Even though this week was exams and we were only able to work for about half the time as usual, we made some progress with prototypes and designs and most teams were able to get some work done. This week the AdamBots held more design meetings to get ready for the first competition of the season in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On Tuesday, January 15, their was a team meeting for all members to attend. Many of the sub-teams also met, such as marketing, which has been working on things specifically for the Myrtle Beach competition, such as a new t-shirt design.

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The Chassis Team is still waiting for parts to arrive. Almost all of the chassis has been drawn on CAD, and until parts arrive the team will focus on training the new students. Several members have started to build the slots for the motor mounts.

Over the past week, the Programming Team has been getting ready to program the robot as it is being finished. The team discussed a few new ways to identify and track the new reflective targets, and tested out the new cameras. The team set up a Git version-control system to better organize program updates and tests, which should allow for faster and more-convenient changes to the robot during the last few days of the build season. The team also tested last year’s motor controllers to be ready for when this year’s robot comes along.

As we’re finalizing design features of the robot, they are being prototyped and detailed on the computer by our CAD Team. To aid in designing these features, the CAD team also created portions of the field to test designs out against a scale model. So far the chassis is partially created in Inventor, and parts of the rest of the robot are done.

The Disc Shooter Team has recently been working on a prototype shooter. Starting last Saturday, they had a CAD model of the prototype drawn, but due to some inaccuracy and changes in the design, they spent most of Saturday editing and re-drawing the model. The building of the shooter began Monday, and was also worked on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday the 19th the shooter was tested. While it still needs work, as it does not shoot as far as is necessary, they have a solid basis to work off of.

The Controls Team has made up a spreadsheet of all the inputs/outputs they need to have on the robot this season. They will begin implementing these as the final robot starts to come together.

The Disc Acquisition Team has worked on a CAD design. They have decided to pick up discs using a “dust-pan”-type device. They have made a prototype and will soon begin to build their design, as long as it is compatible with the shooter.

The Climbing Team has, after much discussion, decided upon a final design. They have decided to climb up through the middle of the pyramid, and the team made a model pyramid and used a scaled-down wooden prototype robot to present the system on the Thursday design review. Hopefully, full-scale prototyping and building can begin within the next week.

Most non-engineering teams did not meet during exams, but the LamBot Mentoring Team met Saturday and had a beneficial discussion with the LamBots. Both teams learned a lot about how to improve their designs.

Hopefully we will have our podcast up and running by next weekend, so stay tuned!

For pictures from this week, view our gallery here!

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