pic: Exploding Tick Tigers

[Doug Leppard]

As lead 1902 engineering mentor I learned a lot from 1251 and their mechanical abilities. I learned what it was like to CAD it totally before any building, thanks Dave from 1251 for that. Our biggest problem was getting parts back from various machine shops.

It was crazy Friday-Monday with all three teams building all four bots the last three days. The Grajales home was filled with building teams going from driveway, to garage and to pool area with every room filled with people working on various issues.

This was definitely a high school/college mentor build. I seldom touched the bot and mainly coordinated things or did runs to hardware store.

We knew the final testing and especially the software would take longer that is why we built a test bot. Continental Airlines is letting us use a hanger for testing.

We have automatic traction control working but discovered a flaw to be worked out.

Proto type shooter shot 12-14 ft, production shooter had bad gear waiting on the part.

Using camera, but camera has issues as all those worked on them can tell you. The shooter can vary speed thus vary distance. It will be seen later if we can hit a target moving side to side.

The amazing thing to me was how well 408, 1251 and 1902 did together each bringing their strengthens to the table. There was no blowups between the teams even with 15 hour days.