1/22/09 Progress?
 

Its getting pretty deep into the season and I was just wondering where everyone was on their progress. By now I'm confidant that most teams have chosen at least their design direction, if not full engineered it.

As for 1458, we are finishing up our electronic board now that we know how it will fit onto our base, our base is done, half our prototype manipulator is done, the other half is about 3 days - 4 days away (machining needed on that part) also prototype. With one functionality missing form the second half of our manipulator we will have a working, scoring robot by the end of tomorrow. I hope.

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Our Chassis and upper structure is tacked together. It will be rolling on wheels (unpowered) today.

All the necessary machined components have had prints submitted to our machine shop.

Drivetrain assembly is in process, as is ball thingy that does something or other. :D

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

We have zero percent (not even 0.1%!) of the production robot put together. We have about 20 real design drawings, 12 proof of concepts made of whatever scraps we could find, 3 parts shipments that have been delayed by a week or more, 1 prototype drive train, 1 prototype conveyor, a mountain of untested code, and a shooter that sputters only 3 feet.

The good news is:

• The conveyor works perfectly
• The shooter sputters 3 feet dead on every time very consistently, so now we're going to up the rpm from 480RPM
• The drive train prototype is telling us every little kink that needs to be ironed out in the production bot, and we're coming up with ways to simplify construction for better quality
• For the first time in team history we've integrated manipulator structural supports into the frame so it all can be welded together
• For the first time in team history we have a fully CAD'ed concept of what the final bot will look like, and so long as sub-teams work within their boundaries the final bot integration will be alot less stressful than in previous years
• The electronics board is fully functional and can be transplanted as needed

I'd say we're right on schedule!

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

We have two prototyped drivetrains, a prototype manipulator that works, and one that no one finished. This was as of Monday. I didn't make it Tuesday, but apperently they chose a drivetrain (and made some parts orders -.-), and will pick a manipulator tonight I guess. We are way behind...

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

We have three ball manipulator parts moving...only two more to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNH4hb7crFU

and we got the robot driving last night, with the new control system mounted on the new robot.

We aren't sure if this is the final robot, or a nice prototype, or a combination thereof. The funky piece of plywod across the top is definitely going to be replaced once we figure out what it needs to be. The chassis and shooter will probably be OK for final use.

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

That looks great!

About how much does it weigh? Did you glass the top plate?

As for us. We've gotten the whole robot in CAD down to the bolts (the first time this has ever happened) and we've ordered all the parts.

When I left for college at the end of week two we had most of the lower frame welded, and all the frame members cut and belt-sanded to length.

This will be the first time in the last four years that I missed a robot work session. It'll be interesting to see how our new mechanics leader has managed to coordinate the efforts of 16 untrained high schoolers to build a robot... :p

I'm glad it isn't my job anymore...

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

No glass that I know of (fiber or otherwise)

I think we're about 105 pounds with all the stuff we know needs to go on it.

Thinking of adding the compressor as ballast

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

One thing you may want to be careful about with your design is making sure the balls come into contact with the intake roller before they hit the base-board.

If they hit the bottom board first they won't be drawn in.

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

We are going to cut that out when we figure out where to cut it. The board goes across the bottom because it's easier to build the chassis with it that way. You're not the first to notice :)

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Team 904 drove their robot for the first time last night; my blog has more details. We still have a few decisions to make with respect to holding "moon rocks" and what we're going to do with them.

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Teams should have all or most of he cad done and shouldve started building your chassis. most teams should have practice bot up aka our final bot pic On Delphi. Also teams should have a Board with electronics mounted on their practice bot.

Good luck teams

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Any chance you took that turntable design from the '06 rush bot?

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Not that I know of, I think it came from some sketches and discussion over our kitchen table.

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

Our readiness as of today is as follows:

Chassis = done.
Mechanical subsystems = done.
Electrical team = testing phases.

This is the first year the mechanical team is ahead of the programming/software/electrical team.

It's all about the new control system & working on the bugs, but by the end of week 1 of our meetings (I believe) we had a fully operational chassis running on the floor with standard code.

We're attempting to get back to that stage with the addition of the "features" that will make our robot great & adding custom code to the deafults.

Should be fun, & so far we're keeping it simple & ahead of schedule!
(Knock on wood)

Re: 1/22/09 Progress?
 

things are picking up with 2177 now. Of course, this is finals weeks, so attendance by the students has been slim (it always is). But despite that, we've managed to finish prototyping shooting and ball collection/storage - with several different prototypes for each of those before we settled on the final design. Parts have all been ordered, and the chassis is pretty much finished.

As a mentor, i have to say how great the team has done thus far in prototyping and picking a design - it seems every other day things just look better and better!