2011 - 2012 Summary

Go to our gallery page to check out a slideshow of our 2011 - 2012 season summary. Have a great summer!

Capital City Villager Article

We are the featured story in the latest Capital City Villager newspaper!!! Here's a link to the online version of the newspaper.
http://issuu.com/capitalcityvillager/docs/villager_apr112012_tab_mixedcolor_web?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

News Article and Meeting Times

An online article about us by WCTV news: http://www.wctv.tv/schools/headlines/Robot_March_Madness_143429336.html

Hope you all had a great Spring Break and Intensives week. We'll start meeting again every Thursday after school starting this Thursday.

See you then!
Wendy

We did Great

We placed 7th of 63 teams at the Orlando Regional March 10th 2012

Wow. What a adventure. The OctoPiRates played some great basketball scoring balls autonomously, picking them off the ground, and shooting goals from over 40' .

The end game involved balancing on bridges with other robots where we scored more points than any other robot. Check the gallery for pics from the competition.

We did so well I really want to thank our sponsors: Lowes Foundation, Motorola Solutions, JCPenney, CFEF and the rest of our Fellowship. We raised $23,000 dollars this year to make all this happen. We have some money left over that we are going to put into more tooling. We also were just donated a lathe and mill from the Mag Lab that will allow us much more capability in working with materials. Also a big hip hip horray and pats on the back to all our Students, Mentors, and Parents who put in the many long hours to make it all happen.

Looking forward to next year and the months of training to teach the next generation how to be on the cutting edge of Science and Technology.

• Designing in 3D modeling to the thousandths of an inch
• Calculating the Forces and Energy required for each assembly, component, and material
• Measuring, Machining and Welding using top safety practices
• Marketing and Fundraising to be able to make it all happen.

Our Robot

Name: The Farrell Beast"

Weight: 111 pounds

Size: 28 x 38 x 58" Tall

Power: 12 volt, 18 Amp Hour Battery

Drive Train: 4 high friction independent wheels with encoders

Shooter and conveyor: Picks balls off the ground, storing 3 balls, and shooting autonomously from over 40 ft.

Bridge Arm: capable of exerting over 25 ft/pounds

Can't wait to find out what next years game will be?

~JaSun

A Word from JaSun

Dear Supporters of the OctoPiRates,

We are very proud 2 be in our second year of building robots for the FRC competition. Our robot this year "The Farrell Beast" picks up and holds 3 foam basketballs with a conveyor up to a single beautiful 10" aluminum flywheel. We have hit 5 shots in a row from the key and some 45 foot shots occasionally. We have 3 excellent arms, a working conveyor, several sensors, and a great shooter it's absolutely amazing. I am so proud of our students at SAIL High School who: Designed, CAD, Programmed, Welded, Machined, Soldered, and Assembled such a great machine in 6 weeks.

Here is a link to an recent ABC broadcast at our website.
http://sailroboticsclub.com/news.html

Our competition is March 8-10th at Orlando in the UCF Basketball arena.

We have a strong shot to do very well.

Follow us on twitter to keep up to date and track our regional event stats

Thanks for your support, helping to educate the brightest minds in the areas of STEM and life skills.

An extra big thanks to our platinum sponsors.
Lowe's Charitable Education Foundation

Motorola Solutions Foundation

JCPenney

Build Season... Check!

The Farrell Beast is alive and well. Now, she lies dormant in the robot room getting some R&R before her big debut. I am so excited for all the hard work we have put in. No matter what happens at the competition, we have already accomplished an amazing feat!

We did so well that we had time to show off our robot to the media on the last day of build season. Here's a link to our 5 minutes of fame on ABC27: http://www.wtxl.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3294749

We've still got a few things to do to prepare for the competition. Here's a message from Jasun:

We just built an amazing robot. I am so proud of us and want to congratulate everyone. I eagerly await March 7th and the regional competition in Orlando.

We are going to be meeting Wednesday, and Thursdays 3-7:15
You should be at all meetings or let Emily or I know that you will need to be caught up.

... Wednesdays will be workshops:
Robot and team facts
Science of how the robot works
interviewing skills
juggling
expectations for competition
Thursdays will be less formal and work more on preparation for the event.
Spirit, swag, robot improvements

Only 2 weeks till competition!!

~JaSun

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

... is near! Goosebumps, cheers, and high fives were among us tonight as we just made our first basketball hoop! Video will be posted soon!

The conveyor has also been assembled and can pick up balls off the floor!

There is still alot of hard work ahead of us before stop build day in just 5 days but we are super excited that we are 500% ahead of where we were last year at this time!