Tag: Build

What Are We Working On? Status Update – Feb 27, 2024

Our apologize for not writing recently. We have been busy working hard on our robot. However, we know have something to show for it!

We have, in no particular order:

  • Made an all in one pickup and launch mechanism
  • A sliding rail system to raise and lower the launcher
  • A stage to test against (we would practice with it if we had time)
  • A speaker
  • An amplifier

You may have noticed that there is no mention or image of the drive-train. The whole situation with that is complicated, and we still do not know what we are going to use. The only hope for us right now is that fact that we have a (supposedly) working kit bot. Hopefully more progress will have been made before we load up for Knoxville.

But there is more for a robotics team to work on besides building and programming a robot. Our business team has been hard at work since January, writing up our business plan along with Deans list, Woody Flowers, and Impact award submissions. Our graphics team has changed up our shirts and banner with the updated sponsors list.

I would like to shout out Taylor for maintaining our relationships with both our sponsors, as well as with our school administrators. She has been instrumental in getting both parts and funding, and ensuring that our team can continue not only to exist, but also to meet as often as we need. Without her work, last minute trips to Texas for worlds would not be possible. Even going to regionals could be challenging if we did not have the relationship with our school admins, or our sponsors.

On a similar thread, I would also like to shout out our school admins for being such awesome people, and actively supporting our team. We honestly could not exist it it weren’t for their support. Thank you.

Status Update [4/6/2022]

Here is our third status update, and possibly the last one for a while. Yesterday was our last build meeting, although we may do a bit more work before the practice matches and the competition Thursday-Saturday.

What we got done

  • Programming. I think the code has been done for a bit, however, I think there has been a few improvements just making the code better overall.
  • Battery mount. For the longest time, we just sat the battery next to the robot when testing. We finally got it mounted.
  • Electronics mounting. Up until Monday, we had all of our electronics, except for motors, on or development board. The electronics we had to mount included our Robo Rio (our robot controller,) the power distribution hub, motor controllers, wireless radio, webcam, and limelight (computer vision controller for detecting/tracking balls, hub, hanger, etc).

What we are working on still

I believe we have everything finished already. If anything, we have to finish mounting plugging everything together.

Thanks for reading. As always, we hoped you enjoy this. Follow us on Mastodon at @[email protected] and we will see you next time.

Status Update [3/17/2022]

This is the our first status update for the ARS Robotics Program. I hope it goes well. I hope to improve these posts as time goes on.

What we got done.

  • Attaching motor for intake. After fiddling around with the intake assembly for a few days, we are finally got the motor mounted. Hopefully we are at a point where we can leave it alone and work on other stuff.
  • Work on flywheel assembly. I don’t know what we were working on with that, but I do know that we were assembling some frames for something and I believe it was for the flywheel. Sorry, no pictures. I didn’t think about getting any until after we left.

What we are working on:

  • We started working on designing our pit. I don’t think we finalized anything. However, we did decide on a basic concept. We are likely going to make out pit out of PVC piping for whatever reason with banners hanging of some of the sides and possibly the top. I’m not sure what the rest of the plan is.

What we need to work on still

  • Code. We need to get our code completed so we can do a test before the competition. I think we are currently waiting on getting everything built so we know how our code needs to function, and how we will do input.

I think that is all. Stay tuned for our next update. I plan on writing these each day that we have a build meeting, as well as for each competition we have. I guess we will see how long that happens.