Recently, Nathan made a launching speed calculator which calculates the speed and/or angle required to score a ball from any position on the field in Nothing but Net. The theoretical basis behind this calculator is the Drag Equation: This makes the equations more complex than if air resistance was ignored or if air resistance was assumed to be proportional to …
AURA’s 2015 design notebook
We have now released our design notebook for the 2015 season. You can read it here: https://www.aura.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015AuraNotebook.pdf
AURA returns triumphant from Louisville
AURA won three out of four World Champion titles at the Vex U World Champs – the Programming Skills Challenge, the Robot Skills Challenge, and the Excellence Award. This is the best possible result without winning the finals, and the most World Champion titles in one year by any team (tied with OYES last year). In the tournament we went …
AURA’s trip to Worlds in Kentucky
Four members of AURA left New Zealand on April 10 to travel to Kentucky for the Vex U World Champs. The days before the competition were filled with interesting activities including visiting the Kentucky Speedway NASCAR track, eating American food, and testing our robots’ autonomous routines in our hotel room. The start of the competition gave us a chance to …
AURA’s 2015 Vex U reveal video
This video shows the robots we used at the 2015 Vex U world champs in Kentucky. Music credit: Macklemore, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, and especially Robonauts team 118.
How to do a “Good Turn”?
I was pretty humbled today, when I was contacted with a question. I wrote quite a long answer, so I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learnt over the past 7 years of Vex programming with you all. How do you do a ‘good’ turn? Well, this is basically the only question when it comes to programming robots. …
Worlds timetable for spectators in NZ
Like we did last year, AURA has made a timetable that people in NZ can use to make World Champs spectating easier: https://www.aura.org.nz/2015-worlds-viewing-timetable There are 10 New Zealand teams competing at Worlds this year. AURA is competing in the Vex U competition, and 10890B (Otumoetai Intermediate) is competing in the Vex IQ competition. The following teams are competing in the …
AURA’s 2015 educational video contest submission
This is the video that we entered in this year’s RECF educational video competition (the video was not eligible to win the competition because it exceeded the maximum length). We use the term “Back Voltage” here rather than “Back EMF” because the video is aimed at an audience that understands what a voltage is but doesn’t necessarily understand the term …
Second Auckland ladder scrimmage – 5 July
Auckland’s second ladder scrimmage was very well attended. 31 teams competed in six matches each to try to improve their ranking on the qualification ladder for NZ Nationals 2015. Teams are ranked on the Nationals qualification ladder according to their win percent across all of their scrimmages. The top three teams on the ladder are now 7682 (Wingus and Dingus) …
First Auckland ladder scrimmage
Auckland had a very successful first scrimmage this weekend. 26 teams attended, with each team playing seven ranking matches for the Nationals qualification ladder followed by eight alliances of two playing a friendly elimination bracket. The top three teams on the ladder are now 2918A (Glenfield), 2901C (Rangitoto) and 2918D (Glenfield) each with a record of 5-2-0. In fact, the …