Design & Build by David C.
Monday – On Monday, the team began construction of the twin bot. The twin bot is an exact copy of the main robot; this is done in order to train rookies and to potentially create a more finalized design that may end up being better than the original machine. Miss Daisy has kept with this method since 2005, and it has proved to be very beneficial to the team. Monday is Miss Daisy’s short day, so the frame was laid out and a crew was assembled to continue this project.
Tuesday – The build team split up into its respective crews to continue working on specific projects: the shooter, the claw, the modified kit bot, and the twin. Today marked the beginning of the electrical team’s real job, that is, laying out the components within the machine to see the best place for everything. The build team gave input as the electrical crew did its job. Meanwhile, the frame of the twin was mostly assembled, though a shortage of parts and materials halted their progress. The remaining projects experienced good progress, and while the electrical team “hogged” the main robot, the build team took this opportunity to tidy up the shop and to work on miscellaneous projects in order to increase the utility of the team.
Thursday – Tonight, the team finished up final tweaks to the current layout of the electrical board. The twin bot continued undergoing construction; the base is almost fully assembled to be a copy of the original. The crew looks to start laying out the electrical components for the twin either tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, on the main bot, the prototype crew for the shooter began preparations to assemble their shooter to the main bot. The prototype, still constructed mainly of wood, should be running later this week. The group working on the kit bot has made good progress. The shelves for extra weight has nearly been completed; all that remains on their part is to have a claw constructed so it can lower the ramp.
Friday – The day started off with the team working on the main robot, making tweaks to temporary parts, uploading code, finishing wiring, etc. After dinner, the Miss Daisy XI drove for the first time. The team ran it over the center field barrier several times, satisfied with its performance. Although the robot still showed some minor issues, the testing was considered to be a success. We also managed to test the prototype shooter, which was attached to the robot, and important data was collected from observing the robot in action. Now, the main robot is undergoing several construction changes, including adjusting the prototype shooter and finalizing the tower in which the balls are to be stored.
Saturday – The build team finished the initial adjustments to the shooter and did some preliminary testing with the new design. The team determined that the shooter would be the main focus of work today, so chain was cut down, the shooter motors were raised on the tower, and an improved hood system was implemented at the top, though only temporary for now. The team ran through several shooting tests. Considering that the design is very rough at this point, the team is somewhat satisfied with the quality of the shooter (ie, it made 3-point baskets). More adjustments are necessary, but the team has a solid idea of how to approach this challenge.
Electrical by Michelle G.
On the electrical team in week four we made great strides in our work! The team successfully completed the main robot’s electrical board – starting with Velcro-ing everything down, and building a resting board for the battery. We were sure to make certain that the Velcro completely covered all attaching surfaces as to give a secure connection. The power distribution board is in the center of the electrical system, with (somewhat) symmetry flowing through to the rest of the components. After securing all parts to the board we began wiring all the power lines. We were sure to double check all crimps, after the trouble we had with last year’s board. To keep the board clean and organized we zip-tied all wires to the belly pan. This allows for a clear flow of the wires, making the connection paths more obvious. After this was done, we finished up with the PWMs. As we finished smiles spread upon our tired faces; for before our eyes was the prettiest electrical board yet.
CAD by Pranav K.
The CAD team, in week 4, continued its normal functions of creating various models of the robot’s subsystems. Various members created parts of the tower, which was being tested and assembled by the build team this week. The team put together prototypes for the shooting head and the pieces of extruded that are currently in place. This was done to get a rough visual as to how the plates surrounding the shooter would fit on to the actual aimer, which worked out relatively well in CAD. CAD also prototyped the orange belts to pull the foam balls up to be shot. However, the CAD team encountered the complication of the preset belts not being long enough, which ultimately required us to edit the belts numerous times to get it right. The CAD team plans to compare this to what is on the actual robot later and determine if any changes need to be made to our model, and if so, do them.
In addition, the electrical team made many advances, and the team sought to get our model corrected to what the electrical sub-team finally decided on. CAD had to replace some Jaguars (not the car) and move around various parts. The only thing the team has left to do at this point in the build season is to wire everything, which is also being taken care of by CAD team members throughout this week. The CAD team, as per instructions of our coach, also assembled the robot as a whole, bringing together several parts and assemblies previously created but never put together. The CAD team incorporated subsystems like the right and left drive train, the frame, the electrical board, and what is currently made of the tower.
