Testing

Today we ran our robot on a to-scale playing field at Gateway High School. After finding that some stuff didn't work properly, and fixing it, we had the best robot there! We can shoot from half-court, which, I believe, is about 23 feet away! It was kind of cool, because other teams started gathering around our robot to see how it worked and were visibly impressed. The Ship Date is this Tuesday! It works...hallelujah!

Loaded with balls. Our robot is easily able to hold the ten balls you are allowed to start with and more!

Another view. The vertical shaft is prominent in this shot.

Yes! Our robot makes it up the ramp!

A nice side-view of it.

The Final Stretch!

We've been busy this past week finishing up on the robot. We're very close to completing it. All of the major components are either in place, or will be soon. We've tested the belts and the shooting mechanism and they're working well (after some slight modifications.) Currently we're working on mounting the electrical system. Pictures coming soon.

Studio MX

Today we got Studio MX! Dreamweaver, Flash, the works! The web team is really excited about it.

Tuesday

Today we got to do something that you only get to do once in life (without severe consequences): we shot at Police Officers! That's right...we took our shooter outside and some Police Officers (whom the family that houses our workshop knew) measured the speed of the ball leaving the shooter. The speed gun was inside their car, so we shot some of the Poof-Slinky balls at the Police Car's windshield. We found that the speed of the ball was within the limits set by FIRST for projectiles leaving the robot, but was still enough to get the ball through the high goal.

After that, we drilled lots of holes and sawed lots of aluminum for a while...

Later, we took a vote on T-Shirt colors. The winner was Red, with black and silver writing. The shirts should look pretty cool.

Also, we are taking a vote on whether or not to change our logo. So far, Yes (changing the logo) is winning. We'll post what is eventually decided.

Another vote is going on! We're trying to decide what the team's websites URL should be. The current website is all messed up (hackers, the person who managed the site left, etc.), so we're completely ditching it. We'll also post which URL wins that vote, too (after we have bought the URL).

The Week After Monday

We have gotten a lot done since the last post. We finished the chassis, welding and cutting to the shape that we want, did more(!) work on the ball shooter, and have made lots of little odds and ends that will play crucial roles in the robot (e.g. fasteners, small shields, etc.).

Monday

Today we updated the electronic board to meet our needs, experimented with our shooter mechanism, and made some adjustments to the shooter. We used a feature in EasyC (a programming software) to manually control the speed of the shooter, and then put a ball in the shooter. It worked pretty well, but the ball uses up a lot of the speed of the wheel so you have to wait a while until loading another ball. We worked that kink out (we think!) by speeding up the wheel after we launch a ball. We'll see how it works in the long run. Anyway...we're also working on coming up with T-Shirt colors and a robot name. The Auto-Cad team seems to be plugging away, and we even have some rough measurements for the crate we'll ship the robot in. Everything seems to be pulling together, we just hope it doesn't fall apart!

Saturday

Today we're fixing some bugs in the shooter mechanism. We're also putting finishing touches on the ramp and platform. The electrical mockup for the shooter is working (finally!), but the Electric Subteam has many more hours of work to do to finish the electric system.

Later:
The ramp/platform is done!

Thursday and Friday

Today, we worked on a mockup of the shooter mechanism and started work on the electric system prototype. The shooter works pretty well, but as always, could use some more work, which we'll get done tomorrow. We also built the ramp that leads up to the platform your robot has to end up on to get the bonus points.

Friday :
We continued work on the shooter mechanism, as well as the electric system. The Electric Subteam had some minor scuffles with eachother. One of the members of the Construction Subteam formed his own Union, complete with lawyer. Hopefully, we'll get this all straightened out before it causes too much trouble.

Monday

This is our first meeting this week. Today we are constructing the prototype for some of the robot. Andy got to drill and screw together part of the protoype. Veronica cut the wood for the prototype. We also prototyped the ball shooter, and greased the transmissions.

Friday and Saturday

Friday:
We took the wheels, chains and part of the drive system off our old robot from last year and put it on this year's robot. Some of the team got grease all over their hands while doing this. We are almost done with a prototype ramp.

Saturday :
The Robot-knights are moving forward in building a prototype of the electrical system's panel. The Autodesk Team is also making progress.

Here are some pictures of the team and the mentors :

Intro to Autodesk

Autodesk (for background see Progress So Far...) is a special 3D rendering software that we use for "blueprinting" our robot, and use it to show the judges at the competition all the parts of the robot and how they fit together. It is a bit of a challenge at first, but after you get through the 4 hour installation and the learning curve, it is pretty enjoyable. Visit www.autodesk.com or www.alias.com for more information.

Autodesk sponsors FIRST, and so we get the software free. However, it is only available to consumers for a price (unless you use the 30 day trial). For free 3D rendering software, check out www.povray.org or www.blender.org. You might find that you enjoy messing around with them!

The Second Day

This is our second day of work, and after a weekend off, we're heading back to the workshop to get some design questions squared away and to continue construction of the robot.

Later…

The design questions were not completely resolved, but we’re mocking up a prototype to simulate the performance of the robot to help us better answer these questions.

Progress so far...

The FIRST Kickoff was on January 7. Since then the team’s been doing a lot of brainstorming. Last week we had meeting nearly every night to come up with a design concept.

Saturday the 14th was our first day in the workshop. We began to assemble our chassis and other early work. A couple team members took upon the task of installing Autodesk Inventor, a 3D design sofware.

Today we’re scheduled to have our first in-depth design meeting. Now we get to hash out the details of our great design. What is our design? Ah, now that’s the secret… Let’s just say that our design takes into consideration all the aspects of the game. Keep checking in and you might learn something.

The Introduction

Welcome to the FIRST Robotics Team 1315 Blog! FIRST Robotics is an organization designed to promote technological interest in students by holding Robotics competitions (check out their website here for more.)

Team 1315 is a Christian home educated team from the St. Louis area that was formed in 2003. They have won several awards: the All-Star Rookie Award and the Entrepreneurship Award.

This year’s game, Aim High, challenges alliances composed of three teams to score points by shooting balls into two types of goals, either “Corner goal” situated near the ground worth one point or a “Center goal” eight feet in the air worth three points. To watch an animation detailing the game click here.

This blog will be following the progress of Team 1315 as we design and build a robot over a period of six weeks to compete in the competition. Please check back often for updates on our progress.