Today was the last day before the signal for the alarm bells will be going off for most teams, not only because the month of February has arrived, but also Week 5 is beginning tomorrow. While we are basically just manufacturing and assembling whatever we need to be manufactured and assembled, so not much has been happening recently in terms of the engineering design process as a whole. But most of today was recapping what was happening, and making sure everyone was on the same page, as well as reminding people that there are things other than robots due relatively soon, so it wasn't too productive in terms of robot stuff, but some stuff did get done.
Shooter
Today we spent a lot more time on shooter stuff today, just putting the catapult and tower together, mounting it all to the frame, as well as the winch, and beginning to design the latch. Pretty much, it is the exact same as the practice bot, but made with square aluminum tubing entirely, rather than both tubing and wood.
Intake
Today we finished up adding the zipties onto the intake to make sure the wires didn't get in the way or caught on anything while driving the robot around, and not much else happened today for the intake, and it is just a matter of waiting for everything else to be finished.
Drive Base
Today the frame was worked on again, but just for mounting stuff, mainly the tower, and beginning to mount the shooter stuff.
Approximate times of working: Meeting Not Attended (out of town)
Thursday, February 20, 2014
1/31/2014 Day 27: Everything Slowly Coming Together
Today was another day of working on awards and other things, but we did start getting everything together, and should be done by either end of this week or early into Week 5.
Shooter
Today was the beginning of cutting the catapult parts and assembling the catapult and tower. The shooter was only worked on lightly due to trying to get everything else mounted and attached.
Intake
Today, the structure of the intake (intake without the pistons or motors) was finally mounted onto the robot frame. Also, we went ahead and started attaching the motors, chains, and sprockets, so we entirely finished mounting the intake subsystem onto the practice bot.
Drive Base
Today we finished the frame stuff, and started mounting things, and ended up getting all of the intake on today, and began mounting parts to the frame to mount the frame onto the drivetrain. After the difficulties of last year, we decided this year to use pins to keep the frame on the drivetrain, so we can easily take the frame off to get to the electronics within the drive base.
Shooter
Today was the beginning of cutting the catapult parts and assembling the catapult and tower. The shooter was only worked on lightly due to trying to get everything else mounted and attached.
Intake
Today, the structure of the intake (intake without the pistons or motors) was finally mounted onto the robot frame. Also, we went ahead and started attaching the motors, chains, and sprockets, so we entirely finished mounting the intake subsystem onto the practice bot.
Drive Base
Today we finished the frame stuff, and started mounting things, and ended up getting all of the intake on today, and began mounting parts to the frame to mount the frame onto the drivetrain. After the difficulties of last year, we decided this year to use pins to keep the frame on the drivetrain, so we can easily take the frame off to get to the electronics within the drive base.
Approximate times of working: Meeting not attended (out of town)
1/30/2014 Day 26: Day/Night Before Disneyland/Assembly
Today was my last meeting attended not during the normal SRP time frame. For most of today, Chairman's Award was worked on, and the assembly of the frame/subsystems continued.
Shooter
Today we started cutting out parts for the catapult, but didn't do a ton in terms of trying to mount shooter things. Pretty much another slow day for the shooter people.
Intake
Today the intake was lightly further worked on, and everything was beginning to come together, in terms of the structure of the intake, and making sure all of the holes are in the right place. The intake is pretty much ready to be mounted, and is just waiting for the rest of the frame to be finished so it can be mounted.
Drive Base
Today was the continuation and beginning of finishing the robot frame. We finished drilling out whatever holes needed and riveting the remaining gussets needed onto the robot frame. Below is a picture of the frame with gussets.
Shooter
Today we started cutting out parts for the catapult, but didn't do a ton in terms of trying to mount shooter things. Pretty much another slow day for the shooter people.
Intake
Today the intake was lightly further worked on, and everything was beginning to come together, in terms of the structure of the intake, and making sure all of the holes are in the right place. The intake is pretty much ready to be mounted, and is just waiting for the rest of the frame to be finished so it can be mounted.
