ftc

In the past week Modern Robotics has announced two new sensors to its lineup, a color sensor and an integrating gyro.

The color sensor claims to support a passive mode, which allows it to detect color from an external light source (such as the LEDs of the Res-Q game beacons).  It also supports an active mode, where the sensor has its own light emitter to detect the color of a reflected target (similar to how the LEGO Mindstorms and HiTechnic color sensors work).  The color sensor is available now, but as of Sep 21, 2015 the FTC Robot Controller App doesn’t have libraries to support the sensor.

The gyro sensor is a 3-axis gyro that does onboard integration of the z-axis, thus it can be used to calculate heading with greater accuracy than if the calculation is performed on an Android or PC host.  The gyro is slated to be available for sale by mid October 2015.

(reprinted with permission)

From: Dr. Carter Tiernan
Subject: FIRST Tech Challenge 2015-2016 season plan
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2015 17:00:23 CDT

Dear coaches,

I hope your school year is starting off very well.  This message will give you an overview of the plan for the FIRST Tech Challenge season in North Texas including the structure, a few dates, and some future year plans as well.

As most of you know, US FIRST is moving the FTC competition structure from the previous format of qualifier competitions only to a format of league play.  We had hoped to start large-scale implementation of leagues this season.  However, there is a state-level effort in Texas that is expected to have a big impact on teams and participation in FTC starting this year and this effort has changed our planning regarding league implementation.

Therefore, for the 2015-2016 FTC season we in North Texas we will be using a blended format of both qualifiers and leagues.  As the default, we will be continuing to implement FTC with first level qualifier tournaments that will have space for all teams to compete in.  The Southwest Regional Championship at UT Arlington is scheduled for February 20, 2016.  The qualifier tournaments are expected to be held in December and January.  Dates and details will be given as they become available.  Teams that compete in qualifiers will advance from a qualifier tournament to the Southwest Regional Championship.

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