Dear friends, Sorry that I didn't write a blog last night. My team was only in the shop for a little bit last night because it was a very important night. It was my team's annual Quizzo fundraiser! Even though I missed them a lot, I am glad that it was so successful. Today was absolutely crazy! I went for my first drive off of the blocks. At first, I wasn't quite moving correctly, but my team figured out that it was because two of my motors weren't driving. Once they resolved that issue, I had to try going over all of the obstacles. My drivers figured out the direction and gear in which I need to go over each of the obstacles. For example, while I can go under the low bar no matter what, I can only go over the rock wall facing forward and in low gear. Next, the girls started to test out my hanger. They motorized the tape measure for the first time. While it extended very nicely, it had a lot of trouble winding back up. This made my team reevaluate my hanging mechanism. They are currently working on a tape measure extension system that is similar to one of my original prototypes. It involves two tape measures connected together and being pushed and pulled by a directly driven wheel. The design is working well but it still needs to be improved. The programmers accomplished much today! They knew that in order to give my drivers enough visibility, I would need two cameras. One will help me to see the hanging bar, and the other will help me to see the ground. They figured out how to toggle between the two today! My programmers also accomplished a lot with the gyro today. It turns out that the gyro that they were working with was dysfunctional so they worked with a new one today. They immediately started figuring out how to wire it. They are working on a program that will help me to know how far off from my desired angle I am so that my motors can adjust me. My ball collector evolved a lot today, too! My team was struggling with the paint roller cores, so they decided to take a slightly different approach. They made a design inspired by the paint rollers out of metal and plastic. It looks really nice! Plus, if it works, it will be a lot easier to repair at competitions. I am excited to see what happens! Wow! Today really was busy. I can't wait for tomorrow!
XOXO Robot
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My team had a lot of adventures today! The builders worked on my ball gathering prototypes today. They tried out replacing my pool noodle with a paint roller. In order to do this, the girls needed to file the round hole on the paint roller spinner into a hexagon. This took a lot of patience, but I am hopeful that this design will be good! The programmers are continuing their work with the gyro. They explored the cameras, too. They also switched up the drive controls a little bit. Some people were concerned about having my gear shift on a certain button because if the girls forgot to switch out of high gear, I could burn out my motors. Now, the drivers have to press and hold the trigger to be in high gear. Speaking of driving, girls worked on their driving a lot today! They made a little course for robot that required turns, backwards driving, and precision. They took turns driving robot along the course. They also timed themselves and tried to be as fast as they could.
Now that I have successfully driven on blocks, I am feeling a lot more confident in my abilities! I have a feeling that a lot of things will be falling into place soon! XOXO Robot ...Hi everyone! I decided that I wanted to change up my entry today. Instead of writing up a blog for you all, I decided to work with the girls to make a vlog about our adventures. So without further ado, I present to you... my first vlog! I hope that you all enjoyed seeing all of the action! I might make more of these in the future!
Until tomorrow, Robot Hey friends!
I've been sitting vertically on my head for a very long time now. I know that my team needs me to sit like that in order to fix me, but I wish I could drive over to Brother and ask him what he has been up to. Ever since school ended today, he has been driving around outside of the shop. I think that the programmers are testing out the gyro. He isn't driving like he usually does so I think that they are trying out a special program for the gyro. Inside of the shop, girls are working on fixing up my drive train. They are putting my new axels in, adjusting the spacers, lining up the belts, and getting everything set up. They are fixing the little issues now so that I can do my best at competitions. Meanwhile, other girls are working on my wiring. Today, my compressor was wired with my new sixteen gauge wire. Girls also worked on wiring my superstructure motors. I really hope that I can drive soon. I'm really proud of Brother and everything that he can do, but seeing him drive every day makes me want to do it, too. I know that my builders are trying to get me ready as quickly as they can. I just need to be patient. XOXO Robot Today was all about becoming a better robot bit by bit for me. The build girls worked on figuring out the gearbox issue from yesterday. They think that the issue was a matter of my gears needing to mesh together. It seems that once they worked with them for a little, they worked better. Unfortunately, putting my gearboxes back into place was not very easy for the girls. However, the tight space is a small price to pay for a low bar robot, in my team's opinion. They are also working on replacing the axels with longer ones. The girls also spent time talking about strategies that I will need to use on the field. I am so excited for competitions -- I know that if I practice hard enough, I will be able to impress my team. They are working so hard to build and program me, and I do not want to disappoint them. I know that they will love me even if I mess up, but I want to be the best I can. The programmers continued to work on figuring out the gyro. For now, they are testing it out on Brother, but hopefully I will have one by the end of build season! I can't wait to see what adventures tomorrow has in store!
XOXO Robot |