Drive Base
Today was the continuation and beginning of finishing the robot frame. We finished drilling out whatever holes needed and riveting the remaining gussets needed onto the robot frame. Below is a picture of the frame with gussets.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
1/29/2014 Day 25: The Strength Test
Today was the beginning of figuring out whether or not the wooden gussets work/are sturdy enough to be on our robot. As everything was prepared yesterday, it was just a matter of riveting everything together, testing, and deciding whether or not to wait for the metal gussets for both bots.
Shooter
Today, after we found the wooden gussets will work, we began cutting square tubing for the sides of the tower, which was just 2"x4" on the prototype, and cutting the conduit that runs along the top. Not much happened again with the shooter because people were working on making the robot frame and the awards that were looming ahead (the Chairman's Award especially, as it was only 15 days away from being due, and hadn't had much work on it yet).
Intake
For the intake, we went ahead and cut out the tubing needed, and started drilling holes for mounting the motors and for attaching the gussets to hold everything together, but didn't get too far, as we waited to do the robot frame first to make sure the wood was good enough before moving on.
Drive Base
Today was a big day and moment of truth for our robot. If the wooden gussets were to work, everything would resume and be on schedule, but if they ended up not being structurally sound enough, we would be delayed at least half a week, just from having to hand make the gussets out of sheet metal, or waiting for the gussets to be finished by TMM Precision. We went ahead and riveted everything together, and the wooden gussets ended up working very very well, and was plenty strong enough to hold everything together for the frame, so that was our indicator that the wooden gussets were a okay. We ended up getting most of the frame finished, and we were now set up to go ahead and drill whatever extra holes to mount stuff to the frame, which will be worked on tomorrow. Below is the frame before any gussets were added to connect everything together.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Shooter
Today, after we found the wooden gussets will work, we began cutting square tubing for the sides of the tower, which was just 2"x4" on the prototype, and cutting the conduit that runs along the top. Not much happened again with the shooter because people were working on making the robot frame and the awards that were looming ahead (the Chairman's Award especially, as it was only 15 days away from being due, and hadn't had much work on it yet).
Intake
For the intake, we went ahead and cut out the tubing needed, and started drilling holes for mounting the motors and for attaching the gussets to hold everything together, but didn't get too far, as we waited to do the robot frame first to make sure the wood was good enough before moving on.
Drive Base
Today was a big day and moment of truth for our robot. If the wooden gussets were to work, everything would resume and be on schedule, but if they ended up not being structurally sound enough, we would be delayed at least half a week, just from having to hand make the gussets out of sheet metal, or waiting for the gussets to be finished by TMM Precision. We went ahead and riveted everything together, and the wooden gussets ended up working very very well, and was plenty strong enough to hold everything together for the frame, so that was our indicator that the wooden gussets were a okay. We ended up getting most of the frame finished, and we were now set up to go ahead and drill whatever extra holes to mount stuff to the frame, which will be worked on tomorrow. Below is the frame before any gussets were added to connect everything together.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
1/28/2014 Day 24: Another Tuesday
Today not much happened, as there was no meeting, but we did look around and check for who would anodize our parts, and, unless there is a different company that is up for sponsoring us, we pretty much found what we need. Other than that, 842 released another set of videos of their claw system, which somewhat effectively can pick up either rolling or bouncing balls, and of their shooter again, which seems to have two things sticking out of the top to change the angle of the ball. This was helpful to observe, as that is something we may try for changing the angle of the ball when shot.
Overall, we are definitely in the detailed design process, and entering the second iteration, or the robot that can play the game decently but doesn't look quite as pretty/not as precise.
Overall, we are definitely in the detailed design process, and entering the second iteration, or the robot that can play the game decently but doesn't look quite as pretty/not as precise.
1/27/2014 Day 23: Beginning of Building the Practice Duplicate Bot
Today was the beginning of no longer playing with our current bot, but building what we will use for the next large part of time. Unfortunately, our laser-cut metal sponsor, TMM Precision, had a lot of people gone and were really backed up, so we weren't going to get our metal gussets until the beginning of next week, so today was a day of creating a slight change in bot.
