Let's Get Down To Business

Today was such a great day!!! All of the team members finished their exams so they can finally start working on me. Once the bell rang, they came pouring into the basement, excited to get to work. They started off by organizing the job board. Whenever the girls come into the shop they can look at the board for a task and complete it. The board has three columns - to do, doing, and done - and four rows - robot build, robot programming, robot electrical, and spirit/awards/field elements.

Then, the girls started building the field elements out of wood for me to practice on. They were very careful to measure them precisely so that the elements I practice on in the shop will be just like the ones at the competitions. I would be so nervous for competitions if I didn't know that my team will make me so prepared. They finished three bases for the outer works as well as the moat, the rock wall, and the low bar!

Meanwhile, some of the other team members were creating a frame with old six-inch wheels. It's not quite for me, though. It's for my brother, I guess. The girls will practice driving him so that they can be experts by the time I am finished. He won't have any of the attachments I will have; he will just be a basic robot with the new drive system. He will also give the programmers time to experiment with my code while the builders are still working on me. Today, they assembled the gear boxes, built the frame, and mounted on the wheels and gearboxes.

During lunch, the girls worked with one of the team parents to design the team standard that will fly over the field while I compete. It is going to be so cool!

In programming, not much could be done at the moment because neither I nor my brother are ready yet. The girls got started by downloading the programming software onto the computers and programming the new radio.

A group of girls also worked on prototyping a mechanism for me to use when I need to grab balls and spit them out. It will be inside of my frame and a series of wheels will pull the ball in, hold it in, and spit it out into the low goal. The design is not final yet, but it is working very well so far!

The Chairman's team was upstairs away from all of the noise and sawdust working on the essay. I don't blame them - it is crazy down here! One by one, they pulled girls aside to interview them for a video. This video is the first of a Q&A series that the team is making. In this video, the girls talk about what FIRST means to them!

Overall, it was a very productive day! I am so excited that I will spend every day for the next six weeks with this team.

Gotta blast!
​Robot