Throughout the second week of the build season, we have been hard at work. We started the week by assembling the eight mecanum wheels for the drivetrain, which proved harder than it sounds because of the instruction book that was more like a cuneiform (the earliest picture-written language) script than directions.

Even with mentors that have years of experience, we found three different ways to mess up the wheels. First, we assumed the wheels did not need the bearing-like cylinders to stabilize them. Second, we left out the washers, which the instructions assumed you would put on. And third, we found out that the outer wheel plate had to face stickers in (that last was not in the cryptic instructions anywhere). Though difficult, this taught us two lessons. First, always analyze (not look at) the instructions then think through what you are about to do. Second, if at first you don’t succeed, do what was just said then try again. In addition to building (and rebuilding) those, we worked on prototyping the elevator’s lifting mechanism and the robot’s collector. We also have an almost complete CAD model of the robot. In addition to that, we got to disassemble, then reassemble the gear boxes where we learned to love e-clips for how useful they are, but hate putting them on and taking them off. With all of this done, it put us in a good position to start the next week. We have almost finished the prototyping and will start on the robot’s frame on Sunday.