Shooter
Today was yet another day of not testing or playing with the shooter much, as everyone was either focused on programming stuff, the drivetrain, or frame of the robot.
Intake
Pretty much, intake was same as shooter, in that it wasn't worked on at all today.
Drive Base
Today was the big day for the drive base/drivetrain. We went ahead and took everything off the prototype practice robot today, and started cutting the pieces down to size, so we could go ahead and send it all off to get anodized. Also, we began to cut out wood gussets to use rather than the metal ones we would get in another week, since we have a wood laser-cutter in house, so we decided we probably could really take advantage of it. In addition to cutting everything down to size and designing/cutting out the gussets, we began cutting out a new frame out of square tubing, so we can go ahead and rivet everything together and see how the wooden gussets hold up.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Shooter
Today was yet another day of not testing or playing with the shooter much, as everyone was either focused on programming stuff, the drivetrain, or frame of the robot.
Intake
Pretty much, intake was same as shooter, in that it wasn't worked on at all today.
Drive Base
Today was the big day for the drive base/drivetrain. We went ahead and took everything off the prototype practice robot today, and started cutting the pieces down to size, so we could go ahead and send it all off to get anodized. Also, we began to cut out wood gussets to use rather than the metal ones we would get in another week, since we have a wood laser-cutter in house, so we decided we probably could really take advantage of it. In addition to cutting everything down to size and designing/cutting out the gussets, we began cutting out a new frame out of square tubing, so we can go ahead and rivet everything together and see how the wooden gussets hold up.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
1/26/2014 Day 22: Beginning of Week 4 and CAD Presentation
Today was the big reveal from the CAD team of what the robot looked like on Solidworks, as well as continuing to play with the intake. Also, this was the last day of testing with the practice prototype bot, as we were going to have to start taking it apart to cut down the drivetrain, so the metal bits of the drivetrain can go off to get anodized.
Shooter
Today not much happened with the shooter. We went ahead and reattached the surgical tubing, so we could practice the basic intake procedures, which are to winch shooter back, intake ball, then move the intake up to hold the ball in place. We also found that the moving up of the intake centers the ball onto the shooter, which definitely helps to make sure the ball is shot consistently. Although this is nice, it is an easy indicator for most teams for when we are going to shoot, as the intake drops, which takes a second, then the ball is shot, so teams who scout may see this flaw then know when to bump us to knock us off target.
Intake
As before, the intake works beautifully, and the only problems are keeping the ball in the shooter. Today we practiced getting the ball while driving, and everything seems to work. As of now, the biggest problem with the intake is very minor, and shouldn't affect anything. For the intake, since the square tubing acting as structural support for the intake sits at 25", some balls may scrape that top bar, or not hit the roller, but this has been solved by just driving at it. This problem has thus far only happened with rolling a ball slowly toward a still robot, so it really isn't enough of a problem. Also, we have found it is entirely necessary to winch the catapult back while running the intake and picking up a ball, otherwise the ball gets rolled into the middle of the robot, bounces off the catapult, and popped out a couple feet in front of the robot.
At the end of the day, everything seemed to work the way it was two days ago.
Drive Base
Since we finished the other drivetrain to the correct size, we were ready to put together a frame and everything else to put on top of the frame, but not until tomorrow. Also, we were ready to rebuild everything/take stuff off the current robot, so we can take apart the drivetrain, cut it all to size, and get it all anodized.
In terms of CAD model stuff though of the robot, here is a picture of the bot in Solidworks without the intake.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Shooter
Today not much happened with the shooter. We went ahead and reattached the surgical tubing, so we could practice the basic intake procedures, which are to winch shooter back, intake ball, then move the intake up to hold the ball in place. We also found that the moving up of the intake centers the ball onto the shooter, which definitely helps to make sure the ball is shot consistently. Although this is nice, it is an easy indicator for most teams for when we are going to shoot, as the intake drops, which takes a second, then the ball is shot, so teams who scout may see this flaw then know when to bump us to knock us off target.
