Team Update

Hello All,

It turns out that today we didn’t have robotics. This was kind of a bummer because Ken wrote out a new list of priorities for the build team on Thursday and lots of us were looking forward to returning and getting a head start. Tomorrow we will have a meeting for sure and it appears that Sunday may be optional. Anyhow, expect a post from either Liam or me each day of this build season, or at least that is our goal. =)

As a quick update on how we are doing things this year, here are a few things from the parent meetings that may interest you. For one, below is the team travel schedule for this year.

Team Travel –

Oregon Regional (Portland) March 8 – 10

Seattle Regional (CL Event Center) March 22 – 24

Spokane Regional (Cheney) April 5 – 7

World Championship (St. Louis) April 25 – 29

As you can see, we will go to three regionals and the World Championship, as it has become a tradition to go to the world championship each year for our team. Unlike past years, to be able to attend Skunks need to be at least second year students, meaning that the rule of only juniors and seniors coming does not exist anymore. It certainly benefits a lot of us; I wasn’t expecting to get to go this year and I am thrilled to experience the excitement of championship.

On another note, we will be meeting during the AHS Mid-Winter Break, which includes Monday, February 20^th and Tuesday, February 21^st. As Mrs. Miller said in an email to the team, Tuesday February 21st is the last day of build season that the team can work on the robot until we get to the Oregon Regional. The Shipping Party will be happening on February 20 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm, so please mark that in your calendars if you are interested in coming. The team basically hosts an evening for skunk supporters, family and friends in the AHS gymnasium and cafeteria where the robot is revealed to the public. It is specifically awesome because we showcase the completed robot the night before the robot is officially finished.

As many of you may know, the robot will be bagged on Tuesday, February 21^st and we will not be allowed to work on it until the Oregon Regional. As a side note, the term “shipping party” actually comes from previous years when the robot was packed up and shipped to the regional.  Thanks for reading!

Camila

One full day left until ship

We had a nifty list of things to do today before 6:00. We didn’t have a large crowd in the morning, but we got a lot done.

In a nut shell: We continued routing the final bot, we changed out the window motors we blew out on the arm last night. We added the better chain tensioning system for the lift and developed a latching mechanism.

The window motors died, because when we picked up game pieces, we slammed it back and drove around with it wobbling. These motors have what we presume are nylon worm gears, which don’t handle other motion well. To keep the new motors from doing the same thing, Alex and Franco designed a mechanism which latches the end effector in place, when it’s in the upright position.

We got all this done a little before 5, leaving roughly an hour for the programmers to get ready.
We had endless problems with the end effector. Without the time left to fix the code, we ran the bot at our usual Unveiling Demo/Ice Cream Social without it. We showed our driving capabilities, lift speed height, pushing power, our minibot and more.

Considering our current condition, I’d say it went well. The upside to tonight’s extra drive time is that we figured out some changes to make, and we still have a robot to play with for the next three weeks!

I think that tomorrow, being our final build day will mean a rush to finish the main bot. However, we will be maxed out on people, so I assume we can fix the code on the practice bot and attempt to solve the end effector problem, now that we know what caused it. We will be there until midnight when we bag it up and call it the end.

With our current schedule of 9-10ish, I get home so exhausted that I can’t really write my posts as well or as detailed, so sorry.

P.S. We also have the final bumpers ready.
P.P.S. Our weight requirement is easy to dodge, we still have plenty of weight for the deployment and mini-bot.
P.P.P.S. We aren’t entirely sure where to put the lexan with our sponsors for this year. Ideas?