Welcome

Viking Robotics is a FIRST Robotics team located in Seattle, Washington. Based in Ballard High School, we participate in several FRC competions every year and work to spread information about FIRST and its programs through our community. Originally founded in 2008, we are now over 40 members strong.

• April 5th, 2013

  Last Saturday Viking Robotics attended the Seattle Regional at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. Our robot performed extremely well and we finished our qualification matches with a record of 7 wins and 2 losses, ranking us 7th out of 64 teams at the competition. During alliance selection we joined team 2907's alliance along with 1294. Our alliance was undefeated in quarterfinals but unfortunately we were eliminated in semifinals. During the awards ceremony we were awarded the Team Spirit Award. Overall it was a good end to a great season and everyone on our team is excited for next year.

  ~Julian

• March 26th, 2013

  At Central Washington Univ., through seeding matches Friday and Saturday morning our team became one of the 8 captains for the eliminations! In the quarter finals we played three matches before losing the best 2 out of 3 against the team lead by the second ranked team.

  For the first time we had CAD design for the drive train and shooting platform. We learned that this process is too slow for a 6 week build season. We took 10 weeks, and then sort of rebuilt the robot in 6 hours on Thursday during practice time... Our tower climbing mechanisms didn't work out - too much friction. So our robot could only do a 10 point hang on the lowest rung of the tower. Only one robot at the competition consistently climbed the tower for 30 points, and that robot did not fire Frisbees. This year our robot had many sensors to feedback to the control computer (a gyro for elevation angle of the shooting plane, and Hall effect sensors for shooter wheel speed, and jack screw rotation counting). We learned more about sensor problems in the process. Another first was a driver station that incorporated rotary control knobs and buttons for predetermined functions. This is in addition to the usual joystick and laptop display the team has used in the past. For the first time one of our students set up a training session for our scouts, and set up a rotation schedule for them to do scouting in the stands. Another first at this competition was having our team volunteering on the field. Four of our students volunteered for field reset on Saturday. As each of these new elements becomes part of our team's repertoire the more our students get out of the program.

  We have great kids on the team this year. We have one senior who has a Boeing National Merit scholarship. He has been accepted at Worcester Poly Tech Institute, Case Western, Cal Poly, and UW. We have new students learning Python for programming next year's robot. We have Juniors taking on leadership roles in communications, presentations, scouting, and fundraising, and also interested in the Dean's List Award. We have new mentors doing fabulous jobs in Programming, Electronics, and mechanical construction. Our students sold about $2700 in FIRST e-bulbs for team fund raising this season, and once again our team's corporate sponsors have fully supported our team's expenses.

  Competition season should be over this weekend. It seems unlikely we will be invited to St Louis - but maybe next year when we roll in all the lessons learned!

  ~Julian and Ania

• February 4th, 2013

  Four weeks have passed since the start of the build season. We spent the first week brainstorming possible shooting and climbing designs and building the field elements. During the second and third week the mechanical team began designing the robot in Autodesk Inventor. This is the first year that we've fully CADed our robot and it's helped us out a lot so far. We started constructing the drivetrains for both of our robots last week and we hope to finish all of the building sometime next week.

  So far the communications team has completed the Woodie Flowers Award rough draft, the business plan, and the Chairman's Award prewrite. The Woodie Flowers Award and the Chairman's Essay will be ready to submit by February 18.

  ~Julian and Ania

• January 5th, 2013

  The 2013 build season has officially begun! This morning we had nearly 40 students and mentors at Mountlake Terrace High School for the 7:30 AM national kickoff where we learned all about this year's game Ultimate Ascent! We are now on build season schedule and will be meeting every day: 6PM-9PM on weekdays, 10AM-5PM on Saturdays, and 11AM-4PM on Sundays.

  ~Julian

• November 16th, 2012

  The event at Coe last Saturday was a big success! There was a great turnout and many students enjoyed presenting their projects, driving the robot, and working with our team on various activies. The FLL event this coming Monday, November 19, will take place at Coe Elementary once more, and it will be a similar setting to the JrFLL event.

  ~Ania

• November 8th, 2012

  Viking Robotics is going to Coe Elementary this Saturday, November 10, for the JrFLL Expo! We will be showing off our robot and letting elementary students drive it. There is also a DigiPen event on the same day for those who are new to the team to learn about FIRST and the FIRST Robotics Competition.

  ~Ania

• October 23rd, 2012

  A quick update! So far, all the teams have started preparing for this year's build season and it's going great! Our students will be going to F5 social to talk to about FIRST Robotics very soon. There will be a meeting for the programming team this Thursday the 25th at 2:40 pm. Otherwise, we will all be meeting at 6:00 pm on the same day.

  ~Ania

• October 1st, 2012

  Unfortunately, there will be no meeting this week due to Mr. Nielsen's busy schedule. Be sure to turn in your money and paperwork for the Ropes Course on the 13th. There are less than 100 days until Kickoff!

  ~Julian

• September 17th, 2012

  The meeting last Thursday was a success and it looks like everyone is excited about this coming season! The current plan is to meet on Thursdays during the preseason, but if you are unsure about meeting times or locations you can always check the Calendar. We will be meeting again this Thursday Sept. 20th at 6:00 pm to get started on some projects that will prepare us for the build season.

  ~Julian

• September 9th, 2012

  Summer break is over and we are back to school! Our first meeting of the year will take place on Thursday Sept. 13th at 6:00 pm in the engineering room (NW204). All new students, returning students, and parents are welcome to attend. Lets kick off the new season right and have a big showing!

  ~Julian