Intake
As before, the intake works beautifully, and the only problems are keeping the ball in the shooter. Today we practiced getting the ball while driving, and everything seems to work. As of now, the biggest problem with the intake is very minor, and shouldn't affect anything. For the intake, since the square tubing acting as structural support for the intake sits at 25", some balls may scrape that top bar, or not hit the roller, but this has been solved by just driving at it. This problem has thus far only happened with rolling a ball slowly toward a still robot, so it really isn't enough of a problem. Also, we have found it is entirely necessary to winch the catapult back while running the intake and picking up a ball, otherwise the ball gets rolled into the middle of the robot, bounces off the catapult, and popped out a couple feet in front of the robot.
At the end of the day, everything seemed to work the way it was two days ago.
Drive Base
Since we finished the other drivetrain to the correct size, we were ready to put together a frame and everything else to put on top of the frame, but not until tomorrow. Also, we were ready to rebuild everything/take stuff off the current robot, so we can take apart the drivetrain, cut it all to size, and get it all anodized.
In terms of CAD model stuff though of the robot, here is a picture of the bot in Solidworks without the intake.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
End of Week 3: Comparison Post and Evaluation Beginning
As we are finally approaching the middle of build season (tomorrow), and Week 3 has just ended, it is time to do a comparison for this year, and the past two years, as well as what has happened with the engineering design process thus far.
This year, we have a fully functioning bot that can so far pick up the ball very efficiently and pass the ball well also, as well as score in the one point goal. We cannot shoot yet because the latch has not been fully developed yet, in terms of how and where to mount the piston and latch. In 2013, we were just beginning to build the shooter based on the linear shooter design found to be effective by many teams. In 2012, the team was also just beginning to CAD the robot as a whole by the end of Week 3.
Overall, this year, we have been consistently multiple weeks ahead of past years, but is this all because of the engineering design process, or much better machining capabilities in terms of skill, turn-around time, and experience?
This is the big question to ask now, and continue asking throughout the rest of the build season. While time was the biggest question for this project when the project began, it seems as though time has not had a big effect this year. The major changes between this year and the past two years were preparing this year for build season, access this year to a more complete machine shop, and a little more funding. The preparation had consisted of what everything does, how to use tools, and what are structures/concepts everyone should know or understand and be able to apply during build season. This preparation has allowed us to jump right into the build season, and not waste the first two weeks trying to learn how things work. Also, it has taught us how to research/find concepts and ideas that work, just by looking at bots from past year's games (2008). The mostly complete machine shop has allowed us to quickly manufacture/make our own parts with a 10 minute turn-around time (time it takes for finished design to become a part), where as before we had to rely on a company that took a couple days. This means we can rapidly prototype and test concepts just to see if the concepts work, which speeds up the preliminary design phase immensely.
Overall, so far, the time has not had an effect due to those two major factors that have changed, where as time was a big factor when we spent more of it waiting or doing things we could do during the offseason. From current observations, the four major factors that effect the engineering design process are time resources (machining and so on), and experience/knowledge, and money being one with a little less influence for FIRST. So far, we have plenty of each but time, but the lack of time is having a negligible effect on everything.
In terms of how each of the phases are being put together, the conceptual design phase has been the biggest in terms of continuing to drive everything. The preliminary design phase and the detailed design phase seem to basically blend into each other, and, while there is a very clear boundary between preliminary design and conceptual design, there is not a very clear boundary between preliminary design and detailed design in practice.
Because everything is going quickly due to time, each of the phases don't really need to be lengthened or shortened. If there is extra time, I feel, so far, only completing the conceptual and preliminary design phases, the conceptual design phase is actually the one to keep steady or add more time. Of the three phases, it seems as though the preliminary design phase is the one that can be cut down upon. So far, the team has spent around 1/6 of the time in conceptual design phases, and 1/3 of the time in the preliminary design phases for the build season, and will end up spending 1/2 the build season on detailed design plus more. Most of the cutting or adding depends on the other factors, primarily machining and experience, more than time, although both end up relating to time.
