The day-to-day activities of Team 4099.
Electrical assisted Programming with the test electronics board and the limelight. They also worked on pneumatics for prototyping the hatch cover outtake and started assembling a second electronics board for prototyping.
Programming coded the cargo intake and the hatch panel intake/dispenser, as well as teleop controls. They are nearly done with the controls for the elevator. They started work in the limelight camera but are having trouble opening the control panel for the camera on their computers. The new radio was also connected and determined to be functional.
Design worked on configuring the drivetrain for this year’s challenge, since we are increasing to 8 wheels, compared to 6 from last year. Other group members looked at previous year’s designs for the mecanum intake and three stage elevators and started designing the respective mechanism for our team.
Electrical worked on designing a practice electrical board that can be used for further testing. We worked to create a board that encompasses all the electrical parts. We also worked on a pneumatics system and getting the manifolds/solenoids to work properly.
Programming began to work on programming control systems for the elevator, creating preset positions so that the robot can more quickly aim its outtake. Research was also done into how to produce and execute autonomous paths.
Business worked on assigning parts to the Chairman’s video, as well as starting to work on the grant for Showbest Fixtures. Those assigned to the video took a look at videos from past years to get a feel for what the expectations are for this year. Members assigned to the grant read and discussed the questionnaire, to brainstorm how to approach each question.
Today was Kickoff! Everyone gathered together and watched the livestream to see what the theme and challenge would be for this year - Destination: Deep Space. In essence, we must be able to put hatch panels and cargo into a cargo ship and a rocket in minutes and 30 seconds. We did a game analysis and went through strategies to figure out the best approach to get the most points in the competition.
Tomorrow, Design will meet to discuss designs for various parts of the robot.
Members are working on getting their machine certifications. The shirt designs are getting finalized. Everything is just getting started and we’re eagerly awaiting build season.
Today was the very much anticipated RoboEvent for the Girl Scouts! The girls were fascinated by the robot we brought to the event. After we did a demonstration of the robot and told them about our team and what we do, we sent them off to make their own robot. They started with designing it and then programming it. There was a team member at each table to guide them through the process. By using Vex coding, they were able to program their robots to move through a course indicated by a gray line on the field. Every group was successful and all were given their Robotics badges.