Month: September 2012

Attendance

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• Erik
• Dante
• Chris
• Mark
• Evan
• Hunter

Journal

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Tasks

• Meet with Mr. Johnson
• Work on telescopic arm
• Prototype and improve hands

Reflections

We got the opportunity to make parts from Mr. Brian Johnson.  He gave a talk for most of the meeting time about machining parts for us.  He is a skilled metal worker/cutter and he has offered to help us make any custom parts that we needed and he had a presentation about not only what was allowed but also possible ideas that other robots have used.  It was very interesting to see what other teams did on their robots last year as well as the wide range of parts that are available this year.  We are definitely planning on using a lot of custom parts to suit our needs which the supplies boxes we have could not otherwise supplied.  We improved upon the lifting mechanism today by mounting a sprocket high on the arm to make the chain not be rubbing against the metal parts.  We also improved upon the hand again by making a more stable design so it wouldn’t fall apart.

Attendance

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• Fletcher
• Erik
• Dante
• Chris
• Mark
• Evan
• Hunter
• Ares

Journal

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Tasks

• Prototype more ideas for the hand
• Code for the lift
• Design the arm

Reflections

We developed new ideas for the hand, using rubber tires to grip on the rings we thought this would be a good idea so we don’t accidentally let the ring slip out of our grasp and lose us a lot of time.  We started programming for the lifting motor for the arm design which is to make a telescoping arm that has a metal U-beam sliding on another one by using chains to pull one up while the other one stays stationary.  This shouldn’t take up too much space an should be generally efficient for lifting up the hand and rings.

Attendance

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• Fletcher
• Erik
• Dante
• Chris
• Mark
• Evan
• Hunter
• Ares

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Tasks

• Give Mr. Dobson our name
• Publish social media for connecting to he community
• Maintain robot

Reflections

NEW COMPUTER!! Thank you Mr. Brian Johnson. Our official name is the Suit Bots for this competitive season.  We chose this name because last year we wore suits at all of the competitions because we first wore them for the costume contest we had at the scrimmage we hosted last year so we have kept the idea of the suits and now changed our name to fit it.  We published our Facebook & Google Plus and continued to work on the base & arm structure of the robot because we need to make some significant progress.

Attendance

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• Fletcher
• Erik
• Dante
• Chris
• Mark
• Ares

Journal

Tasks

• Learn how to use buttons on the Logitec controllers
• Convert hand prototypes to practical models
• Maintain robot

Reflections

We installed Google Drive on the computer to promote publicity for the team.  We researched how to use the various buttons on our Logitech controllers within the programming so we can use the different buttons in the best, most efficient ways.  We also took apart the old hand and made a complete new one fit for testing because the old one was fit to pick up  racquet balls and crates from last year so we had to make a new one that may be able to pick up rings so it will be useful for this year.  We mounted motor & servo controllers on the robot and organized the body of the robot so there would be room for the accessories we want to put on the robot.

The robot: