Welcome to the Team 1403's Website!

Homepage

Welcome to the website of Team 1403 Cougar Robotics, a FIRST Robotics Competition team from Montgomery High School, Skillman, New Jersey. As a member of FIRST our vision is "To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

Our team was founded at Montgomery High School in 2004. Since then, we have expanded to the point where we have become a host of an official FIRST Kickoff Event in New Jersey, as well as the host of the off-season event Monty Madness. Our team has grown to involve over 60 students, as well as many active parents and mentors. We are proudly sponsored by science and technology companies Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), and Convatec.

With over 90 colleges and universities, professional associations, and corporations from the United States and Canada, FIRST provides 600 individual scholarship opportunities to FIRST high school students from over 120 providers, valued at nearly $9 million. FIRST is a great opportunity for the community, and Team 1403 Cougar Robotics is proud to be an active member.

Currently, we are designing and building a new robot to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition 2009 season game, Lunacy. This year's game requires teams to score balls into the opponent's goal (similar to soccer). However, the challenge is that the goals are attached behind the robots. Teams can either have the robot score or designate a human player to throw balls into the opponents goal. In addition to moving goals, teams must contend with low friction conditions because of regolith covering on field and special wheels to lower friction.

Quick Updates!

3/21/09 Team 1403 graciously recieved the Chrysler Team Spirit Award at the Philadelphia Regional. Go Cougars!

1/31/09 ATTENTION TEAM1403 MEMBERS! Forms for the NJ Regional trip are here:

• NJ Medical Form 09
• NJ Permission Slip 09
• NJ Teacher Permission Form

1/03/09 Montgomery High School Cougar Robotics hosted a season kickoff event. FIRST has released the details of the new game and it seems like this year is going to be a real challenge!

The Mechanical Team

The Mechanical sub-team is responsible for building the physical body and the nuts and bolts of the robot. During the six weeks of the build season, the mechanical team fabricates all the parts and assembles it to make the final FIRST Robot. Using drawings provided by the design team, the mechanical team members move to the shop, where they use precision measuring, cutting, and milling to gradually piece together what they hope will turn out to be an award winning, and highly competitive robot. Mechanical team members learn how to use a wide range of tools during the build season, including calipers and micrometers, in conjunction with the lathe and the milling machine.

During competitions, the mechanical team is responsible for keeping the robot running. Whether a chain link has broken, or in the worst case, a part has somehow fallen off the robot, the mechanical team fixes it. When time is short, members pull together like a well oiled pit crew to bring the robot back to peak performance.

The mechanical team has approximately 18 members led by Kuren P. and Jon B

The Design Team

The Design Team deals with the preliminary design of the robot each year. It in turn works with Mechanical, Electrical, and Strategy to help sketch a robot that fulfills the needed FIRST requirements. Using Autodesk Inventor, the Design Team is able to create 3D models of the robot on the computer. The Team will then assess how well the robot will perform based on this. Any design changes if required will be made right in Inventor. This helps to maximize efficiency. When it comes time to build the robot, the designs can be sent straight to the manufacturing site where they are made according to the design specifications. They also have a mock up of the robot containing all items from electrical equipment to the mechanical specs. This readies the team with a full mock up of the robot in case something needs to be replaced.

The Design Team has approximately 14 members led byXavier P. and Siddhant K.

The Electrical Team

The Electrical sub-team is responsible for providing power for the robot. During the design process, the electrical team is most concerned with weather or not the designs being presented are electrically possible. If the design is going to require too much power, the team ensures the electrical specifications are properly revised. Once the design process is complete, and understands the power requirements, the electrical board is built. Having an organized electrical board is a key to design, and will help diagnose problems without having to comb through a mess of tangled wires in order to find a problem.

The electrical team has approximately 10 members led by Rachael T. and Ricky J.

The Programming Team

The Programming sub-team is the one that does all the programming needs for the season. They use "C" programming language to program the robot. Another function of the Programming team is to create side projects that would be useful for the continuing operation of the robot. This includes but is not limited to the creation of a program to mimic the game field and generate our autonomous code. It is mainly responsible for making sure the robot does what it needs to do. The programming team uses the MPLAB IDE to develop code for the robot. Another vital role of the programming team is to spread the knowledge of programming to all the new members to the team. The team teaches new members basic "C" and Java by holding weekly meetings. As well as robot related programming, for the new members to eventually be able to understand and code the robot.

