how far have you gotten on your robot?

Team 949 has gone through our concepts and we are now going through the designing period.

We are planning to build a prototype launcher and the target tomorrow and by next sunday we should have everything autocadded and ready for building..

Maybe we should build the kop bot.. hmm.. other than that we haven't done anything else

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

We've also finished designing. We are just now in the final stages of prototyping and putting the finishing touches on our designs. Tomorrow we are going shopping for a good portion of the additional parts we need.

As programmer, I have no say in all of this, but I can make special interest advocacies. We finally got our Gyroscopes and our rights to the CMU Camera and the Accelerometer. The programmers, including myself, are currently writing pseudocode.

But we have made much more progress in our design than any of our teams in the past, outside of our rookie year.

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As for kitbots, we are using the kit, but we are not staying inside it. This may be the first year in which we don't use the kit wheels, though. Our drive team wants "tricks" (trick wheels) and "grips" (grip wheels). After their experiments with Deeper Thought, the decided that the kit wheels were not going to be sufficient for climbing up the hill. So, I'm not sure if the kit wheels will hold. However, the chassis will be from the kit and we'll do better weight management (so we actually have a good frame).

[Nuttyman54]

We've got the design figured out and are tweaking a few dimensions. some of the team is building a test launcher and a goal, and we've got the Kitbot build (but not running) as a test bed for the sensors.

[Alex Pelan]

The short answer: "Not nearly far enough."

We have tested some prototypes with varying levels of success and have started some design work. We haven't put the kitbot from '06 together yet because of some offseason work we have been doing involving a kitbot that we had already put together.

[Rick TYler]

We didn't like how the first one turned out, so we are buildiing a second 'bot. Aw, just kidding. The chassis team is done with their design and they are ordering parts. The game system team is having the prototype shoot-off on Tuesday, and will order parts this week. The programming/controls team is working on driver selection, functional control design, and testing the camera and other sensors. The electrical/pneumatic team is playing cards and waiting. The PR team is supposed to deliver final designs on Friday for our t-shirts, driving suits, helmets, buttons, banners, and the animation file for our blimp.

One week in, we are four weeks behind. Life's like that. From Shakespeare in Love:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Replace "theatre" with "robotics" and you begin to understand...

[sciencenerd]

We are using the kitbot frame with minor modifications, and have that all designed. Our [strikeout]arm[/strikeout]* mechanism team has also created a shooter prototype. It seems to work well, so now we are tweaking it and finding the best configuration, making a final model, and moving on to the next challenge.

*I've been guilty of calling it the "arm" team accidentally more than once, and been ridiculed. My team also made fun of me for calling it that on Chief Delphi once as well, so here I am, making public amends to the community at large.

[Kim Masi]

we put together the kitbot to house some of our prototype ball shooters, but we're not using it as our base. we're using box aluminum

the prototypes continue to develop, but we're having a lot of math errors in calculations. What does everyone think the perfect ball shooter will contain?
1 wheel? 2 wheels? how hard will it be to load?

we've had 2 tested prototypes so far with barely any success. But atleast we're learning. Right now, we're working on 2 more that will hopefully produce better results.

Our camera team continues to develop as they decode and find the target. We're really lucky for all our team did last year with the camera, so this year, the improvement on the vision system is helping us tremendously.

But Pelan, i am in agreement. Not far enough. Our mentor's goal is to have the robot finished in 3 weeks from today. Idk how that will work out, but we're trying

[gondorf]

so for most people the kitbot was not used and was discarded for custom designs. do the custom designs hit the maximums?

i know that the kitbot exceeds them. we had to cut the size down for ours.

[Mike Norton]

we have the base done with two speed. we have the prototype shooter done and working very well. our 10 ball magazine done ready to go. only one thing left couple of front roller and a basket to hold them in. we figure by next Friday everything done and then getting a lot of drive and play time. this is where we find out what needs to be improved. (waiting for Fabric and pool noodles to come in to finish the bumpers)

We will have about 3 weeks of stick time. plenty of time to be ready.

[psycho7]

my team has got the kit chasis nearly running and we have the basics of our design down and are in the process of tweaking it. farther along than I had dared to hope.

[gondorf]

hmm making it in 2 parts is a good idea.

when we finish it it will probably be right before the deadline.

with ours the balls will have a conveyer belt carry them up and then a pneumatic shooter shoot them out. is this a good idea?
yay!!! this is my 50th post