Mechanical Design by David C.
Tuesday – Tuesday’s build session was very…riveting…to say the least. As the drive base was being constructed, another group spent their time riveting high-traction treads onto the 6-inch wheels that will be incorporated into our machine. Meanwhile, the kit bot was being modified by a group of veterans and rookies to be driven in a wide orientation. This bot will be used in practicing balancing and other aspects of the game. More work was done on the claw and the shooter, as prototyping is nearing completion now that we have a solid blueprint from the CAD team.
Thursday – MOAR RIVETS. The wheel group managed to pump out 8 wheels – enough for one robot. The group continued to work on the wheels, for we need a total of 16 wheels for the two robots the team plans on constructing, as we have done for past few years. Not many exciting things happened tonight, as each build group continued to work on their respective projects. At the end of the night, however, another version of the shooter prototype was completed, and the team gathered in the shop to witness its testing. The ball was fairly accurate and consistent, showing promise for our final design.
Friday – The drive base was assembled today, so the team took out the bump that was constructed in the first week to test how well the robot could traverse the obstacle. The robot’s design proved itself to be sufficient, as the robot easily crossed over the bump. A build group continued to work on the kit bot, modifying it to feel more like a real robot come driver practice. Project leader Tito, who supervises the claw construction, led his group in assembling the claw according to the CAD blueprints. The claw frame is projected to be completed by tonight, with a finished product by the beginning of next week. The full drive system was fully assembled at the end of the night, with both gear boxes mounted and running smoothly.
Saturday – Saturday’s session began with using Miss Daisy 2006 (another shooter bot) in order to gauge the trajectory of the balls. The team set up the hoops and enjoyed shooting balls with the robot. Because the 2006 shooter is located on a lower part of the robot than what we have planned for our 2012 bot, we placed the 2006 bot on a cart to replicate what a trajectory would look like from a higher location. Of course, one of the mentors made a mistake and accidentally drove the robot off the cart trying to reposition it. Fortunately, the robot’s structure was very sturdy, and no damage was done. Afterward, the team decided to modify the 2006 twin bot so it will be able to shoot the balls for this year’s game, which are slightly larger than the balls used in 2006.
CAD by Pranav K.
This week, the CAD team has been working on not only new projects, but also in a new working structure. In years past, we have built the robot ahead of the CAD model, leaving the CAD sub-team to catch up to the robot construction. Although slightly difficult, this work flow was efficient in getting the robot built and also took in to account that the CAD deadline is after the robot submission. This year, however, the CAD prototype was built before any piece of aluminum was cut. While this is typical for the real world, it was always thought that planning would cut into the time used to build the robot, ultimately leading to a less than ideal final robot. However, we have seen great results this year because of eager new CAD members who are able to handle the work load beautifully.
Our CAD coach, Brian, issued general areas of work for each senior member with rookie members there to help them in measuring or to just learn how to CAD at an advanced level. In conjunction with the Electrical Team, CAD was able to create a model for the electrical board (although the physical placement for each part is unknown). In addition, the CAD team this year is attempting to avoid using any parts without a history, or list of actions done to create the part. So various members have taken downloaded parts, recreated them (with history), and placed them in our repository for other members to access. Notably, members have created various bolts, screws, nuts, washers, and other parts used in numerous subsystems of the robot. Furthermore, there are larger parts used like the Andymark Super Shifter, of which the subparts were remade, reassembled, and sit ready to be placed onto the robot frame. Several members have also taken the prototypes for various systems (i.e. the claw, the shooter, the frame, etc.) and have resized the parts used in the prototype to fit the actual robot model.
Business by Susan N.
This week, the Business Team has been gathering the contents for the second newsletter. We have interviewed the different Project Teams and asked them what they were working on this week in order to create the content. Through the interviews we found out that the design of our robot has been finalized by the CAD team, the actual robot is being built by our mechanical team, the media team also interviewed different members from the project teams using cameras and mics to record clearly, the electrical build team and programming teams planned on how our robot should be acting by certain orders from a controller.
The name of our newsletter will be “Daisy Dispatch” and it will provide information about what the project teams are working on each week. The “Daisy Dispatch” template is finished and it really represents the team’s characteristics. We are excited to hear some reviews from our team members, including coaches. The newsletter is eye-catching and informative and will help to explain how our team works and show how much we are united as a team. The newsletter will enable us to keep our sponsors updated on the activities of the team. The pictures that will be included in the newsletter are taken by our media team during work sessions.
Our second job this week was to continue reviewing the 2011 Business Plan to identify areas that need to be updated or redesigned. We are currently focusing on the Competitive Analysis section. After the review and update steps are done, the 2012 Business Plan to be published and ready for submission at our competitions.
Our third job was to create a spreadsheet to track the expenses of the team and categorize them by project team. This job is in progress.
Media by Patrick W. & Danielle G.
We are well into the swing of things here on the Media team. Our week 3 vlog was one of our funniest vlogs to date. We took a trip to the Daisy Garden with James the Daisy Hunter and also interviewed Andy from our animation team. Everyone has been contributing to our team and has been showing a positive attitude. The media team is trying really hard to include all parts of the team in our vlogs. In previous years, the vlogs were very robot-focused. But, this year we have filmed segments on the CAD, Animation, Electrical and Business Teams. In doing this, we really capture a more holistic view of our team.
Aside from that, the media crew does not have many other projects going on at the moment. The fall recap video is wrapping up and we are just starting to revise our Team in a Box product. Next week should be very busy for us as we are continuing vlogging, revising Team in a Box, and starting to make our trophies for competition. But, we are looking forward to it as always!