The Programming team has approximately 8 members led by Paul B.

The Strategy Team

The Strategy sub-team is the team that helps the team determines the best way to play the game. It is the team that has the most work during competitions. The weekend right after Kick Off (where the new game is released) the team will be rushing to let the design, mechanical, programming and other sub-teams know what the most effective way to score points. Then they work with the sub-teams to design an efficient way of achieving these goals. At competitions, the Strategy Team will "scout" other teams to find out how their robots work. Using a form that would have been developed beforehand, team members ask other teams about the different parts of their robots, how they work, how they score, along with how they have been doing. They also work closely with the Publicity Team to compile videos of matches, and to watch these matches to see how teams perform while competing.

The Strategy sub-team has 8 members under the captain of John K.

Administrative Team

The duties of the Administrative Team focus mainly on making sure applications for awards and trips are filled out, and send in on time. The most time consuming activity this team works on is the preparations for the Chairman's Award. They are also in charge of creating pamphlets and information sheets that will be handed out at competitions providing judges and other FIRST teams with a detailed description of our Robots capabilities.

Administrative sub-team has approximately 3 members led by Lara S.

The Publicity Team

The Publicity sub-team is in charge of the CORE (Community Out- Reach Events) Planning Committee. In order to raise interest for FIRST, this sub-team is responsible of getting media involvement to working on funding the team. As a sub-team, we design and implement all the fundraisers the team does.

On the other end of the spectrum we work on obtaining sponsors by informing companies about FIRST and our team. We also contact local schools and hold events to show them what FIRST is about in an attempt to get rookie FRC teams started.

The Publicity sub-team has approximately 8 members under the captain of Sudheer S.

The Audio/Video Team

The Audio/Video Sub-team is in charge of communication on the audio and visual scale. This sub-team is responsible for compiling videos and pictures from building the robot thru the competition and inspiring everyone with the memories they have created.

Footage of the build season is taken as well, so each step of the development of the robot could be properly documented to share their experience and lessons learned for the next year's team. The team has recently bought a custom computer and high end film equipment with a grant from the PTSA, so the editing and compiling of video can be done right in the robotics room. The Audio/Video sub-team is responsible for piecing together any visual aids that will be used. This sub-team also assists in running the Audio/Video equipment at our annual Kickoff Event and at our off-season, Monty Madness.

The Audio/Video sub-team has approximately 5 members under the captain of Mike H.

The Animation Team

The Animation sub-team is the newest out of all of our different sub-teams. The team this year has ventured in to a new era and it planning to continue through out the years to come. This team uses the program 3D Studio Max by Autodesk to make the animation for the season. Every year FIRST has an animation challenge that they give the teams. It is usually a Safety Animation. So this year the team has made their first ever animation that gives a 3-D video with sound that has to do with keeping the Pit area clean and also where to find medical supplies and such. This team is the sub-team that works a lot with each other and depends on each other to get the work done. This sub-team really knows what team work is all about.

This sub-team has 4 members under the captains of Dylan A. and Chris Z. Safety Animation 07-08 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIvT9G1yKig

The Website Team

The Web sub-team is responsible for building and maintaining this very website, a comprehensive source of information for the Montgomery Cougar Robotics Team 1403. They learned to use a variety of technologies, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JS (JavaScript), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), and PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) while building the site. This team works together with the Publicity team, to consolidate photos and videos, and share them through the site. The sub-team meet weekly to keep the site updated, and constantly work to learn new technologies and find better ways to effectively distribute the information.



Currently, this sub-team is under the leadership of Rohit K. with 4 members.

General Team

Cougar Robotics Team 1403 is led by Team Co-Captains Sravan Suryadevara and William Robbins, and is advised by Mr. Tim Leicht. When asked what his position on the team is, Mr. Tim Leicht responded, "the 'head nut' for the team to keep the other 'nuts' in line." He serves as the main contact and primary advisor for the team. William and Sravan are the student team leaders who run team meetings, keep the team on schedule, and have fun! Although FIRST is a team effort, it is important for any team to be organized and have strong leadership. Cougar Robotics Team 1403's leadership is provided by our mentors to our team captains to our subteam captains and then to our team members, a method that has ensured success and will continue to bring success.



Currently, Team1403 is led by co-captains Sravan S. and William R. with Mr. Leicht as the team's lead mentor.