As a wrap-up, the use of the engineering design process has been huge, and, while it may not be responsible for all of the progress happening, it has still been a big factor in why the team is constantly ahead by a couple weeks.
1/25/2014 Day 21: End of Week 3
After the "big find" yesterday/success of the side rollers, the team was a little slow today in terms of working on things other than the intake. Part of this can be blamed on having an early morning meeting, but most wanted to play with the intake, as it is so far the most effective mechanism the team has ever built.
Shooter
Today we took the surgical tubing off again to work on the intake. Basically, the shooter has been put aside over the past couple days, but we will most likely start working on it again soon.
Intake
Today we went ahead and put on the second side roller, so the intake now had the side roller consisting of a BAG motor and a Banebots wheel on both sides. This took up a decent portion of the day for the kids working on the intake, and the rest of the intake time was taken by programmers programming the newly added motor.
Drive Base
Today we finally finished our official practice bot's drivetrain, so all that was left was finishing adding the rest of the electronics onto the bellypan and making the frame to begin remaking everything on the prototype practice bot out of tubing and other more visually appealing and structurally sound material.
Approximate times of working: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Shooter
Today we took the surgical tubing off again to work on the intake. Basically, the shooter has been put aside over the past couple days, but we will most likely start working on it again soon.
Intake
Today we went ahead and put on the second side roller, so the intake now had the side roller consisting of a BAG motor and a Banebots wheel on both sides. This took up a decent portion of the day for the kids working on the intake, and the rest of the intake time was taken by programmers programming the newly added motor.
Drive Base
Today we finally finished our official practice bot's drivetrain, so all that was left was finishing adding the rest of the electronics onto the bellypan and making the frame to begin remaking everything on the prototype practice bot out of tubing and other more visually appealing and structurally sound material.
Approximate times of working: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
1/24/2014 Day 20: The Ball Vacuum
Today was one of the better days, and definitely minds were blown. While the past days weren't quite as productive, today was pretty big in terms of moving into the detailed design phase of the engineering process, as the intake and shooter were finishing passing through the preliminary design phase. By far, the video of the intake is one of the best we had this year, as it is still just light enough to see the general fluidity of the ball's motion, but not exactly what is on the intake.
Shooter
Today was not overly productive for the shooter mechanism, as most were working on continuing drive base stuff and working on the intake. As of now, the idea of using the "surgical tubing links haven't been discussed much further, as we have in general been okay with the way the shooter has been functioning thus far. All we are doing for now is improving the other mechanisms to reach to the same caliber as the shooter.
Intake
Today was a beautiful day for the intake. Finally, we added one side roller, consisting of a BAG motor (is a way a "Baby CIM", just a step down from the Mini CIM) and a Banebots wheel, attached a spare talon (talon is a type of motor controller) to the drive base, and wired the motor to the talon and talon to the power distribution board. While this took a while, we did get to test it (click here to get youtube video), and the ball flow was beautiful. This was much more effective than what we were expecting. Before the side roller, the angle of the ball going into the intake had to be within a 30 degree range. Now, we have an angle range of nearly 270 degrees. Our intake also went to working well for an 8" range, now to around a 56" range. The drawings below are not quite to scale, but is hopefully enough to get the point across visually.
Drive Base
The drive base today was worked on a little today, just primarily testing to make sure it works and functions reasonably decently, and adding extra parts (the talon for the extra side intake motors). Also, we almost finished the official practice bot drive base, and it's just a matter of attaching the bellypan with the electronics already mounted, as well as waiting for the 2nd set of 3 CIM single-speed gearboxes to get here.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Shooter
Today was not overly productive for the shooter mechanism, as most were working on continuing drive base stuff and working on the intake. As of now, the idea of using the "surgical tubing links haven't been discussed much further, as we have in general been okay with the way the shooter has been functioning thus far. All we are doing for now is improving the other mechanisms to reach to the same caliber as the shooter.
