The much publicized media challenge has had its final part posted and needs a like from you! Our team has been working hard to get the media challenge to the public so that we have a shot at winning the prize. What prize, you may ask. Well, the winner of the Fed-Ex FIRST robotics media challenge will present a five thousand dollar grant, a Roborio, and Labview software to the winner of the competition. We need your support to win this competition, so please, get on Instagram and like our posts! Here is the link for our Instagram page.
Meanwhile, in our shop, we interviewed one of our woodworking students, Kaylee, who was drilling holes for the gear hook for our playing field construction with a Forstner bit. She used her resources wisely by utilizing using a discarded 2×4 and a broom handle to complete this task. Other members of our woodworking sub-team, Asher, Aaron, Gary, Kaylee and sometimes Larry, are nearing the completion of the hopper and the front part of the boiler, which are other pieces of our field. As you can see, our woodworking team is essential for their work on our practice field in our common area.
Our mechanical team is also very busy right now. John, a mechanical student, was calculating the total length of the rope our robot will climb from where it reaches the ground to where it is attached at the top of the airbase. This is important because we need to know where to put the rope climber relative to how far the rope hangs.
One of our programmers, Robbie, was programming the radio as a router for the FMS (field management system). The radio connects the robot to the computers outside of the arena so that the pilots can manually drive the robot, as well as streaming the video feed. This important to keep our robot working well.
Finally, the CAD (Computer Animated Design) team is continuing work on an electric support board, which they have been working on it for the past four team meetings. We need an electric support board that is the right size for this year’s game. Caleb, pictured above, is one of the three team members on the CAD sub-team. Caleb has been in CAD for two years, which is as long as he has been on the team. He likes CAD because he likes to see the robot before it is done. The CAD team is busiest during the second and third build weeks, so they are currently in high gear.