ROBOMIND Ep. 2: Speechless

Podcast #2: "Speechless"

Transcript:

Hello, my name is Misha Ahmed, and I am your host of this podcast series called ROBOMIND.

I know for those of you who weren't here last episode you may be wondering, what does ROBOMIND mean? ROBOMIND is a combination of two things: robotics and mind. I love robotics, and I believe that it shapes how you think, and it shapes your mind. That is why I called my podcast ROBOMIND.

Now, a little about me. I’m 12 now--yes, I had a birthday since the last podcast--and I am a robotics fanatic! I am on my middle school robotics team, and I want to inspire you to give robotics a shot.

The name of Episode #2 is….drumroll please…"Speechless." As you can see, I’m continuing with the Disney theme with the name of a song--one of my favorites from Aladdin. And now I want to talk about the new VEX IQ game, Full Volume, which although I'm going to be talking about it a lot, has got me speechless!

But before we get started with today’s topic, I'm going to provide you with the answer to the riddle from Podcast One: Those girl bosses that we heard about last time, who were crushing it on the battlefield, they were queens on a chess board!

Now that we got that done with let's get to the juicy stuff: the game called VEX IQ Full Volume. I first heard about this game on the last day of Worlds when I was there with my elementary school team. The announcement was epic! The new game field was brought down from the roof of the convention center, and everybody was screaming like crazy in anticipation. As soon as the new video came on, it was silent. Everyone wanted to hear the description of the new game.

Today, I will give you my easy and short explanation. But, first up, an analogy.

Imagine you're packing for a trip. There are three bags, and there are multiple different clothes you need to pack. Half of them are in your closet and you know where they are; the rest are in the black hole known as laundry. What does all this have to do with the game Full Volume?

The person packing = the robot my team and I built.

The 3 suitcases = the 3 goal zones on the field.

The clothes = the 3 types of blocks on the field.

The laundry = the supply zone because in the laundry you never know where things are and in the supply zone everything's random. All the blocks are in different places.

I don’t want to bore you with ALL the nitty gritty stuff, so I will go through the main points of this game. If you want to know more you can read the VEX IQ Full Volume game manual or watch the YouTube video for Full Volume.

But let me just tell you what you need to know!

1. You need to know about how to score and how to get the different bonuses.
2. You need to know about skills challenges

So, how to score. Your end goal is to score as many points as possible by using your robot to score cubes in the goal and receive as many different bonuses as possible. First, you get one point for each block scored in any goal. You can also get 5 points from knocking down red blocks off their pegs. You have a partner team--also known as your alliance--if you guys enter the supply zone, you guys will receive 20 extra points. If all blocks scored in a single goal are the same type, that goal earns a uniform bonus of 10 points. (Bonus!) You and your team can also receive a height bonus based on the highest fill level shared by all three goals. Bonus time! There are three fill levels: low, medium, and high, worth 10, 20, and 30 points.

At the end of the match, robots can try to park in the supply zone. 5 points for each partially parked robot, 10 for each fully parked robot, and don’t worry I know some of you guys are like, "Do you need I license for this?" No, you just need a nice, good brain, which I'm sure all of you guys have. And a 10 point bonus for double parking.

Now, I know you want to know about those skills. Every year there's the driving and autonomous skills. Driving is when you and your team get 1 minute to drive. Then there's the autonomous coding, which is no drivers, no remote, just code. At the end these scores will be combined to determine a Robot Skills Challenge Champion.

You need to know that even if your first competition goes terrible, don’t give up. Just improve overall, and next competition you will crush it! That’s it for today. Keep your gears turning and keep your mind in shape.

It is time for the new riddle! You will need a piece of paper and a PENCIL to jot down a series of letters.

EPISODE 2 RIDDLE: I observed some initial letters from a sequence I see in this book. All you must do is tell me this: which letter should come next? The sequence is FSTFFSS. So tell me what is next! I’ll give you the answer next time.

Thank you to all of you amazing people who added comments last time. Thank you so much! This is your host Misha Ahmed of ROBOMIND signing off!