Very nice job guys! Looks like a 935 robot style to me! Impressive. Can’t wait to see you all at the KC Regional!
The robot is great, but look at that machine shop!
Yo dawg, Imma let you finish, but ATA has one of the greatest machine shops EVER.
But seriously, that is one amazing looking robot. One thing that has me seriously intrigued is that little snip-it of shooter actuation at the very end. I’m really curious because it looks more complicated than just angle changing, and looks like the whole shooter is designed to almost fold fully into the frame. And if I know 935, that solution will be something vastly out of the box and fully functional.
I like the cam feeding solution. Your hopper footprint is tiny compared to other ones I’ve seen.
We have seven CNC machines.
http://s18.postimage.org/5ytj8fw8p/CAM00086.jpg
That’s amazing. One of our mentors, Mr Ritter, enjoys telling us about your facility. Your facility is primarily a machining school, isn’t it?
Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to beef up your resume for the chairman’s award by graciously and professionally donating one of your extra CNC machines to a fellow team across the border 
There are not words to describe how jealous I am of that machine shop.
We have a bandsaw. 
Newton High School is very fortunate in that it has a partnership with Hutchinson Community College. In cooperation with the college there are programs for automotive, machining, welding, wood working and agriculture.
I was a product of this program when I was in school back in early 2000. Had I begun machining during my Junior year and continued through my senior year, I could have taken one additional year as an adult in the community college to become a certified machinist. Ultimately I only did my senior year and decided to venture after mechanical engineering instead of what could have been a very good employment in the tool and die industry.
Usually we only have one or two CNC machines operating at a time. Unless a student has a year or more of machining experience under their belt, they’re usually not qualified for operate the CNC machines so the head coach/shop teacher will operate the machines. However, the students will design roughly 90-95% of the robot in Autodesk Inventor before we begin making any parts.
In this particular case, they didn’t start machining the chassis until last weekend and the entire shooter was fabricated and completed over the span of a couple days. Despite not directly running the CNC machines, we still have a handful of students every year that will run the manual mills and lathes to fabricate parts and blank out material for the robot.
It’s definitely a huge advantage for the team to have daily access to such a well equipped shop. The benefit is that it exposes the students to modern day manufacturing processes and design principles. It definitely gave me a huge upper hand in obtaining my mechanical engineering degree. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that many of the things they learn wouldn’t be taught to them until the second year of an engineering education.
I would hope that it also means that the students are working closely with people who “know how things can be made” and can guide them away from designs that are not manufacturable.
We have a chop saw.
Yeah, we’re kind of mean about that though. 
We may know the answer to a problem right off the bat, but will let a student spend days, if not a week, to come up with the answer on their own. They may require a prod in a general direction every now and then, but the aim really is for it to be their ideas and their robot.
This year we have roughly four mentors in all, not counting the two coaches for the team who work for the school district. We have two mentors who are experienced in electronics and LabView. Another mentor has made a career out of mechanical engineering and I have studied mechanical engineering, but have currently not been employed as such. However, thanks to my experience as both an alumni and a mentor in FRC, I know a few things about building robots. We also have a few alumni who come in and help, but are otherwise still completing their education.
Generally a student or a group of students will come up with a concept and rough out a design on Inventor. I can’t speak for other mentors, but I try to stay out of the picture for this part of the process. After something is modeled, we’ll usually sit down and do a quick run down on the purpose, how it should function, etc and lend insight as to any potential problems they may have with complexity, strength, fitment, manufacturability, serviceability, etc.
The students take that feedback and modify the design as needed up until the next review. Ultimately they may go through several designs or iterations before given the thumbs up to manufacture a part. Along the process they may also fabricate rough prototypes to test concepts. They did that this year with the shooter; testing out two 8" pneumatic wheels with CIMs, then two 2.75" hard rubber wheels powered off smaller motors with different speeds, the same two wheels with both at the same speed and finally a three wheel shooter with all at the same speed. All in all I’d say about two weeks was spent testing different configurations and testing consistency as well as distance.
Most of my involvement amounts to helping them with torque, power and physics calculations, concept feasibility and helping them brainstorm through a rut. If a student starts with the program their freshman year, they will typically work their way up to full on design and manufacturing their last year or two in the program. Some students will sign up for after-school classes to learn Inventor. I don’t think we have a single mentor on the team who actually knows how to use that program (all of my experience is in ProEngineer).
It continues to impress me just how capable many of these students become. They may enter the program knowing very little about mechanics, design, manufacturing, electronics, programming, management, etc. Ultimately they leave with one heck of a head start over your normal teenager.
We have PVC cutters.