Our Robot

Meet Curious George.

Curious George 2.0

Curious George 1.0

Our robot has gone through many changes over the journey of designing it, building it, improving it, and fixing it. After our 1st competition, we decided to build hanging mechanism on the side of the robot for accuracy, consistency and redundancy of mechanism.

Our robot intakes minerals that is powered by one Core Hex motor. After a mineral is pulled in, they are guided into bucket. Bucket is lifted by another core hex motor. . The bucket can can hold two minerals at a time. For the lower two rows, after it collects one or two mineral, a servo in the back of the robot flips the mineral up, into the lander.

Our first chassis didn’t look the way it does now. In fact, we went through three chassis to get to the current one with the mecanum wheels. In our first chassis, we had 3 wheels on each side in a chained into a triangle formation, with two wheels as omni wheels, and the other just a regular wheel. However, the robot would sway when it drove, making it really unstable. So, we reduced it to two wheels chained up to each other on each side, and changed the wheels into stealth wheels. However, the stealth wheels caused too much friction so the robot couldn’t turn. We switched the wheels into omni wheels, but it took too long to align the glyphs with the columns. So, we switched to mecanum wheels which allowed us to move sideways and diagonally. That helped us efficiently collect and place mineral into the lander.

• Date Taken: December 11 (2017), November 28 (2018)
• Location: Robotics Shop
• In Photo: N/A

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The Build Team

Neel, Sebastian, Om, Michael

Our build team was hard at work constructing our first robot. They split into subgroups to create the lifter, ball arm, and relic arm. All builders were involved in the design proccess, and some helped in programming. After our first competition, they were at work again, adding some improvements to our first robot, but also designing and building our second robot. With the help of our mentor, Georg Bachmeyer, we finished Curious George 2.0. Now, many of the main builders are being trained for driving so they can take the field.

• Date Taken: October 4 (2018)
• Location: Robotics Shop
• In Photo: (left to right) Neel, Sebastian, Om, Michael

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The Programming Team

Om, Neel, Michael and Aidan

In FTC, teams need to program their robot so they can control it during the driver-control period, and have the robot perform various tasks with pre-programmed instructions. Students who choose to program use Java. Our programming team consists of two veteran FTC programmers. This year, our programming team is using Google Brain's TensorFlow so they can use a neural network to identify the game's mineral. Using this, the robot will be able to figure out which mineral to remove. Computer Neural Networks are systems based off of biological neurons, that are trained to complete certain tasks without task-specific programming.

• Date Taken: October 29 (2018)
• Location: Robotics Shop
• In Photo: Om, Neel, Aidan, Michael

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The Drive Team

Michael, Chloe, Nick, Om

On our team, the Drive Team consists of one, and twp drive coaches. Driving takes lots of strategy, motor-skills, and the ability to stay calm and level-headed in high pressure situations. At our first competition, Nick was our driver! He and the drive coaches helped pull us into first and win the robot game. At the Kettering qualifier, rookies of the Mechanical Monkeys will have their chance to compete on the field. All drivers have been training for this event.

• Date Taken: November 11
• Location: Mason Qualifier
• In Photo: (Left to Right) Chloe, Michael, Nick

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Our Outreach

FTC Camp

An important part of FIRST's mission is to spread STEM. That's why all FTC teams do outreach. In the past, our outreach included talking about FIRST on the radio, showing off our robot at a Metroparent Event, and helping out at an FLL Jr. Event. This season, two of our team mates, Heather and Michael, were counselors at a district FTC Camp where they taught classes to FTC rookies and each lead a team. They acted as coaches and mentors for these teams, leading them through a mock FTC season compiled into 4 days. At the competition at the end of the camp, Michael's team won first in the robot game with Heather's team close behind in second place. Heather's team also won the award for best judging presentation.

During the Thanksgiving weekend, some of our team members headed down to Detroit to help out at the Sunday Crossroads Soup Kitchen. THey helped serve over 600 meals, and worked for 7 hours. Our team is presenting at a National Society of Enigneers of Idian Origin event on December 9th.

