00:02So, the game was first launched on the 11th of January and since then my team, Team 3132,
00:10has been working around in the school holidays around eight hours a day for four meetings
00:15during the week on our robot here.
00:18So we're basically split into all these different sub-teams including like mechanical, software,
00:23design, outreach, strategy, all those different sub-teams that all collaborate together to
00:27build the robot I have here.
00:29So, our team is made up of around 90 students, 50 of us join us here at the competition and
00:36the way that the robot, our robot works is that, so this is a game piece, it's called
00:41a fuel.
00:42It is intaked with our compliant wheels here that are actuated by a piston through pneumatics
00:49and then it is stored in our robot and later fed to our launcher by a spindexer that basically
00:56is a disc that spins the fuel around and redirects it to the launcher where more compliant wheels
01:03feed it to the firewalls at the top that then launch it into the hub you can probably see
01:09behind me there.
01:10And another part of it is a climb that's at the end of the matches where we have constant
01:17force springs that lift the climb and it is later retracted by a motor driven system.
01:24Additionally, we have a lot of software components on our robot here, so we use vision to autonomously
01:31recognise where on the field we are at all times during a match and that is basically run off
01:37of orange pies on the robot and it's all coded by software and all that so that in the first
01:44period of our matches which is purely autonomous, no human input, we are able to know where we are
01:51on the field and also score into the hub.
01:53Wow, so you've got so many people, I can hear the echo in the background there through the stadium,
01:59so many people in your team, what was it like working as a team to put something so complicated together?
02:05Yeah, so basically within all our sub-teams we make sure we have what's really important is a
02:12lot of communication between us, so what that kind of looks like is we make sure to have meetings with
02:18all the different sub-teams at both the start and end of every night that we have to make sure
02:24all
02:25the knowledge is like streamlined across the sub-teams and we know our priorities and like what we need
02:30to do next to have the robot actually made and created and make ensuring that we all work together
02:35for our combined finished product that you see here now.
02:39And what an impressive product it is and Will, what's it like for you as an organiser to witness this
02:44all
02:44happening now? It is pretty incredible. This event, while it runs for three days to a Sunday,
02:52it's taken months and months of work, not only for my team but for the volunteers and as actually
02:58we're saying I think it's more of a deal for the teams, right? So while it might have been three
03:02months
03:02in planning, for some of these teams they've been working 12 months to work up to this point,
03:07so really, really exciting. And what's motivated you to become involved in organising things like this?
03:14That's a good question. My passion is really working with young people. I've been doing that
03:18my entire career but through that I've really noticed STEM as being a great vehicle to empower
03:24young people and that's what FIRST is all about. At the end of the day, Australia needs more engineers,
03:30we need more scientists, we need more innovators, we need more young people that are getting involved
03:35in STEM, right? And FIRST is a great vehicle to firstly not only inspire young people to get
03:42passionate about STEM but to provide a practical application for the learning outcomes that they're
03:48getting in their school environments. Cool. And so Ash, how has your team gone today and are you feeling
03:53pretty confident? So our team has had a couple of practice matches today and through that we've gone
04:00pretty well, we've been able to launch a lot of the fuel, the game piece into the hub, we've been
04:05able
04:05to practice our autonomous routines and all our subsystems, our climb and everything and we know
04:11that from the lead up to this competition we've spent so many hours, so many meetings all working
04:17together to create this robot. So because of that we're actually, we're feeling pretty confident now,
04:22we've had extra additional like specialised meetings on the lead up to this competition including
04:27like me as a driver doing driver training and practising those cycles, improving our times
04:35and all of that. So I think we're pretty confident going into this competition and we're excited to
04:40see where it goes. And with a name like Thunder Down Under, how could you be anything but confident?
04:45Thanks so much for having a chat to us and Will, I believe we've now got front row seats to
04:49some action.
04:51We do, we've got six teams revved and ready to go. I'm going to count them down, I need everyone
04:56to join me.
04:57Three, two, one, go!
05:01And our teams are off here, the Southern Cross regional team.
05:044788. Oh, it's pretty hectic.
05:06First fuel cells in the middle. Hastings heroes.
05:09Remember higher rubber rebels all loading up that fuel.
05:10Ashley, I don't know if you can, you can still hear us but can you explain what's going on?
05:15People of the players coming on in, grabbing more fuel from the centre stage.
05:18Heading over to the hub to move that fuel into the hub.
05:19Nah, we've lost Ashley, but that gives you an idea of what it's like.
05:24Okay, we might leave that there, but yeah, that looks like terrific fun there out in
05:30part of Sydney. If you want to go and have a look, you can look it up online.
05:34We'll see you in the next one.
05:36We'll see you in the next one.
05:36We'll see you in the next one.
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