Build Season 2012 – Week 1 Recap

Last week marked the beginning of a new FIRST season for the Adambots. Starting with an inspirational kickoff at Novi High School, the team began to design their robot for this year’s FIRST game, the basketball-themed “Rebound Rumble”.  Meeting at Crittenton Hospital, we were further informed of the game’s rules and strategies in an educational presentation by Mr. Drummer.

 After the presentation, we were split into design groups and asked to give our design ideas for the team’s latest robot. In an extremely productive design session, we were faced with a plethora of questions for their robot strategy- Would the robot be offensive, or defensive? Would it utilize an arm or shooter technique?  Would it cross the bridge or go over the barrier?  Would the robot be wide or long? We pondered these questions and more, creating imaginative, resourceful, and logical designs and presenting them to the team.

Following the meeting at Crittenton, we embarked on a heavy-duty week of strategy and design. After much thought, we decided to choose a robot that used the shooter strategy, with a wide chassis that could cross and balance on the bridges. With a design in mind and dozens of students and mentors willing to work hard, we began on our epic journey of building and perfecting our bot, starting with creating a simulation robot for testing on a mock-up field built by the efficient field team.

Meanwhile, the upper chassis and manipulator teams began building and designing a roller system for their shooter, and the CAD team starting designing their drafts for the robot.

Overall, the Adambots’ first week of work was a frantic success, as we worked long and hard to design the best robot we could build.