4PM NZT @ discord

• Session 1 (Mar 15). Engineering design process. We talk about the design process and how that appli03es to robotics.
• Session 2 (Mar 22). Mechanisms. We talk about the physical components in robots and the mechanical movements in them.
• Session 3 (Mar 29). Software & Electronics. We talk about the electrical components in robots and integrating coding into mechanisms as well as CAD (Inventor/Fusion 360)
• Session 4 (Apr 5). Summary and one big scenario. We summarise the past 3 sessions into one and give an example to create discussions as a checkpoint of our knowledge base.
• Session 5 (Apr 12). We celebrate by having a big party. We talk about the struggles of robotics and argue who the most handsome character is in the blockbuster movie, Shrek. [TENTATIVE]

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@aura.uoa

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If you have any questions at all, send us a message from the website, discord, or talk to us at our Club Nights. Don’t worry if you have no experience – we’ll be there to help out from start to finish!

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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uaXKu9LT8Dqzs64kD1fFPZAJG_yj9xkq?usp=sharing

More to come soon

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Our Workshops are meant to teach people the fundamentals of various different concepts relevant to Robotics. Our aim is that by the end of these workshops, you will feel confident enough to take part in AURA Projects and Competitions.

We’ll walk you through it all every step of the way so don’t be worried if you think you’re a Robotics noob!

This page will be updated before each session with more information and resources as needed.

Week 1: Introduction to C Programming

This week we’ll be going over the basics of Programming right from the top! We’ll cover concepts like Outputting Text, Conditional Statements, Loops and Functions. The content learned is supplemented by tasks that we’ve created where you can use what you’ve learnt to create simple programs.

To get started, click the following link to download our guide:

The first session will be on the 10th of March in room 405.328. It will run from 4:30pm onwards.

Task Answers:

Example code for the first three tasks for this session can be found below:

Course Mark Calculator: https://repl.it/repls/WiseCharmingEquipment

Course Grade Calculator: https://repl.it/repls/RemarkablePlumOpengl

GPA Calculator: https://repl.it/repls/ShadowyAlarmingPagerecognition

Example code for the final task for this session will be available at the start of the next session.

Week 2: Introduction to ROBOT C

ROBOTC officially supported language for the VEX Cortex. We will be using ROBOTC and the VEX Cortex to program an existing robot. The goal of the program will be to make the robot follow a line. At the end of this, there will be a competition for the fastest run time!

It is recommended that you come to the workshop with a laptop with ROBOTC installed.

ROBOTC can be downloaded from the following link (Windows Only):
https://www.vexrobotics.com/robotc-vexedr-vexiq.html

If you don’t have a Windows laptop, don’t worry! You can still write code on normal text editors.

To get started, click the following link to download the guide:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LFZ7TWtGinD3X_QQZL1JEqrJC8ZJb8P2?usp=sharing

The second session will be on the 17th of March in room 405.328. It will run from 4:30pm onwards until 6pm, followed by the AURA Game Night!

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An enormous amount of preparation works went into this event, with the arena getting many upgrades. In addition to an upgraded pit, saw and flipper arena hazards have been installed. These keep teams on their toes a bit more, mindful that the combat competition just got a whole lot more destructive!

Our special thanks go to Vodafone for their continued support of this awesome event. We’d also like to thank SMC Pneumatics for helping us with the equipment we needed to bring new hazards to the arena, and Fingertech Robotics and Vodafone for sponsoring well over a thousand dollars worth of prizes in total.

Winners from the event are:

1st Place: Southern Warrior
2nd Place: Doorstop
3rd Place: Bender
Most Destructive Robot: Trust me I’m Engineered
Most Destroyed Robot: UTU
Best Dressed: RGB 2.0

Congratulations to all of these teams, and we look forward to our next event! We are planning to hold both a normal Mini Robot Rumble event and also an open division in mid-December. Details will be released once finalised.

More information about Mini Robot Rumble can be found here.

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Teams have spent the last 10 months refining machines able to collect small cones and build towers over a metre tall, on moveable bases. The robots have to be able to control themselves autonomously for the first fifteen seconds of the game, with the remainder of the two-minute games being remote control. Robots compete in two alliances, each consisting of two teams, so teamwork and strategy are critical elements of the game.

AURA provided the bulk of the volunteer force once again, for the three day event. Some of our members were involved months in advance with the planning of the event, and the general logistics. On the competition days, AURA personal were involved with the management of the event, as well as refereeing matches, ensuring teams were ready on time, scoring and resetting matches, and commentating.

