by The Hitchhikers | 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!
by The Hitchhikers | Feb 1, 2018 | Build season
One of the big focuses of Week 3 was to finish our chassis and most of the other functions of the robot. Another focus of this week was to stay healthy!
This week, we have accomplished a lot in the building of our robot. However, we did not do so well in our goal of staying healthy. Quite a few of our students had to stay home due to illness. One of the students that got sick was our Robot Lead. While we were able to manage well without him, it was unfortunate to lose him for the week.
Health problems aside, at the end of Week 3, we had a finished chassis and cube collector, leaving us to continue working on what we call the “banana” for the climbing aspect of the game and our cube delivery system. Since our programmers had all of the parts coded that they could already, we were able to take our robot out for testing as soon as it was ready!
On the business side of things, we finalized the shirt and button designs. Now we just need to get started on the process of ordering them. We have also been making mice and babel fish for the competitions and writing up the Woodie Flowers Award submission.
Overall, it has been a productive week filled with fun. All of our new students are getting extremely involved with the team, and we are continuing to have high spirits despite the cold!
by The Hitchhikers | Jan 24, 2018 | Build season
Week 2 started out like any other week. With high spirits and a lot of teamwork, we were on schedule and having loads of fun! Unfortunately, starting on Wednesday, we were unable to meet for three days because of the ice on the roads. While this was definitely unfortunate for our team, there was a bright side to the whole situation. Firstly, we extended one of the meetings before the snow and ice hit. Secondly, we used the days we were stuck inside to wait for parts to arrive and to continue to work on spirit and marketing aspects. Of course, we also used the “break” and the cold as an excuse to enjoy a cup of tea! In the end, it almost evened out, and we went back to work at Magrathea (our build space) on Saturday.
Once the roads had cleared, we thought that things would return to normal. We were wrong. We had problems right at the start of our first meeting back. One of the holes for our chassis was not lining up with another hole. This would not usually be a huge problem, but redoing the part was not an option for us. Fortunately, we were able to salvage the error, but we had to make sure the problem did not occur again. The manufacturing error caused quite a bit of confusion as we were not sure what had gone wrong. We were positive everything was done properly as far as measurements and use of the tools goes. After some investigation, we realized that our drill press was broken. This news was not too surprising because we have had that drill press since the establishment of our team in 2010. While we did buy and set up a new and better drill press in time for the start of Week 3, we did lose quite a bit time pausing some of our building endeavors.
Despite those problems, we are on schedule and ready to finish the chassis and the rest of the robot!
by The Hitchhikers | Jan 18, 2018 | Build season
The focus of this week has been game strategy, designing, prototyping, and testing programming for our robot. During the first couple of days, we finalized our game strategy. Once we figured out how we wanted to play Power Up, we started working on the design for the robot and then started the process of prototyping the parts. The main part we tested was the design for picking up cubes and delivering them to the scoring areas. So far, we have a general design for the robot, have not had any major issues, and expect to finish our robot on schedule.
On the business side of things, Chairman’s has been submitted and designs for the team shirt and buttons are underway.
by The Hitchhikers | Jan 17, 2018 | Build season
Tension was high and excitement was tangible in the room where students, mentors, and alumni stood around the TV, waiting for the 2018 game reveal. After a long introduction hinting at what was to come and a freeze right before the unveiling of the game, the 2018 challenge Power Up was announced.
Power Up is a game where two teams composed of three robots work to deliver cubes to three different areas: the scale, the switch, and the vault. Unlike previous years, the amount of points gifted is mainly determined by time instead of a set amount of points each time you deliver an element. Points are earned per second when the scale or switch is tilted in your alliance’s favor. More points may be scored by delivering cubes to the vault and trading them for “power ups.” Each power up gives your alliance a unique advantage. At the last thirty seconds, robots may climb the scale to gain extra points. During the autonomous period, robots are preprogrammed to score by delivering cubes to the scale or switch. In teleop period, robots are controlled by human drivers as they attempt to gain control of the scale or switch, trade in cubes for power ups via the vault, and climb at the end.
Right after the unveiling of this year’s competition, we split up into groups and began to brainstorm everything from game strategy to possible robot designs. An hour or so later, we all got together and had each group present their ideas. Together, we came up with a game strategy and a general robot design.
by The Hitchhikers | Mar 23, 2017 | Build season
After much excitement, this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition game, STEAMworks, has finally been revealed. STEAMworks is a game where two alliances composed of three robots work to use steam power to prepare their respective airships for takeoff. This is accomplished by shooting balls (fuel) into the goal (the boiler), delivering gears to the pilot, and climbing at the end of the teleop period (preparing for takeoff).
Due to the ice, we were not able to meet in person for the first five days of build season. However, we did not let this time go to waste. We met online to brainstorm strategies and figure out how we were going to play this game, how our robot was going to complete the tasks we wanted it to, and how we were going to fit everything together on the robot while staying within the size limits. We all decided to build a fast robot with the capability to shoot fuel, deliver gears, and climb. At the end of week one, we had a basic design and were fine tuning it in CAD (Computer Aided Design) while prototyping some of the ideas we came up with.
During the second and third week, we continued prototyping our ideas and started to work on building our shooter and ball collector. For a long time, we debated over having a low goal shooter or a high goal shooter. We eventually decided on a high goal shooter as it was worth more than the low goal. We also worked on our gear collector design. For our gear collector, we decided to make it automated to allow for faster gear cycles. Apart from working on the robot, our team also started working on the marketing and business-related items, such as writing the Chairman’s essay and drawing t-shirt designs.
At the beginning of week four, we finished building our ball collector and shooter. For the rest of the week, tested our shooter and ball collector, tweaking and changing some things. We also continued to work on our gear collector. The business side of things also accomplished much during this week. They finished writing our Chairman’s essay submission and successfully submitted it by the deadline while continuing to work on our video, button designs, and a t-shirt design drawn in illustrator.
During week five and six, we finished our gear collector, changing it from one that had more moving parts to one that was essentially a plastic pocket. We also had drive team tryouts, powder coated our robot, and named our robot Slartibartfast during these weeks. While our build team was working on finishing building the robot, our marketing team was working on putting the final touches on the t-shirt design and began the process of ordering them. Finally, it was time to get Slartibartfast ready for bag & tag. We are beyond excited for our competitions and cannot wait to play with our fellow North Carolina teams and, hopefully, out-of-state teams!
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