After attending the 2011 FIRST kickoff at Novi High School, we met the following day at Crittenton Hospital to go over the game and begin designing. During this meeting we came up with a plethora of designs, ideas and strategies that we had to narrow down in order to begin building. So, each day after school, students presented and narrowed down design ideas.

On Thursday night, student team leaders and team mentors met to finalize the design. We debated arm vs. forklift, different strategies, as well as drive systems. When the meeting was complete, we had finalized the drive system and planned to finish the rest of the design process this morning (Saturday morning).

This morning, we discussed design ideas for two hours and finalized other parts of the robot. We also decided that we would do some prototyping today and more on Monday to make final decisions. After the design meeting this morning, different sub teams met and worked:

Some of the Build Team sub teams began working with the CAD Team to start CADing designs while others kept prototyping and designing. Build Team sub teams also decided on some of the parts they may need and reported to Mr. Hildebrandt on what needed to be ordered.
The Programming Team worked with the 2010 FIRST robot, Veronika, to practice, prototype and simulate different things that they will have to do on the this year’s FIRST robot.
The Controls & Electronics Team went over some of the basic things about controls and electronics, inventoried parts, and provided Mr. Hildebrandt with a list of parts that need to be ordered.
The Field Team nearly finished a tower and scoring rack that will be used for prototyping and practice.
The Marketing & Website Team met to discuss ideas for the pit such as freebies, posters, and other aspects. We also decided when the new website was to go live.
The Planning & Development Team began an outline for this year’s business plan and created a project management board (image to the right) to provide a visual of the build season schedule.
During all of the activity today, the Media & Documentation Team was taking pictures and video.

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