Tad DeAvila - Army Strong Stories

AIAD Tunisia

Tad DeAvila — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:32:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
So my team ended up winning the competition in a clean sweep. It was surprising because we were almost not ready to start the first competition. Now we have left Tunisia and entered Rome where we will be visiting the sites of this amazing city. it is so much fun here so far the only major problem is there is a lot of walking and with the heat it is quickly exhausting. On Wednesday we will be going to the Vatican which should be amazing and I am really...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 11

Tad DeAvila — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:05:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
With one day away from the final tests our group managed to pull through. Many of the smaller problems we had the first day were not present anymore. This was nice because it gave us time to feel accomplished and like all the work and sweat we had gone through previously was all worth it. Now with only one day left we are so near finishing this project with our heads held high. Tomorrow’s final test will consist of properly navigating around the...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 10

Tad DeAvila — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:58:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today our group took ten steps in the wrong direction. Yesterday we thought we had everything working well and today nothing was working the way we wanted. It is very frustrating with everything acting up. It definitely goes to show us that we didn’t do enough testing. The other group is able to get 2 of the four cameras but we can only get one of the cameras. We are also having problems finding good placements for the cameras for the...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 9

Tad DeAvila — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:09:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today we got back to work after a relaxing weekend. Work was a bit slow because we have to divide up the time we can run the robots. The wireless cameras are not allowing us to run the robots at the same time and therefore we are only getting a hour of testing then a hour to work on the write up. Tomorrow we will begin doing the run through for the final tests. It should be interesting to see how good people are at their various tasks. Slowly it is...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 8

Tad DeAvila — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 21:18:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today was a nice day of relaxing. Went to the beach early in the day only to get burn for the afternoon. The resort we are staying at is fairly nice. The place is right on beach but unfortunately does not have my other amenities like a gym, tennis courts, mini golf. But Sousse is one of the most relaxing getaways i have ever been too....read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 6/7

Tad DeAvila — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:31:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
These last two days were awesome. I only wish we could have spent a week seeing everything we didn’t and just spending more time at the places we went to. The first place we visited was El Jem. It is supposed to be the best preserved Roman Coliseum. The site was breath taking and being able to see so much of it especially being allowed to go underneath it to see the inner works was really astounding. The second place on the trip was to the home of...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 5

Tad DeAvila — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:20:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today marked the end the end of the first week. We ran into some power issues today with the robots. We blew the fuses out on most of the power adapters for the battery chargers. Lucky for us many of the Tunisian students knew how to rid the electrical engineering equipment at the school to power the batteries. So now we are able to charge everything. We have been slowly working through the issue caused by the wireless cameras and the router. We...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 4

Tad DeAvila — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:14:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today we nearly had the majority of our project done when we ran into our first major problem. The wireless cameras used to view where the robot is going and what the robotic arm is doing create some sort of interference between the wireless router and controller. This leaves the robot making random movements which cannot be controlled. In addition, we are having establishing problems even with the robot a times which is another problem we are looking to...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 3

Tad DeAvila — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:42:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today was very productive in the work process. We assigned one of the Tunisian Students to be a group leader and had them do most of the talking in the group to get them to see how it feels to be in charge of others. The students really liked this idea and hopefully they will get a lot out of it. Work on our robot is making progress. After misinterpreting the task matric and doing several useless tasks we were finally able to hook the robot up and begin...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 2

Tad DeAvila — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:54:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
Today was our first day of work. We meet with all the students from the Sousse PoliTech University and began working after a hour of learning about the Problem Solving Process. Beginning to work with the Tunisian Students has been very interesting. The biggest barrier has been the language difference. CDT Berry described it as playing Taboo because we have to explain concepts without using the words that would normally makes sense. The small group of five...read more

AIAD Tunisia Day 1

Tad DeAvila — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:17:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
We arrived in Tunis, Tunisia yesterday and did not do much but sleep. Today (Sunday) we went to the museum, Bardo in Tunis, the Museum was very nice and it was interesting looking at all the Roman mosaics. However, most the museum was closed off for renovation so we did not get to see everything. We Arrived in Sousse today and arrived at the hotel for the majority of our trip. Tomorrow we are going to the university to begin working on the robotics project,...read more

Tunsia/ Italy AIAD 2010 Day 0

Tad DeAvila — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:21:00 GMT

By: Tad DeAvila
I am Tad DeAvila, a firistie at West Point, NY. I am about to go on a AIAD to Tunisia for eight days for working with the local university in Sousse on some robots. I am really excited for this experience and for the opportunity to see another country and life style....read more