We congratulate all teams on their progress throughout the season. Teams who won awards and qualify for the World Championships in April are:

Excellence Award:
2921S, Free Range Robotics

Tournament Champions:
2921S, Free Range Robotics
2941A, Otumoetai College
2900G, Onehunga High School

Tournament Finalists:
7682E, Wingus & Dingus
7682S, Wingus & Dingus
2900B, Onehunga High School

We wish these teams all the best of luck when they compete in Louisville, Kentucky in just a couple of months.

Some of our volunteers also won awards at this year’s National Championships. Nathan Allen, widely known as the developer behind VexDB, was awarded the Service Award. George Gillard, current Chairperson, was awarded both the Mentor of the Year and Volunteer of the Year awards.

AURA looks forward to an exciting 2018-2019 VEX season, with the next game unveiled at the World Championships in April. Unfortunately, AURA will not be competing at this year’s World Championships, largely due to the dates conflicting with university schedules.

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AURA provided a large portion of the required volunteer force. Referees for the VEX Robotics Competition were entirely from AURA, a challenging task with some of the hardest calls and decisions ever made on New Zealand shores. AURA personal also assisted with other areas of the competition, from scoring matches to event management and everything in between.

Helping with such a large event was an incredible experience for all involved. Away from the competition, AURA members mingled with other volunteers and had a fantastic time relaxing and making friends. Supporting high school teams and hosting events is one of the associations core goals as a club, so AURA was eager to assist with the operation of the Asia Pacific Championship, and looks forward to other similar events.

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With the generous support of Vodafone and the University of Auckland, the day was a huge success, with heaps of spectators and plenty of competitors. We were very impressed with the quality of some of the robots on display.

For photos of the event and the arena construction, check out our AURA Flikr

We look forward to being able to run this competition going forwards with our shiny new arena, made of solid steel and 6mm polycarb sheeting to ensure competitor safety. Shoutout to Reid Trailers for allowing us to use their manufacturing facilities.

Our winners:

1st: Southern Warrior

2nd: Team RGB

3rd: Wingus & Dingus

Most Destructive: Wingus & Dingus

Best Dressed: Team Cuddles

AURA and Vodafone both put a lot of effort into this competition, and it’s been great to see it so well received. Keep an eye out for when we announce an open competition!

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In this year’s game, robots faced off in a 1v1 format on a 4 metre x 4 metre square field, split down the middle by a 0.5-metre-tall fence. The objective of the game was to toss “stars” and “cubes” over the fence to gain points, in a fast-paced game described as “like volleyball, only with 28 objects”.

AURA finished the qualification matches with 7 convincing wins and only a single defeat, placing our team second heading into the Elimination playoffs. From there we faced teams from Michigan and New York, which we both defeated, landing us in our division finals against a team from Puerto Rico. The Puerto Ricans kept pace with their fast and aggressive strategy, however we took a 2-1 win over them to secure our spot in the Grand Finals.

With a 20,000-person audience and many more on the live stream, we were up against team IFR from Florida in the finals. Our 45 second autonomous routine put us in good stead leading into the second halves of the games, where we simply needed to defend our lead. IFR’s fast short-bursts of scoring were effective against our robot, but our greater capacity was able to overwhelm the Florida team. They changed tactics in the second game, employing a strategy to starve us of objects and use their speed in the final 30 seconds to their advantage, however we pulled off a win despite some technical difficulties in the dying seconds, and for the first time became World Tournament Champions.

In the Skills Challenges, AURA pulled off a great 65 points in Driver Skills, but due to slipping by no more than 2 millimetres, lost 8 points on our high hang in Programming Skills. With those 8 points, we would have become university world champions in the Skills Challenges once again, however with the scores being so tight among the top teams, the 8 points we lost dropped us into third place.

Described as “the most winningest team” by VEX organisers and commentators, the Auckland University Robotics Association is now the first and only team out of over 18,000 globally to have won every major world title. Having been in the world finals twice previously (2012 and 2015), we were particularly pleased to have finally broken past second place and claim the champions’ trophy.

Our thanks go to the University of Auckland and Motion Design, for their generous support in assisting our expenses towards this trip. Without their help, this competition would have been much more challenging for our team to fund.

Videos of the two finals games can be seen here:

A video presenting our World Championship robots can be seen here:

A one hour CBS Sports Spectacular of the 2017 VEX Worlds can be seen here:

Full results from the competition can be found on VexDB here.

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