Build Season Week 6 – Final Week

Written by Ryan Cesiel on February 24, 2011

Week 6 was a hectic end to the build season. We were trying to decrease the weight of our robot, finalize functions of the robot, program the robot, troubleshoot electronics and hardware, and many more things. Fortunately, the students had Monday (February 21st) and Tuesday (February 22nd) off because of the midwinter break.

During the week and on Saturday, the Electronics & Controls Team finished wiring up the robot which allowed the Programming Team to finally start testing their code.

On Monday, during some testing and practicing we broke the part of the motor powering the vertical movement of our arm.  We had to redesign what powered the arm. But, at this point we were still hovering right at 120lb.  Several mentors and students stayed late Monday to finish placing the new sprocket and motor on as well as “cheese-hole” every possible part our robot to cut down on weight.

Tuesday afternoon brought about a very pleasant surprise-a 117.5lb robot.  After much confusion over the variance in the weight of our robot amongst three different scales, we found that the robot had to be weighed on a solid surface such as concrete or wood instead of the carpet.  Otherwise, we got a wide range of numbers for our weight… Read More

Build Season Week 5

Written by Ryan Cesiel on February 14, 2011

Progress continued on both the robot and everything else this week. Different accomplishments and milestones included the Mechanism & Manipulator/Arm completing all the necessary structure, the Above Chassis Team completing the deployment mechanism, and the Media & Documentation Team took team pictures.  We did not accomplish our goal of finishing Saturday, February 12th.  However, we do have a firm plan in place to complete the robot in time for testing, programming, troubleshooting, and practicing.

But not everyday went as smoothly as we would have liked.  On  Thursday, February 10th, we weighed the robot in at 127lb with several miscellaneous items tacked on to account for missing pieces.  127lb! Immediately, we began reengineering and reconstructing sections to remove weight.  Since then we have been able to drop to 114lb thanks to several cessions by the Mechanism & Manipulator/Arm and the Above Chassis Team… Read More

Build Season Week 4

Written by Ryan Cesiel on February 6, 2011

Mother nature hit the midwest hard earlier this week.  Between 12 and 15 inches hit our area Tuesday night that resulted in two straight snow days for our school district. We were unable to work or meet both Wednesday and Thursday and consequently, our schedule has been pushed back while we have been trying to catch up.  While it was great to get a break from school, it’s never good to lose time during this frantic, six week build season… Read More