Finally, the CAD team began to make the models for our Mobile Robotics Learning Lab as per the conditions of our grant from Dow Industrial. In a matter of days, the team managed to work diligently and create the frame, both drive trains, and a rudimentary electrical board to be put on the robots to be made for the mobile lab.
Animation by Andy L.
The animation team has finished our storyboard, and we’ve decided to focus our story on providing robotics teams to schools throughout the world. We have started character modeling and finished modeling two of our set pieces; one is a school’s exterior and the other is the inside of a classroom. We’ve also been playing around with lighting and rendering in Mental Ray. Currently, our animation team has a pretty strong understanding of modeling, texturing, and animating, but our knowledge of rigging has been lacking, so we have spent a few days researching how to work with skeletons, weight painting, and IK handles. Other than discovering problems with backwards compatibility between Maya 2012 and 2011, things have been running pretty smoothly.
Business by Allison P.
The business team has been making a lot of progress thus far. We started off this week by gathering and reviewing information about other project teams by interviewing many of those members. We also obtained a lot of information through the weekly reports submitted by the different teams. Then, we were able to incorporate all the progress and news the project teams made into our second ever newsletter. Thus far, we are still working on completing the second newsletter. We are in the process of writing more articles and adding more content to it, as well as identifying pictures that we want to include with the articles. We have heard back from our sponsors that they really liked our first newsletter. Hopefully, our second one will be an even greater success!
Another very important aspect of the business team is the 2012 Business Plan. We are finishing up our review of the 2011 Business Plan in order to find areas that need updating or fixing. We have highlighted those areas in the 2011 Business Plan and are hoping to update and fix everything next week. So far, it seems that the Competitive Analysis section needs the most work. After updating all the information in that section, we will move onto other sections, such as the financials/budget section.
Tracking team expenses is also one of the jobs the business team must take on. We have discussed setting up and creating a spreadsheet to log all of the expenses so that the team will be able to see all the expenses of each area of the team to compare them with all other years. We plan to start creating the team expense spreadsheet within the next week and hopefully begin inputting all the information soon.
Media by Danielle G. & Emily O.
This week, the team made major progress on the robot; so much so that by Friday, the media team was filming and photographing a moving rough version of Daisy. We were able to interview members of the mechanical build team and CAD team who gave us the inside scoop on their activities throughout the week. Diana asked some fun questions such as: “If you could go to any regional in the world, where would it be?” and “If Team 341 had a theme song, what would it be?” For our fun segment this week we decided to make a parody of a popular television commercial, the Most Interesting Man in the World. For this role we choose to highlight Mr. Trageser, who is a major contributor to the team’s success. His daughter, a previous member and captain of the team, initially introduced him to robotics. Working closely with Mr. Ostrow and putting in major hours working in the shop, Mr. Trageser has helped the team achieve victory countless times. We were able to tape wonderful interviews from Mr.Dixon, a previous coach, and Michelle, a current member, along with other goofy ones. To view this week’s vlog, click here.
Also this week, the media team wrapped up the fall recap video that highlighted all team activities between the end of last season and the beginning of this one. We continually strive to film all of our big events from IRI to Ramp Riot. We had some trouble picking out good footage as most of the Ramp Riot section was filmed in standard definition, but this collaborative team effort proved a great learning experience. This video turned out wonderfully thanks to the narration written and recorded by team members.
The team is making wonderful progress in preparation for our first FIRST® competition. It is a great experience to be able to capture our journey on film and show the world. We hope that our vlogs and other short films excite and inspire our viewers.
Web by Emily O.
Our newest and current website launched late in 2008. This is the majority of the website a viewer would see today with some changes along the way. As a student developing the site at the time, I remember asking specifically if we should have made the site a bit wider. It seemed too compact. We eventually decided that it would be best to keep the site thinner because some people still used small, old computers. Now, with the evolution of technology, we are proud to announce that our site has evolved as well. We have made the site wider in order to allow for more room and content space. After widening the site, we updated the sponsor logos in our footer. We also made our header wider in Photoshop, with a new daisy head! We have been working on re-formatting the site as some content has moved around and cleaning up the layout of the content and pictures. As always, we have continually been uploading the vlogs and build season photos. Look for our fall recap video coming soon!
