Feburary 19:
Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Award Submission

COMPETITIONS
March 12-14:
Peachtree Regional
Duluth, GA

March 26-28:
Palmetto Regional
Clemson, SC

April 16-18:
Championship Event
Atlanta, GA

For a detailed calendar,
click here.

WHAT IS FIRST

TEAM 342 - Charleston, SC

Team 342 is located in Charleston, SC and has close to forty members from the Dorchester, Charleston, and Berkeley County School Districts as well as private school and home-schooled students.The team meets at the Bosch manufacturing plant in North Charleston and is mentored by employees from Bosch, BAE Systems, SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic. You can find more information about our sub teams below.

FRC Team 342 - Charleston, SC
Team 342, founded by Mike Bryant of Robert Bosch Associates in North Charleston, SC has competed in the FRC for the last nine years. The team has grown over the years and so has it's support. Currently, team members come from Dorchester, Charleston and Berkeley County schools, private schools as well as home-schools. With it's growth the team has also become more diverse. The team has more female members and mentors than in the past as well as representation from various ethnicities. The team will continue to push towards inclusion of all racial and gender … as we continue to share FIRST's message with our community.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

This is the largest sub-team because they have a great amount of responsibilities. This team is responsible for building the robot, using the components furnished "Kit of Parts" along with parts designed and fabricated by Team 342. Students get hands-on-training in safe tool usage: hand tools and machine tools (cut-off saw, mill, lathe, grinder and drill press), then use these skills to fabricate parts and build the robot.

In addition to machine tool technology students learn about ball bearins, motors, drive systems (gears, belts, lead screws), pneumatics and fasteners (threaded fasteners, rivets, adhesives).

All students contribute design ideas. The Engineering Team Tests those ideas and helps determine which work best. There can be many failures on the path to success. We're looking for students who cam test ideas, deal with failures, move on and try again until we have a world-class robot.

The engineering team also builds a mock up playing field (or due to space restrictions in our shop, a portion of the field). At the competitions they assemble and disassemble the pit area and act as a "pit crew" to maintain, repair and test the robot.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

This team is responsible for installing and wiring the electrical components - DC motors, controls, solenoid valves, sensors, circuit breakers, battery and fuses.

The EE team also programs the robot for two phases of the match - autonomous and human-controlled. During the autonomous period the robot is controlled by the computer, with input from onboard sensors. The second part of the match is human-controlled. The on-board computer takes input from the driver and controls operator, processes it, and sends signals to various outputs (motor controls, solenoids valves, etc.).

There is a new controller for 2009 - the CompactRIO (cRIO) control system. It can be programmed using C and Labview software. Key features of this news controller is Superior Performance, easy to program, advanced control, rugged design, and flexible inputs and outputs. Find more information on the new cRIO controller system at: http://first.wpi.edu/FRC/csoverview.html

INVENTOR

The inventor team competes for the "Autodesk Inventor Award", a 3D design competition that is part of the FRC. Students use Autodesk Inventor, a powerful 3D design and drafting program used by engineers, scientist and designers in the automotive, aerospace, consumer products and machine design industries.

Students on all of the sub-teams are encouraged to contribute design ideas for our 2009 robot. The Inventor Team's job is to document the complete robot design, including parts, assemblies and a bill of materials. As with all design projects, sometimes an idea doesn't work as expected and a part of assembly must be redesigned. The Inventor team records this "evolution" of robot design.

In addition to spending time on the computer working with Autodesk Inventor, students also get the chance to work in the shop to measure the robot (using a tape measure, micrometer and calipers) and discuss ideas with the Mechanical Engineering Team.

Although prior experience with Autodesk is a plus, it is more important for students to have a willingness to learn and the ability to work as a team - helping other students and knowing when to ask for help.

To learn more about the Autodesk Design Competitions go to: http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/?nd=m_design_competition

ANIMATION

This sub-team competes for the "Autodesk Visualization Award", a 3D contest that runs at the same time as the FIRST Robotics Competition. The AVA is award at the regional and national competitions. In the preseason Team 342 was the winner of the …2009.

Our main tool is Autodesk 3ds Max software, a very sophisticated 3d modeling and animation program used by industry professionals for visualization, architechtural rendering, character animation, movie FX and 3d game design.

We have six weeks to learn the software, brainstorm ideas, sketch out a storyboard, create 3D models, animate them, add lighting and cameras, and edit the final product.

Most of out time is spent at a computer. Initially, students go through self-paced tutorials to learn the software, after which they start creating their own characters, scenes and animations.

We're looking for creative students with computer graphics or traditional art skills.

To learn more about the Autodesk Design Competitions go to: http://firstbasefrc.autodesk.com/?nd=m_design_competition

COMMUNICATIONS

This is a new sub-team for 2009 which records the activities of the other sub-teams by taking photos, designing the team's t-shirts, shooting video footage, updating the web log, writing articles and maintaining the team's web site. The communication team's members act as PR agents, contacting school and local newspapers to update them on team 342 activities. In recent weeks news on Team 342 has been published in The Post and Courier and the Summerville Journal Scene.

The communications team will also be responsible for creating thank you letter and plaques for our sponsors.

Students have been working with several graphics software including Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash, as well as blogging web site Blogspot.

TEAM MENTORS

Team Leader - Hank Bennet, BOSCH

Team Manager - Kevin Thorp, BOSCH

Mechanial Engineering
Stan Kajdasz, BOSCH
Winfield Brown, BOSCH
CJ Couch, Trident Technical College
Scott Handelsman, BOSCH
Kendall Nowocin, Trident Technical College

Electrical Engineering:
Travis Axtell
Tom Ponder, BAE SYSTEMS

Inventor
Tony Graziani, BAE SYSTEMS
Jason Allen, BAE Systems

Animation
Elizabeth Barndollar, BAE SYSTEMS
Kimberly Boyce
Larry Zimmerman, BAE SYSTEMS

Communications
Sally-Ann Archie, BAE SYSTEMS

 

If you are interested in learning more about FIRST teams in the Lowcountry or would like to support a team contact Janice Jolly at: jjolly@dorchester.k12.sc.us 843-873-2901