2012 Build Season Week 6

We made a lot of progress this week, but we also had some setbacks. First, the good news is that award submissions were done on time without any issues. Also, the robot is finally moving and we are able to control the shooting speed well using P control alone. The bumpers are also done. The bad news is that the robot is too bouncy with the pneumatics wheels, the hood on the shooter is too high when rotated up all the way, the bridge lowering device is not strong enough to push the bridge down, and the robot is about 8 pounds over the weight limit. Fortunately, we have solutions for every issue and we are confident that everything will work. We are on schedule to bag the robot and bumpers. We will use our 30 pounds withholding limit and the access period to finish the last minutes changes. This year we are going to Week Two and Week Four district events so we have a little more time.

2012 Build Season Week 5

We had a good week this week with a lot accomplished. The practice robot is almost done and should be ready for testing by the end of the week.  We have started building the competition robot. For the first time in our history, we are spending time to decide how to make the competition robot look good, instead of just being functional. I think it is a sign of the maturity of the team.

All the award submissions that are due this Thursday are ready. It was a great team effort, and I am impressed with the results. The awards sub team will now concentrate on preparing the presentations. The strategy manual is done, and we will finalize it at our next team meeting. The scouting sheets are done, and they also need to be finalized.

2012 Build Season Week 4

The building of the robot this week progressed very slowly. We underestimated how long it takes to assemble all of the different components together. We also had to modify the shooter design to make it work, which further delayed our progress. Also, some critical parts were not ordered due to miscommunication and we have to wait for them before we can finish the assembly. The only good news is that we started on the electrical board ahead of schedule. These obstacles tend to happen every year, and we are always able to somehow pull it off through insane scrambling at the end. I am not worried about it at all.