Triple Helix Robotics

Throughout the spring, Triple Helix students and mentors used socially-distanced and virtual meeting spaces to compete in Infinite Recharge at Home, a set of skills challenges laid out by FIRST in lieu of traditional tournaments.

We are proud to announce that after one last late night at the Peninsula STEM Gym, we’ve wrapped up our submissions and sent them in to FIRST!

Because of our hard work, our results are among the best in the world.  We currently stand [1] at 4th place in our randomly-assigned group of 29 teams, just behind teams from Seattle, Long Island, and Windsor Locks CT.  We’re also currently [2] the highest-ranked Virginia team, and somewhere in the top 50 out of all 1100+ teams competing.

These results are quite spectacular, especially considering that we’ve done our work completely openly, updating our youtube channel every time we have a new “best to date” score to share.  You can find all the materials we submitted to FIRST– a presentation about the software development work we’ve done, a flyer about our robot, and much more– at our publications site team2363.org/publications.

Thanks to all the participating students and mentors, and everyone who helped us do such great work during a weird time– especially the parents and our sponsors!  We look forward to an upcoming FIRST Chesapeake award ceremony on May 4, and a restful offseason full of…

• Competition with our FPV quadcopters
• software development leveraging what we have learned through these skills challenges
• Recruiting new students and mentors to our team
• Reopening our Menchville HS workshop for business as usual as soon as we can!

Nate

[1] Official scores and rankings will be available from FIRST on April 23.
[2] These are unofficial rankings taken ahead of this afternoon’s submittal deadline.

Here’s what Triple Helix has been up to this month!

Our internal drone competition is off the ground
Triple Helix students and mentors are flying their quadcopters at home and at the Peninsula STEM Gym, several team members having assembled their kits and configured their transmitters and FPV goggles.  Soon, our team will have a flock of drones in the air, and we’ll start designing some game challenges so we can put our new flying skills to the test.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8Hj10BHWQ

We still have room for new team members!  If you are a high school student on the peninsula (or an aspiring mentor to a peninsula HS student!) and would like to join Triple Helix and participate in our FPV drone competition, you’re invited to:

• Register with the team via join.team2363.org (this is an annual requirement for all students and mentors).
• Register with the FAA as a drone operator under The Exception for Recreational Flyers at https://faadronezone.faa.gov/. The cost is $5 for 3 years of registration.
• Join us on the team Slack where you will learn how you can pick up your kit of parts and start the process of building your quad!

We’re also meeting virtually on Google Meet on Tuesday evenings at 7pm— you are welcome to join us there!

Triple Helix is registered to compete in the 2021 FRC season– whatever that entails
Thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors, but especially our longtime partners DoD STEM and NASA Langley Research Center, we have secured our registration in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition season, which we think will be mostly made up of a number of interesting virtual challenges and projects.  We’re excited to learn more about the season as we get closer to the January 9 kickoff, and of course we still hold out hope that we’ll be able to compete safely next spring/summer in some in-person FIRST Chesapeake events playing a slightly updated version of the 2020 FRC game.

Nate

Triple Helix Robotics wishes everyone well! We’re proud to share the following long-overdue updates about our team…

Triple Helix returns to flight with a FPV drone competition
https://team2363.org/2020/09/triple-helix-returns-to-flight-with-a-fpv-drone-competition/As Triple Helix Robotics begins a new school year, our team leaders have been thinking about how we’ll accomplish the goals of the team– inspiring students with STEM– within the restrictions placed on us by the pandemic we’re all living through. We have decided to expand beyond the scope of the FIRST Robotics Competition by starting a new (and mostly remote) parallel program which we’re calling the Tele-Operated Robotics Competition (TORC). This is intended as an internal tech challenge within Triple Helix involving small robotic vehicles which can be built by students and mentors at home, occasionally visiting the Peninsula STEM Gym for guidance from mentors and access to specialized tools. We looked at multiple options for the robot platform and went with the option the students were most excited about: “CineWhoopclass” first-person view (FPV) quadcopters.
How can I get involved in the Triple Helix drone competition?Students and mentors interested in participating in our Tele-Operated Robotics Competition are invited to:

• Register with the team via join.team2363.org (this is an annual requirement for all students and mentors).
• Register with the FAA as a drone operator under The Exception for Recreational Flyers at https://faadronezone.faa.gov/. The cost is $5 for 3 years of registration.
• Join us on the team Slack where you will learn how you can pick up your kit of parts and start the process of building your quad!

Our first skills-building activity will be assembling a battery pack required to power the goggles you wear to see the video feed from the onboard camera. Building this pack will teach you the soldering skills you will need to wire the quadcopter.

Peninsula STEM Gym re-opens serving FRC, FTC, and indoor drone competition teams
https://team2363.org/locations/#stemgym
The STEM Gym has moved into a new warehouse, but we’re still located at the same address in central Newport News. Our new setup offers us a location for continued development of our FRC robot for the extended Infinite Recharge season, as well as enough meeting and office spaces to support an adequately socially-distanced STEM program. We’re also offering a complete FTC field for any of our friends who are playing the new FTC game ULTIMATE GOAL, and over the next few weeks we’ll also be building an aerodrome for our FPV drone challenge! Thanks to all who have supported this new evolution of our innovative STEM Gym space.

Nate