• Date Taken: August 16 (2017), August 18 (2017)
• Location: Bloomfield Hills Middle School
• In Top Photo: (left to right) Michael, Christopher, Bowie, Jacob
• In Bottom Photo: (left to right) various campers, Heather

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The Marketing Team

Heather, Neel

FTC teams cost thousands of dollars to run. Because of this, our team has a marketing group that helps recruit sponsors, fundraise, and create marketing materials to advertise our team and FTC. Members design t-shirts, banners, posters, giveaways, brochures, and the pit. Our marketing team helped create this website, which has been a major contributor in fundraising this season. A big project for the marketing team this year was creating this website.

• Date Taken: November 5 (2017), November 18 (2016)
• Location: Robotics Lab, Mason Qualifer
• In Top Photo: (left to right) Heather, Mr. Cooper
• In Bottom Photo: (left to right) Maggie, Sophia, Chloe

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Centro de San José Visit

Introducing STEM and robotics to communities around us

On October 21, our team visited Centro de San José in Detroit.

When the presentation was finished..

• Date Taken: October 21st (2018)
• Location: Centro de San José
• In Photos: Centro de San José students and faculty, Mechanical Monkeys Team Members

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Bloomfield Hills Middle School FTC Summer Camp

Teaching FTC rookie participants.

From August 15 to August 19, Om, Michael and Heather were mentors at the Bloomfield Hills School District FTC camp. As FTC veterans, they each lead a team of students through the process of a season. Om and Michael also taught lessons. Heather talked about the presentation and marketing, while Michael talked about electronics. Heather lead an all-girls team. She taught them strategy, basic build knowledge, drive-training, and presentation skills. Her team went on to win 2nd place in the camp robot-game, and win 1st place in the presentation. Michael taught his all-boys team programming, build knowledge, and strategy. He also taught them drive technique. His team went on to win 1st place in the camp robot game. This opportunity helped our team members learn leadership skills. It also benefitted the participants a lot. They were given exposure to what their season would be like, and crucial skills they would need. Many of the rookies that were lead by Heather and Michael were on opponent teams. This is just another example of the Gracious Professionalism the Mechanical Monkeys show.

• Date Taken: August 15 (2018)
• Location: Bloomfield Hills Middle School

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NASEI Youth Technology Exhibition

An exhibition of tomorrow.

At the National American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Youth Technology Exhibition, we were honored to be one of the groups there. We reached over one hundred engineers, many programmers. We introduced the FIRST program to quite a few people. Our team explained the abilities of our robot to any one who came by. Many were very intrigued by the Neural Network we use. By repeatedly answering questions and explaining many components with our robot, we were able to expose people to new technologies, or show them how we use some of these technologies in FIRST. Some FLL coaches that were there were surprised to see the level FTC robots were at and were very excited with the programming range with FTC. This was a great experience for us as we got to visit some other exhibitions too (a lead detection system for water pipes, crop drones, and more!). We were able to practice our answering skills too!

• Date Taken: December 8 (2017)
• Location: Novi Community Civic Center
• In Photo: Om, ASEI Board Member

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Conant Elementary, "Hour of STEM" Event

An event to inspire.

Our team mate, Om, created a plan for a three-activity, hour long, "Hour of STEM" event. Then, after the approval of some mentors, she contacted Conant Elementary School's principal. Thus, the "Hour of STEM" event was created. On December 11, the Mechanical Monkeys went to Way, and ran the event with half of the 4th grade. Three groups of students rotated through three STEM-related activities. They learned about acid-base chemical reactions with a fun exploding-lunchbag experiment. Students had the chance to drive the Mechanical Monkeys robot too! They also got to explore the connection between math and programming with a "rotation of wheels" activity that taught wheel circumference and how it can be used to find how many times a wheel needs to rotate to go a certain distance. The Mechanical Monkeys will be returning to Way on December 18 to run their second "Hour of STEM" event. They hope that this event will inspire these students to join robotics, or learn more about STEM topics.

