amy and May are developing motor controller and servo-autonomous for our robot.

And Henry,Toby and george are developing the upper section of the robot.

Watch this space for more updates!

Great work today by the robotics build team and programmers a great team effort at getting the robot to come to life.

Today at robotics,Emily is emailing our head of phase about a cake sale we are planning on doing.While Jessica and Poppy are designing a cake sale poster and looking at the cakes we could buy.

Josh and Toby are starting on learning how to program the control unit.Jamie and Henry and planning the robot

Beatrix is starting to organise our team finance and Esme and myself are keeping our social media upto date.

Watch this space for updates soon!

 Gosford Engineering and Robotics

The Current members of GEAR usernames:

• Henry 
• Beatrix
• Jamie 
• Esme
• Emily 
• Poppy 
• Alicia
• Jessica 
• Josh 
• Toby

Although these are the current members of GEAR we are happy to welcome any new members

The roles of the members of GEAR

• Henry is chair of GEAR 
• Esme and Alicia have the job role of keeping the engineering online notes and social media up to date.
• Beatrix and poppy have a role of fundraising and keeping track of the finance
• Josh Henry Toby and Jamie are all incharge of programming and engineering 
• Emily and Jessica are both incharge of marketing 

Although these are the job roles of the members of GEAR we all work together to achieve the best results.

REV Hardware Client has now been installed and updated on the school machines. Team GEAR will be able to start thinking about programming once the basics have been assembled.

The robot build has started!

Team GEAR kicked off their robot-building process! After a thorough inventory check, they’ve organised all the parts into trays, ensuring a smooth, methodical approach to reduce mistakes. The team has worked together brilliantly from the start. Stay tuned for updates as they continue their exciting journey. Good luck, Team GEAR!

First Tech Challenge Website (click on the link to visit site) - Link

The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a global robotics competition designed for students aged 12 to 18 years old to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through hands-on learning. In this challenge, teams of students work together to design, build, and program robots to compete in a series of tasks and missions. The robots, controlled by smartphones or other devices, navigate a game field, completing objectives to score points. Each year, the challenge has a unique theme - This year 2024 - 2025 its called 'Into the Deep'.

Key Aspects of FTC:

1. Teamwork: FTC is all about collaboration. Students work in teams to develop creative solutions, combining individual strengths in areas like programming, engineering, and design.
2. Gracious Professionalism: This core value encourages friendly competition and mutual respect, where teams help each other and strive to improve themselves, both in and out of the competition.
3. Engineering Notebook: Teams document their journey in an engineering notebook, showcasing the design process, challenges, and solutions they encounter throughout the season (this robotics GEAR social feed will be part of our engineering notebook)
4. Real-World Applications: Students are exposed to real-world challenges, learning problem-solving, coding, and engineering principles that apply beyond the competition field.
5. Inspiring Innovation: FTC nurtures innovation and creativity, giving students the opportunity to think outside the box while developing technical skills.

INTO THE DEEP presented by RTX Field Tour

2024-2025 INTO THE DEEP presented by RTX

A video outline of what the First Tech Competition for 2024 - 2025