I'm always impressed with what students in FTC are accomplishing. At least once a week, something comes across the FTC Facebook page that simply amazes me. The ingenuity and creativity of the projects these students are delving into is incredible.
Yesterday, for example, I learned about Jordan, a student on Team 3550 (Beta) from Iowa. He developed a way to control a robot through the internet so he could take someone up on an offer to compete at an FTC event remotely.
That event just happens to be in Australia.
With the knowledge he's gained through FTC, help from a teammate, his own ambition and mentorship from some incredible FTC Iowa volunteers, Jordan began working on a process that would allow him to plug his FTC control pad into a Field Control System half a world away.
Since starting this project, Jordan has successfully developed two means of communicating remotely with a robot. One uses USB-Over-Network applications and the other involves setting up a virtual private network (VPN) between two machines.
In addition to his tapping into his technical skills, he had to approach several companies for support through in-kind donations and sponsorship. He's also been communicating with members of the international FTC community.
After some local testing, Jordan's first international robot connection came in October, when one of his project mentors was traveling abroad. Jordan was able to successfully connect from his home in Iowa with a robot in Moscow, Russia.
Despite the success, he said there have been many complications and errors along the way.
"During the Russia test, we were unable to connect on the first day and had to reschedule for the next day in order to get it working...," he said. "On the first few tries, we couldn't get connected, or the connection kept breaking up."
He said the difference in time zone has also presented a challenge, but that the experience was worth the lost sleep.
On the first weekend of December, Jordan finally achieved his goal of connecting to, and remotely driving, a robot in Australia.
"It was an indescribable and awesome experience that has left a permanent grin on my face!" he said.
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Jordan plans to unveil his work on Dec. 8th with a public FTC Tele-competition exhibition webcast. For this demonstration, Jordan and his team built a second robot, entirely out of PVC piping, and shipped it to Australia where they will compete as an exhibition team (they even plan to present to the judges via webcam). You can watch Team Beta compete via their blog at 6 p.m. CST on Dec. 8th.
Jordan hopes his project will spur more networking between teams.
"I would... like to see more FTC teams collaborating with one another and working with one another, including teams across international boundaries - better connecting our world communities."
How cool is that story? If you know an FTC student doing amazing things, I'd love to hear about them. Share your stories with the community by leaving comments below or on Facebook.
Yesterday, for example, I learned about Jordan, a student on Team 3550 (Beta) from Iowa. He developed a way to control a robot through the internet so he could take someone up on an offer to compete at an FTC event remotely.
That event just happens to be in Australia.
With the knowledge he's gained through FTC, help from a teammate, his own ambition and mentorship from some incredible FTC Iowa volunteers, Jordan began working on a process that would allow him to plug his FTC control pad into a Field Control System half a world away.
Since starting this project, Jordan has successfully developed two means of communicating remotely with a robot. One uses USB-Over-Network applications and the other involves setting up a virtual private network (VPN) between two machines.
In addition to his tapping into his technical skills, he had to approach several companies for support through in-kind donations and sponsorship. He's also been communicating with members of the international FTC community.
After some local testing, Jordan's first international robot connection came in October, when one of his project mentors was traveling abroad. Jordan was able to successfully connect from his home in Iowa with a robot in Moscow, Russia.
Despite the success, he said there have been many complications and errors along the way.
"During the Russia test, we were unable to connect on the first day and had to reschedule for the next day in order to get it working...," he said. "On the first few tries, we couldn't get connected, or the connection kept breaking up."
He said the difference in time zone has also presented a challenge, but that the experience was worth the lost sleep.
On the first weekend of December, Jordan finally achieved his goal of connecting to, and remotely driving, a robot in Australia.
"It was an indescribable and awesome experience that has left a permanent grin on my face!" he said.
Jordan hopes his project will spur more networking between teams.
"I would... like to see more FTC teams collaborating with one another and working with one another, including teams across international boundaries - better connecting our world communities."
How cool is that story? If you know an FTC student doing amazing things, I'd love to hear about them. Share your stories with the community by leaving comments below or on Facebook.