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Valiant TMS, Auburn Hills

Learning Robotics and Automation.

We visited Valiant TMS, Robtotics and Automation company that help us understand how automation is applied in automotive industry

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Crossroads Sunday Soup Kitchen

Giving back to our community.

When a fellow classmate and FTC participant was hosting a Sunday Crossroads soup kitchen, we jumped in! While some of us could not go due to religious reasons or time conflicts, the three of us that did go managed to get a really great experience. We arrived in Detroit at 8:15, right at the start of the AM shift and helped prepare for the meals by setting tables, assembling 1000 condiment packages, scooping 600 bowls of potato salad, making 1000 bags of bread rolls. When the PM shift started at 12, our team members stayed! We worked with other volunteers to put the lunch boxes together. Our team members scooped beans into bowls, put lids on them, distributed supplies, and helped keep the line running. When we finished at 4:00, we were tired, but we felt good after a day of helping others. Some other FTC teams came to volunteer, but none of them worked the full day like we did.

• Date Taken: December 26 (2017)
• Location: Crossroads Soup Kitchen
• In Photo: (left to right) Lyle, Lucy, Damien, Zoey, Heather, Bowie, Michael

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Metro Parent Summer Camp Event

Sharing the fun with our community

Michael and Chloe went to the Metro Parent Summer Camp event where parents and their kids could go to see all sorts of summer camps their kids could do over the summer! They were representing the Bloomfield Hills School District FTC Camp. However, this event really let them show off FTC and FIRST to interested passerbyers. Many parents and their kids were really interested in our robot! Some kids even said they wanted to join a robotics program afterwards!

• Location: Bloomfield Hills High School
• In Photo: (left to right) Om, Neel, Rohan Event Visitors

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Hazel Park Junior High STEM Night

Starting FTC teams in our community

On January 23, we presented at Hazel Park Middle School’s STEAM night to help them set up their own FTC program. Students learned about FIRST, and what teams do in FTC. Two girls already signed up for the Hazel Park FTC team!

• Date Taken: January 23
• Location: Hazel Park Junior High
• In Photo: Mechanical Monkeys, Event Visitors

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Way Elementary, "Hour of STEM" Event

An event to inspire.

On March 7, we visited a class at Way Elementary school to run our third "Hour of STEM" event. We engaged second graders in fun activities that taught them about chemical reactions, geometry, and robots. Our team provided information to participants on how they could continue the STEM fun by joining FLL Jr.

• Location: Bloomfield Hills High School
• In Photo: Mechanical Monkeys, Ms. Reynaert's Class

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No. 10 High School, Hangzhou, China

Proving FIRST has no borders

These Chinese students from No. 10 High School in the Xiaoshan district were so excited to watch a video about our team! They wanted to learn more about our robot and wanted to find out how they could participate in FIRST next year!

• Date Taken: December 11 (2017)
• Location: No. 10 High School, Hangzhou, China
• In Photo: No. 10 High School students

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Gandhinagar, India

Proving FIRST has no borders

Om contacted his cousin and their friends in Gandhinagar, India. They were very excited about our robotics team and our project. Om explained to them what FIRST is and the different programs there are. They watched our promote video and are going to watch the live stream of the robotics matches!

• Date Taken: December 11 (2017)
• Location: Gandhinagar, India
• In Photo: To be added

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Netherlands and Germany

Proving FIRST has no borders

Our team mate contacted his friends in Germany and the Netherlands! He talked to them about FIRST and told them they could learn more about robotics with our team website.

• Location: Netherlands, Germany
• In Top Photo: To be added
• In Bottom Photo: Nicholas Reichert

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Thank you CSPA Miners and Blackfrogs!

Proving FIRST has no borders

We couldn't have come out as the Winning Alliance at Mason without our alliance partners!

• Date Taken: November 11 (2017)
• Location: Mason Middle School
• In Photo: Mechanical Monkeys Drive Team, Black Frogs Drive Team, CSPA Miners Drive Team

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