An Update, 1/30

Okay, I got distracted/busy and missed a few days. We'll catch up here.

Main robot design is pretty much finalized and serious CAD'ng is underway. Prints are coming in hot 'n heavy.

Material has been ordered and parts are being machined.

This coming weekend will be spent welding up the frame and associated parts. We may be able to begin assembly as well.

Coral Springs High School is making progress. They began work on their concept. Sean Magley is assisting them.

On Saturday, 1/22, several students and mentors from Killian High School in Miami came up for some help. We were able to guide them through wiring of their robot and power it up.

Thursday, 1/20

Programming/control system team continues to make progress understanding how to control our electromechanical creation.

Prints are starting to arrive with more CADing to be done. Parts are being ordered.

Work continues on the claw. Exploring different wrist concepts.

There has been some discussion and debate on how best to lift the the elevator. A gearbox concept has been developed.

Coral Spring High School came over and we were able to help them get their Classmate PC talking to their cRio.

Open house for school is tonight and we will be participating in that.

Wednesday, 1/19

Very good day with prototyping.. I think we're getting close to finalizing the claw.

The mini-bot group is still exploring ideas.

We have a kitbot chassis together and will mount the cRio control system on it with the current version of the claw. Also, we will start working with the photoelectric sensors.

The animation team is hard work on their project. Looking good!

Tuesday, 1/18

The FTC kit arrived and along with a couple of batteries, a Jaguar speed controller and a staple gun!

The FTC kit has a lot of the parts needed for the mini-bot. Now we can really get to work on that.

Prototyping of the claw continues.

Prints for the gearboxes are being finalized. Let the machining begin!

Build Day 6

Friday was a day off.

Saturday we worked on parts for the prototype of the claw.

The parts for the mini-bot didn't come in as anticipated on Friday but students were able to work on a concept none the less.

Today (Monday) we're going out to Sonny's to work on a different claw concept.

Build Day 4

Progress was made with the control system. The classmate is now communicating with the cRio.

The frame for the scoring grid is assembled and 3 vertical poles with scoring pegs are ready to go.

The animation team has started working on their Autodesk entry.

More prototyping tomorrow.

Build Day 3

A very productive day.

David Guzman and the team participated in a conference call and using Team Viewer David showed them the '07 and '08 robots. He pointed out the pros and cons of using an arm vs. elevator to lift and place the tubes.

The team unanimously agreed the elevator is the way to go.

Today we'll start prototyping claw devices and a mini-bot.

As you can tell by the photos, we do have fun sometimes!

Build Day 2

Students identified several different strategies that can be employed for this challenge. We defined our robot to be able to score on the top row, pickup off the floor, and deploy a mini-bot.

Students then broke off into groups and collaborated on what the robot might look like. Several good ideas were presented.

Initially we thought we would be constrained by the 60" diameter cone rule but Team Update #1 increased that dimension to 84". That should make our job a little easier.

Build Day 1

We read through the rules to give everyone a clear understanding of what we're up against.

The second half of the time was spent inventorying the kit, re-imaging the classmate PC, and working on assembling the scoring grid.

I didn't get any pictures from yesterday so here's a few more from kickoff.

FRC Kickoff 2011

Sonny's once again hosted the team for this year's kickoff. A great turnout as usual and we had Coral Springs HS with us as guests.

Mr. Crawford, Ms. Bubello, and Ms. Petrill joined us as well.

After learning the challenge we did our brainstorming and heard many good ideas.

Now it's time to get to work.

We'll spend the first few days of this week going over the rules, inventorying the kit of parts, and developing a strategy.

Below are a few pics from last Saturday.