The FIRST Robotics Competition is in the corner. Today is the first day of preparing for upcoming competition this Friday, April 5. Each team leader, with their members, gathered the essential materials for the competition.… More
Prototyping Begins
Students voted on the design yesterday on January 16th, 2018. Team Henry’s design got the most votes from members. “Long Arm Design” from Henry’s team began prototyping today using cardboard and pvc.
Electronics team began brainstorming with ideas on actuators, electronics, power and assigned all team members to review parts from game manual and do some search how each part works.
WEEK 1 DAY 3 Videos and Presentations Continued
Today we went to B13 to see the “Robot in 3 Days” video on YouTube to get some inspirations that we can use for our designs. The team members gathered in front of the big screen and watched several videos from different “Robot in 3 Days” channels.
After watching the videos, the team members set down and continued talking about the designs that we didn’t went through yesterday. We had two groups: Anjali’s team, John’s (team member) team, and Osvaldo’s design.
For Osvaldo’s design, it was also a C-chassis like Winston’s design. However, instead of a hand like structure there was more. Osvaldo wanted to use wheels to collect the robot and the wheels would be attached to both “hands” that can move up and down ( so the robot can put the Cube over the fence on the Switches) and let go and hold on to the Cube ( like Winston’s design). For these to work, there would be a lot of applications of pistons. This was also one of the key concerns regarding the design.
Osvaldo presenting his design and Habibur holding the poster.
Robot in 3 Days.
WEEK 1 DAY 2 Brainstorming Continued and Presentations
Brainstorming Continued
In the meeting today, we continued brainstorming our robot. Comparing with yesterday, most team members were more ready. Today, we focused more on designing the drawing of our robots. Time was given to groups so they can discuss with their teammate and draw the designs. Mentors and advisers walked around the room to look at the designs and give advice and questions regarding their designs.
Presentations
Near the end of the meeting, two team was able to present their design today. First we had our Chassis leader Henry with his team presenting their ideas. They mainly focused on having an “assembly line like” compartment that will move the Power Cube to the Switches. Questions and concerns from the audience were asked such as how would you make sure the Power Cube would not fall off and what how to get the Cube into the Exchange Channel.
Henry’s team talking about their design.The second group was leaded by our Prototyping and Programming leaders: Habibur and Winston. They have two designs. The first design was similar with Henry’s team design. The second one utilized a C-chassis that had a holding compartment ( to hold the Cube like two human hand) that might need pneumatic to make it work. This design needed more details and thoughts of the application of pneumatic.
Habibur and Winston’s team presenting their designs in front of the team members.Mini-Lesson
Yesterday, a decision was made for what mechanism we should prioritize on the our robot by the votes of team members. Our decision was to focus on the Switch first. However, there was a misunderstanding between team captain and advisers. Since we already made a decision yesterday, our team captain wanted to vote again to make sure all the team members are on the same page. On the other hand, our advisers and mentor believe that there should not be a vote but instead stick with the decision that was being made because voting on a decision that was made already is not a good practice ( might lead to more confusions and not having a clear direction) and yesterday chances were already given to members to speak up of their thoughts already. So there should not be a vote again. In the end, one of our mentors said to give the members a chance to vote to make sure all members are on the same page. In the end, majority voted for the Switch. The act of “re-voting” would not happen again in the future. As we proceeded, we might have many conflicts and misunderstanding between each other regardless your role in the team. It is important to take each other’s opinion and create a comprise that will give the most benefit for the team.
After Meeting Time
After the meeting, the team leaders and mentors went to B13 to open this year kit.
Henry holding the items form the kit that we received on the day of the kickoff. It feels like opening a Christmas present. This year’s kit had lot more items for each departments.
WEEK 1 DAY 1 Brainstorming!
Today was the first official meeting after the kickoff, the members met at the school library and got ready to bounce around ideas of the robot and strategies. The first hour was used for members to form into groups and gave them a poster for them to come up with robot designs and discussions for strategies.
The second hour until the end of the meeting, we have our mentor Daniel leading the meeting to focus on the main mechanism of the robot. In the Power Up game, there are few main ways to gain match points: Owning the Scale, owning the Switches, filling in the Vaults with Power Cube, parking on the platform next to the Scale, and climbing. The owning of Scale and Switches was the main discussion today because they are the main parts that help us gain points during the matches. Pros and cons were talked about for either the robot should focus on the Switches and the Scale.
Mentors and advisers also gave advice regarding which mechanism the robot should focus on. The decisions were constantly shifting between the Switches and the Scale because of the constant pop up of new cons, pros, and the considerations of reality. In the end, we decided to focus on the Switches as our main scoring target which means the robot will have a mechanism that aim for the Switches.
Pros and cons of having a mechanism that mainly focus on the Switches and the Scale.However, there were also some disagreements that vote for the Scale. It is totally normal to have disagreements or different point of views on the strategies that is why there are compromises that will be made between both parties. We should not be shy or afraid of sharing our ideas because each ideas should be respected by the team regardless of right or wrong. And this is one of the keys that drive the team to success.
Mr. Mincin sharing his ideas about the discussion and the advisers and students listening.A huge thanks and appreciation to our advisers like Ms.Gjika, and Mr. Cort for staying after school with the team and contributing ideas! Also a big thanks to our mentors Daniel, Marianna, and Ying for helping the team today! Thanks for team members who shared their ideas and came to the meeting today.
Let’s get the design of the robot down in the following days of week one, we can do this Team Automatons! Let’s go Team Automatons!
Automatons 4528 