Another day hard at work

Hello All,

Today we went straight to work. The programmers worked on the PID for the shooter; the field guys tested throwing the ball across the field, and in the shop we got the conveyor assembly for the practice robot riveted. We have a fiberglass panel that still needs to be replaced in the competition robot conveyor assembly because we changed it out to put it in the practice robot since there was an error with it. There is going to be lots of drilling through rivets as we get more parts since we are assembling with what we have, often times making a note of the component we are missing and continuing on with the assembly. This way we can work even before we have everything.

As far as the drive base goes, the practice and competition drive bases are in slightly different stages. The drive bases are basically the following:

• 8-wheel drive
• Front pair (of wheels) 1 sprocket
• Second pair 2 sprockets
• Third pair 2 sprockets with an extra 1 large sprocket
• Back pair 1 sprocket

With this pattern we finished the drive base for the practice robot, which was great because we were planning on testing driving around with it soon. However, it turns out we do not have another pair of large sprockets yet and that the new ones we ordered are not going to be as good as the ones we already put in the practice robot… So, tomorrow we are going to swap the third pair of wheels between the practice and competition robot and just wait until the other sprockets come for the practice robot drive base to be complete.

Well, that’s it for today, follow the smell tomorrow!

Camila

Tuesday – A Typical Day in the Office….

Looking better each day

To everyone that may smell a little… skunky

Hey everyone!

Another day in the shop, except fot the fact that today marks the day that is exactly half way through the build season. Congratulations to everyone that is involved with this great effort, we are halfway there!! Besides that, we made more progress on the drive base assembly. Further progress however, is delayed until Friday, when we waterjet more parts for the robot, mainly the conveyor side panels and shooter components. Pictures of the drive base below.

The marketing team is in full swing today, having finished quite a bit of work on the website. It looks great, so go check it out! (skunkworks1983.com). The team has also designed the new shirt. It is under wraps until it is actually printed, produced, and delivered, but you guys will be the first to get a picture, skunk’s honor. The sponsor posters have also been designed, along with new banners. Nice job guys!

The biggest problem to date has been the weight of the robot. To quote Ken “we will be pretty light… probably famous last words though.” And indeed, we are in the process of shaving off every tenth of a pound we can, be it from the type of material we use or the amount of “cheesing” we do to the material.

I dont have much more to say today, other than thanks for reading and:

Stay Smelly!

Liam Burke

Looking more like a drive base each day

These wheels aren't going to look like this during competition. I hope.