Intake
Today was a beautiful day for the intake. Finally, we added one side roller, consisting of a BAG motor (is a way a "Baby CIM", just a step down from the Mini CIM) and a Banebots wheel, attached a spare talon (talon is a type of motor controller) to the drive base, and wired the motor to the talon and talon to the power distribution board. While this took a while, we did get to test it (click here to get youtube video), and the ball flow was beautiful. This was much more effective than what we were expecting. Before the side roller, the angle of the ball going into the intake had to be within a 30 degree range. Now, we have an angle range of nearly 270 degrees. Our intake also went to working well for an 8" range, now to around a 56" range. The drawings below are not quite to scale, but is hopefully enough to get the point across visually.
Intake
Intake with ball projection without changes
Intake with ball projection with changes
As demonstrated on the one side in the video, the robot can now pick up a ball coming from behind the robot at an angle without getting stuck, and, basically as long as the ball touches any part of the intake, the ball goes in. This has signaled the detailed design process has already begun, as we had built a prototype that works, and are now just trying to improve the functionality of the intake.
Drive Base
The drive base today was worked on a little today, just primarily testing to make sure it works and functions reasonably decently, and adding extra parts (the talon for the extra side intake motors). Also, we almost finished the official practice bot drive base, and it's just a matter of attaching the bellypan with the electronics already mounted, as well as waiting for the 2nd set of 3 CIM single-speed gearboxes to get here.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Monday, February 17, 2014
1/23/2014 Day 19: Finishing Practice Bot Drivetrain
Since we got the drivetrain stuff yesterday, today mostly consisted of putting everything together, and worked a little on the intake. Being a Thursday, we left a little early today.
Shooter
Today, the surgical tubing arrived, so we got to begin to play with it. Although it was very thin, we observed this higher quality surgical tubing was still pretty great. After cutting the surgical tubing more than halfway, the tubing wouldn't snap when extensively stretched, and it wasn't until it was cut around 3/4 through that it started to rip the rest of the way. After playing around with the strength of the surgical tubing, we also tried to begin making the loops using a nut and bolt and soap to make it more easily go in, since the nut and bolt head were each larger than the hole, but they kept slipping out. Before we got to try a couple other methods, we had to go.
Intake
While it was figured out previously that we needed side rollers, the team went ahead and just tried playing with the intake one more time before adding side rollers. As happened before, the ball had to be hit almost spot on in order to be sucked up. While this was tested, the holding of the ball using the intake was also tested, and, happily, we found the current geometry of the intake perfectly held the ball in the robot very securely. Also, while the intake geometry allows the robot to keep the ball securely, the intake can also spit out the ball if needed, and spit it out around 10 ft. This shows the intake probably just needs the side rollers, then it'll be okay.
Drive Base
Today, the drive base was continued, and, after taking a very long time (we kept making little mistakes that would make us take apart everything, make the change, and put it all back together), we finished the drivetrain for the official practice robot. In addition to the drivetrain structurally being pretty much finished, we went ahead and laser cut a bellypan (flat surface that is the bottom/belly of the robot), and made sure it fit, and started placing electronics onto the bellypan. Primarily due to the drivetrain taking forever, this was everything we got done today for the drive base.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Shooter
Today, the surgical tubing arrived, so we got to begin to play with it. Although it was very thin, we observed this higher quality surgical tubing was still pretty great. After cutting the surgical tubing more than halfway, the tubing wouldn't snap when extensively stretched, and it wasn't until it was cut around 3/4 through that it started to rip the rest of the way. After playing around with the strength of the surgical tubing, we also tried to begin making the loops using a nut and bolt and soap to make it more easily go in, since the nut and bolt head were each larger than the hole, but they kept slipping out. Before we got to try a couple other methods, we had to go.
