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2018 Build Season: Week 4

by | Feb 11, 2018 | Build season

Week 4 was spent fine-tuning our cube collector, finishing up the fabrication and assembly of our cube delivery system, adding encoders to our wheels, and working on the climbing aspect of the game. Fortunately, our Robot Lead was able to return early on in Week 4, helping things tremendously.

For the cube collector, we tweaked the design slightly. Originally, we had four wheels for the collector, but we got rid of the back set of wheels because the cube kept getting stuck at an angle on them. There was also a bolt that limited the range of motion for one of our collector arms. After some testing, we were able to identify and fix both problems. We also added something to help us retain the cube better. Before, we had problems retaining the cube in the collector when we picked the robot up and shook it around to simulate the rough driving during a match. At first, we tried increasing the tension in the springs used for the cube collector. While it helped, we decided that we wanted to have that extra security.

On the programming side, we outlined the three auto codes needed as well as worked on various aspects. Electrical is getting worked on, and we have started the long process of making buttons, introducing our new students to the joy of button making! We also submitted the write up for the Woodie Flowers Award.

During this week, Team 6003, SUM, visited our build space. SUM needed gearboxes because the ones they ordered, which they really needed for their chassis, were on backorder. To help them out, we invited them to our build space to take the gearboxes from our 2016 robot. While they were taking apart our 2016 robot, we were able to talk to them. It was extremely fun to compare notes on how build season was going for our respective teams!