Build Season 2013 – Week 4 Recap

To say the least, our fourth week of build was a hectic one. Going into it, we seemed to be on time with deadlines for CADing and building, but on Monday we had a snow day. As fun as snow days are, it turned out to be bittersweet as we were unable to work on our robot at school that day and as such we were very short on time for the rest of the week. Still, progress was made by every team and we should be able to adjust and complete our goals as the build season nears its deadline.

Here are the progressions from the sub-teams this week:

The Chassis Team has finished their first chassis, weighing only 41 pounds! They’ve finished making the transmissions, and started placing bumpers on it. The second chassis is placed on hold until the other teams finish.

Despite the temporary lull, the Climbing Mechanism Team began construction and already has the primary components for the mechanism ready. Although the team has its parts prepared, it is awaiting a finalized design for the robot in order to affirm the mechanism’s exact placement. The transmissions and motors are prepared, so the preliminary trials of the device have begun, starting with basic trials on Saturday.

After some great success with the prototype shooter, the Disc Shooter Team has started building the real shooter with the same design, except for a few small modifications. On Saturday, they started by cutting all the pieces and drilling the necessary holes in them. Since then, they’ve been assembling it. Very soon, the shooter should be finished and the disc shooter team will begin on building a second one.

The CAD Team is finishing the parts for the shooter and disc acquisition systems on the robot. Because details are still being worked out on these, the computer assembly is not yet finished, although major components are entirely or very nearly finished.

Unfortunately, the Disc Pickup Team has had problems this week with getting their system to be compatible with the rest of the robot. Hopefully, we can get our pickup design finalized and built as momentum builds.

The Programming Team has continued to work on image processing, employing a new method which identifies the retroreflective targets through the use of high-power green LED lights. Programming is developing “fancy” classes for intelligent interfaces with the robot’s sensors and motors and mapping out the arrangement of the main classes’ interactions. The sub-team has also developed a script to help automate the documentation of the robot’s code.

Over the past two weeks, the Business Plan Team has been constantly making updates to the business plan. Aside from this they also began preparation and training for those who will be talking to judges about the team and the business plan. They are now working on proof-reading the final version of the business plan.

This week the Marketing Team started on getting the ducks ready for the Palmetto Regional. Then, they started planning out what types of awards they will give to teams in the stands while at the Regional. They thought a great priority was finding out how to get the news of the team getting the community first award in the Rochester Post. Also, the commercial that they will make for the team and the invitation to send for the sponsors was given to be brainstormed with. Finally, it was planned how the team will distribute all of the items they have in the pit in an organized way. They also tried a practice run of setting up the pit on Saturday. Besides a few missing parts, which the build team will remake, the team looks to be in efficient shape to set it up in competitions.

The New Media Team had a productive meeting Friday editing and updating the website. Unfortunately, they have not gotten around to making the podcast, although the idea is still in the works and hopefully they can get one started soon. Along with the Photo and Video Team, they have been working on updating our Youtube Channel with recap videos as often as possible. The next recap should be uploaded within the next few days.

Stay tuned for more AdamBots updates!