Parts from one vendor were very slow coming in compared to the last 2 years. To make it worse, parts were already backordered so early in the season. Some other problems were that part of the order was missing, the quantity of components was wrong and the wrong component was packed in the bags. As a result, we could not assemble the chassis to make it run. In a desperate move, we took apart our 2009 robot and took the parts we needed to make our robot run even though it would not have the correct gear ratio.
Our original robot design had a big deficiency. We had to redesign the arm to make it more robust. We were back to the drawing board.
During this setback, students were working hard on awards submission and presentation. They are making great progress.
I think we are still slightly ahead of schedule compared to last year, but that can quickly disappear if we continue to have problems getting the right parts on time.