Intake
While it was figured out previously that we needed side rollers, the team went ahead and just tried playing with the intake one more time before adding side rollers. As happened before, the ball had to be hit almost spot on in order to be sucked up. While this was tested, the holding of the ball using the intake was also tested, and, happily, we found the current geometry of the intake perfectly held the ball in the robot very securely. Also, while the intake geometry allows the robot to keep the ball securely, the intake can also spit out the ball if needed, and spit it out around 10 ft. This shows the intake probably just needs the side rollers, then it'll be okay.
Drive Base
Today, the drive base was continued, and, after taking a very long time (we kept making little mistakes that would make us take apart everything, make the change, and put it all back together), we finished the drivetrain for the official practice robot. In addition to the drivetrain structurally being pretty much finished, we went ahead and laser cut a bellypan (flat surface that is the bottom/belly of the robot), and made sure it fit, and started placing electronics onto the bellypan. Primarily due to the drivetrain taking forever, this was everything we got done today for the drive base.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:00 PM
1/22/2014 Day 18: Setting Concepts in Stone and Continuing tweaking/prototyping
Today was a bit slower, as everyone was still getting readjusted from the long weekend and 20 ish hours working on robotics over the weekend. Also, there were looming deadlines beginning to appear, especially the Chairman's Award, which had not been worked on much at all, so around one-third of the people who were there were spending their time on the Chairman's award and a couple other things rather than the robot. While this did happen, a few things did get done with the robot.
Shooter
As we were all happy with the way the shooter was yesterday, we didn't do much work on it, but went ahead and ordered some nicer and more compact surgical tubing. We didn't get to find how much force the surgical tubing had on the catapult, but it did take a 210 pound person to basically put all of his weight on the catapult to push it down. While that isn't overly precise, that is the best measurement we took, since we didn't have any sort of spring scale to measure the force with us. In general though, we have an idea of how much force needs to be on the catapult, and can always either tension the existing surgical tubing or add more to increase the force if needed, which, of course, is the nice thing about surgical tubing catapults as opposed to other ones.
While this was the current idea we had, another idea popped up, in that it would be a good idea to use segments of surgical tubing with set lengths, so there is a more regulated and even tension/something that could be easily reproduced/recreated. The example brought up was with spear guns, and one of the mentors brought a loop of surgical tubing that used to be in a spear gun, where it was just a set length of surgical tubing and a double sided hook that went into both sides, which held it together as a loop.
Intake
Today the intake was not really worked on, as people were either further looking into the shooter, making models (not human ones) on Solidworks of the robot, working on the awards coming up slowly, and on the newly arrived kit of parts drive base.
Drive Base
Today was mostly the cutting of the drive base parts that just arrived today, since each of the pieces are 32" long, but our robot needs to be 23" on one side. Other than cutting everything down, nothing much else happened with the drive base today.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Shooter
As we were all happy with the way the shooter was yesterday, we didn't do much work on it, but went ahead and ordered some nicer and more compact surgical tubing. We didn't get to find how much force the surgical tubing had on the catapult, but it did take a 210 pound person to basically put all of his weight on the catapult to push it down. While that isn't overly precise, that is the best measurement we took, since we didn't have any sort of spring scale to measure the force with us. In general though, we have an idea of how much force needs to be on the catapult, and can always either tension the existing surgical tubing or add more to increase the force if needed, which, of course, is the nice thing about surgical tubing catapults as opposed to other ones.
While this was the current idea we had, another idea popped up, in that it would be a good idea to use segments of surgical tubing with set lengths, so there is a more regulated and even tension/something that could be easily reproduced/recreated. The example brought up was with spear guns, and one of the mentors brought a loop of surgical tubing that used to be in a spear gun, where it was just a set length of surgical tubing and a double sided hook that went into both sides, which held it together as a loop.
Intake
Today the intake was not really worked on, as people were either further looking into the shooter, making models (not human ones) on Solidworks of the robot, working on the awards coming up slowly, and on the newly arrived kit of parts drive base.
Drive Base
Today was mostly the cutting of the drive base parts that just arrived today, since each of the pieces are 32" long, but our robot needs to be 23" on one side. Other than cutting everything down, nothing much else happened with the drive base today.
Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM
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