Final Countdown!
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- Created on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 18:10
- Written by Hilary Burrowes
In preparation for the bagging tonight at Midnight, the whole team was back in the shop on Friday, bringing us again to full power! With all the members back on board, we had extended hours from 3:00 to 9:00. The drive train team started to work on the bumpers, with the help of our faculty adviser. The feeder team officially had decided on a three beater design that worked well on the prototype bot when it was implemented on Saturday and it should be added onto the final bot by the final bagging.
Saturday was also a jam packed day, with two members of our strategy team having gone to a pre-season meet to see the robots of other teams in our region perform in this years exciting competition. This first-hand research definitely went into the last minute tweaking involved in the last few days. Also, four students from Hammond High School came in to visit our team on Saturday, and checked our progress against theirs.This was an honor here at RAID 2537 because effecting our community for the better is our ultimate goal and helping a fellow FIRST team helps us do just that. The team also had multiple full robot testings on our practice field in the gym and a lot was learned and improved. Robot number two was officially in full fabrication mode on Saturday and the pressure could definitely be felt on all teams, especially software.
Normally the software, electrical, and general integration teams don't get much time to work on the robot every year; however, this time around our team was dedicated to making a change. Unwontedly, our team gave a few full practice days for the software team to work out kinks in their programming with hands on experience on the robot. Lucky for us though, we also have the prototype bot for the software team, as well as the new drivers, to work on and practice with after our real robot gets bagged up.
The shooter and ball elevator teams can only have their products described as innovative, both mechanically and design wise. Both teams have their mechanisms decked out with 3D printer parts and an assortment of eye catching colors of plexiglass and PVC piping, and overall the team has come far from our green cellophane wrapped robot from the year of "Breakaway". This improvement of looks just helps to emphasis the evolution of our team, from the humble beginnings we started with five years ago, to this year when we have more ability then ever to spread the message of FIRST in our community, as well as our new found potential to win many of the prestigious awards FRC has to offer.
Final Prototypes
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- Created on Friday, 17 February 2012 16:36
- Written by Hilary Burrowes
RAID 2537 is currently in crunch time! Due to increased stress and the realization that having to many hands in the kitchen isn't always a good thing, half of our team was rewarded with a much needed break before the super-packed ship weekend. We also had employees from our newest sponsor Helm Point Solutions, the company that our software mentor Al Dunn works for, come in to see our robot in action as well as to give us added support. While the visit was going on, Atholton High School's vice principle, technology resource instructor, and Teacher of the Year came in to learn about this year's robot as well. Currently our robot is outfitted with completely functioning final prototypes and each mechanical team is transitioning into the final mechanisms. Our team's driver subteam is preparing to perfect their on field plan of action with the strategy team and the software subteam is working on finalizing the mechanism's controls as well as automating specific aspects of the robot.
Shooter Debug!
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- Created on Monday, 13 February 2012 19:58
- Written by Super User
2/13/12
Today's meeting was dedicated to debugging the shooter and making sure that all the robot modules were effectively communicating with each other. Our hardware and integration leads had their hands full today working with all the mechanism and electrical teams to make sure all parts are working correctly.
Meanwhile, in the other room, our software team was hard at work making sure that the robot can correctly target the hoop. Evan, our software division lead, has led the charge on making sure that the robot's software will be finished on time. with only 8 days left, we are finishing up the last major parts of the robot.
Testing the Shooter
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- Created on Sunday, 12 February 2012 09:53
- Written by David Oletsky
2/11/12
Today, we were focused on testing our shooter and putting the manipulators onto the robot. So now, instead of various work areas, our team has been converging around the robot, tweaking their respective manipulators. As the day of shipping the robot draws nearer, we are beginning to work longer hours, and students are becoming more focused on the tasks at hand. So far, so good!
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