FIRST Robotics 2018 - Report Six

In some ways Week Five has always been the toughest.  Fatigue has set in.  There is no time to take on major new initiatives.  The robot has to be shared between builders and coders, with neither side being entirely happy with their access.

And the panic that usually kicks in just before deadline is only starting to creep in around the edges....

Again for a bit of variety in my reports, this week we'll do a day by day.

Monday (Build session countdown: 11 to completion)

We have the wooden parts of the bumpers made and fitted.  Also an accordion system for wire and pneumatic tube management.  Modest driving practice.  Claw is still off being worked on.

Tuesday
I went in early to get things organized for the after school session.  With 20 kids working on six different projects a pretty big mess is generated.  It gets hard to find specific tools and materials when needed.

In many ways this was the classic week Five day.  Restless kids, more goofing around than usual.  Work done slowly and not all that well.  One critical part basically ruined by careless machining.  But then...in the last half hour of the session the robot was fired up and performed flawlessly.  Great driving, great programming.   

Robot running in autonomous mode

Wednesday Modest progress on our last three issues.  Took no photos.  Best part of the night was 45 minutes of driving practice.  We had our first big crash when the robot went over backwards.  No damage done, which is a tribute to the basic strength of the machine.  It looks as if driver skill is going to be key with this top heavy beastie.

Thursday.  Dialed down a notch.  We still have three or four engineering problems to solve and they look solveable.  Plenty of time for programmers to do their thing.  Robot still drives smooth.  We did hear a "plink" from a bolt dropping out.  A survey showed other loose ones.  Now if only somebody had not lost that little tube of loctite!  

Saturday.  Light crew due to Science Olympiad.  We got done what we could.  Minor things tweaked into better shape.  And two larger projects.  The "end game" involves putting a hook on a high bar and lifting the robot.  We figured to have a detachable hook going to a winch.  Here is the mounting arm for the hook...

Looks a bit wimpy.  And was.  Just putting it onto the bar and dropping the elevator to pull loose the velco holding it on was enough to bend the aluminum arm before hook release.  It was redone in redoubtable steel.  The other project is a "stretch goal".  Perhaps more on that tomorrow.

Sunday.  Back to more like the usual crew, a dozen or so hard working team members. Lots got done. We are a couple of days from a fully competition ready machine, and most of what remains is just mounting systems that have been completed.

One of which is....interesting.  Because our elevator is so heavy it drifts down when the power is turned off.  Oh, you can get by with just continuing to apply power to the motor, but that is not good for battery life or for the motor.  The answer is some kind of pneumatic brake.

One of our students designed, machined and assembled such a device.  Here he, and it, are.

Clever work, it uses parts we had on hand and should save us some battery power.  Plus its just cool.

The build season winds down and the competition season looms.