[mott]

Team Driven (1730) has always had a very busy off-season with our long list of events (The Cowtown Throwdown off-season FRC event, our robotics summer camps for elementary and middle school kids, fundraising, etc.) but this past year we also undertook a couple of more "robotic" focused activities:

1. A group of students and mentors took on the challenge of building a new robot for the 2010 Breakaway IRI event. We were learning to TIG weld and decided to try to build a new machine for IRI without using ANY 8020 (our long-standing frame material). We were pleased with our results and implemented some of our learnings while building our 2011 LogoMotion machine (free of 8020).

2. After enduring a long season of mechanical problems with our crab drive train during 2010, we had a group of students take on a project of designing new crab wheel pods for potential future use. They drew all of the parts/assemblies in CAD (Inventor is our tool of choice), then printed the custom parts on our school's new 3D printer. We purchased a few parts (gears, wheel, etc.) and then assembled the prototype wheel pod. The kids even did a couple iterations of some of the parts to refine their model. We ended up not going with a crab/swerve style drive train in 2011 but still have this prototype in our bag of tricks should we ever decide to go that route.

It seemed to be a great experience for everyone involved and maybe more important than the actual wheel pod, our team became proficient in using the 3D printer and have incorporated several key parts in our 2011 LogoMotion competition machine that are directly off the 3D printer. Stop by and take a look if you get to the Championships in St Louis!