Batavia FTC Robotics State Qualifying Competition

November 17, 2012 (updated 2012-11-16)

Fox Valley Robotics and Batavia Robotics are proud to be the regional host for the "Batavia FTC Robotics State Qualifying Competition" to be held on November 17, 2012. Qualifying teams will have a chance to continue on to the Illinois FTC State Competition on December 8. The teams competing consist of kids who are middle school or high school level.

There is no charge for admission and the public is welcome. Bring the kids and they will have a blast watching the robots and walking thru the pit areas.

Interested in volunteering to help out or judge?
Please fill in our Volunteer Form.

Teams needing to sign up for the competition
Go to the official registration site --- click here.

Specifics
The competition this year will be held at the following location. Ample parking is available and admission is free.

Rotolo Middle School
1501 S. Raddant Road
Batavia, IL. 60510

Overview / Schedule
A tentative schedule for the event will be as follows. This schedule will be updated on November 17. Teams should check be frequently for updated info at this location.

Documents for Teams Participating

Every person attending the Batavia FTC Regional agrees to the following FVR/BR/FVTech-ED Consent and Waiver of Liability for Attended Event

Every team member, mentor, and coach must turn in a FIRST Consent Form.
Any teams that are using the STIMS system to collect student consent forms electronically should bring with them a printed roster. Teams that do not bring a roster with them that shows students have electronically submitted a form through STIMS will be asked to fill out a consent form at the event.

RMS Event Facility General Layout (parking, rooms, concessions, competition, pit area)

List of teams participating.

Pre-order lunch forms to be turned in by 10 am the day of the event.

Team Judging and Inspection Schedule.

Qualification match schedules will be distributed during the driver meeting.

No Show Policy

Any teams that for whatever reasons are unable to attend the event need to notify us via email as soon as possible after learning of such reason. Those teams that are unsure and think that they may be unable to attend the event are asked to email us a cell phone number. This is so that we have a means to contact you if you have not checked in yet by 8:00 AM and we can make sure you will still be attending or not.

Directions / Maps

Batavia is located approximately
- 1 hour due west of Chicago
- 1 hour driving distance from Rockford
- 2 hours from Milwaukee

The facility which is being used is approximately 7 minutes away from the 355 Farnsworth Avenue North Exit.

Click here for google map
Click here for yahoo map

For your convenience, here are some pdf maps
Illinois and Batavia
Batavia regional
Batavia surrounding
Batavia from the expressway
Batavia Street and the competition location
More detailed regional competition location

A drop off area will be reserved in the parking lot for unloading of people or equipment.

Hotels / Accommodations and Surrounding Areas

Contact us for recommendations if you are staying overnight.

Facility Notes

No rollers or blade-like shoes allowed.
No open toed shoes allowed in the pit area or the competition floor.
Safety glasses are required on the competition floor and in the pit area.
Internet access is not available.
No smoking or alcoholic beverages are allowed in the facility.

Check In

You will receive a "Welcome Packet" with all the pertinent information.
Don't forget to submit at the registration table the following:
a) FIRST Consent Forms
b) Engineering Notebook
c) Lunch pre-order forms with payment (check, credit card, or cash accepted).

Judging and Inspections

Don't be late! Judging and inspections will start promptly at 8 am.

Judging will be held in rooms 109-112. Judging and Inspection schedules for teams will be available 1-2 days prior to the event.

Inspections will consist of three parts:

a) Hardware inspections
b) Software inspections
c) Field connectivity and verification

You must pass inspection in order to compete. If you are having problems passing inspection, let us know immediately. We will find someone to help you. We want every team to be able to compete and have a great time.

Inspection times will be pre-assigned, but we encourage teams to go to inspection as soon as they are ready, especially if there is not a line. The sooner you pass the inspection the easier the day will go.

The checklists are located in the game manual in the back. This is another excellent resouce for making sure you have a greater chance of passing inspection - Get Ready for Inspection.

Awards and Advancement to the State Competition

The Batavia FTC Regional will consist of more than 21 teams and will follow the guidelines set forth by FIRST as indicated in the official game manual. Refer to the FTC Advancement Criteria and Awards Document for a one page review.

Pit Area

Each team will have a 6' cafeteria style table in the pit area with a surge protector.

IMPORTANT: The pit area is located on a raised stage and is not easily accessible by people who have a difficult time with stairs. If a member of your group has an issue with walking up/down stairs, let us know by Friday November 16 and we will make appropriate adjustments.

There will be an area set up with power tools operated by our people for those circumstances where you need some heavier equipment to do the job. This tool area will be located by the inspection areas.

Reminders and things to check on

GENERAL ITEMS TO BRING
Bring your robot, original source code programs, computer. Make sure it works and you can modify your program properly.
Bring extra robot parts in case something breaks or needs to be replaced.
You may want to bring a back up of the program and an extra computer in case it is needed.

PROGRAMMING TEMPLATE
Don't forget to load the template for your programming language onto the NXT. One of the main issues for not passing inspection and for the robot not running correctly on the playing field is the lack of the template.

Labview
FTC Teleop/Autonomous Template in LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS
LabVIEW Software Setup for FIRST Tech Challenge 2012-2013

RobotC
Once the software has been installed, the templates can be found on your computer in the following folder:
......Robotics AcademyROBOTC for Mindstorms/Sample ProgramsNXT/Templates

The Programming Templates and Resources page on the FIRST site contains other useful links.

SAMANTHA MODULE MOUNTING
The next issue which we see quite often is improper mounting of the Samantha module, which can cause disruption in the wi-fi resulting in a loss of robot control on the playing field. Refer to Samanta Mounting Best Practices

SAFETY GLASSES
Don't forget the safety glasses!. Safety glasses are required by everyone in the pit area and in the competition field area.

RULES
Know the rules and know the inspection checklists (Game Information)
A sample Bill of Materials (BOM) is located in the Game Manual (See R5 and R6 and the Appendix in the back of the Game Manual).
Check the forum for last minute clarifications.

SMILE and GOOD DISPOSITION
Bring a happy smile and a good disposition, and of course, don't forget about Gracious Professionalism, Core Values, and proper respect.
Remember, everyone is a volunteer who is trying to make this event special for you.

Food the day of the competition & concessions

A large variety of reasonably priced delicious food items will be available for purchase through-out the day, including breakfast selections, refreshments, lunch items, and snacks. We appreciate your patronage of our concessions as it helps to defray the regional costs.

We will be selling the famous Hexbugs at the regional.

Purchase can be made with cash, check, or credit card.

Pre-order lunch forms need to be turned in at check in time or by 10:00 am.

"No one that comes to our regional goes away hungry!"

Armed Forces Support

We will be collecting items for the Armed Forces. These items will be combined with our December FLL Regional and mailed to the armed forces. We are asking each team to bring at least one bag to donate. You can include a letter with your bag if you like.

Bags should be dropped off at the check in table.

Click here for a list of suggested items.

Other Regionals

For a complete list of all regional competitions around the country, click here.

Check back soon for other updates.