2020: The Process

January 11 - January 18

     “The season has been harder as we are attempting more complicated challenges” (Zach S). The week has been one of debate and prototyping for the team. Attempting three different challenges as opposed to one has been an interesting challenge for our team, as it would seem we are off schedule. However, when considering that we have at least two prototypes for each mechanism, we are actually right on schedule. Our intake was our only focus that year, and we did it extremely well. One of the concerns our team has is that with three different mechanisms, will we be as efficient.           
     Our intake designs this year have been reduced to two main designs. All focus on ball management, as they are made of a sticky plastic, and easily stick together. Our first design focuses on changing the height of itself. The same mechanics that grab the balls also help drop them, once we bring our intake to a certain height. Our second design is built for ball capacity. It is able to scoop the maximum amount of balls off the ground, and then a conveyor belt-like system shoots them out backwards. 
     The mechanism we will use to grab onto the endgame bar, or “Grabber” is a new challenge for the team. Again, we have narrowed it down to two main designs. The first uses pneumatics to shoot straight up, with two hooks on a bar attached to the top. We designed this grabber with space use at a minimum. Our other design is more complex, and takes up more space, but is faster to deploy. It uses a spring-loaded mechanism, and a motor to propel itself in a “U” shape up. It also has two hooks attached to a center bar, but it allows space for a mechanism to manipulate the control panel in the middle.
     The control panel is a unique challenge. It is a disk with different colors, and gets spun either a certain amount of times, or to a designated color. Mechanisms that tackle this have been dubbed “spinnies”. We have three designs for the spinny. One is simply attached to a grabber, and uses a camera to determine how far to spin. The other two are a bit more complex. One is again propelled straight up, It uses a wheel abs sensors to determine how far to spin. The wheel is placed on top of the control panel. The other design also uses a wheel and sensors, but places the wheel to the side of the control panel. It's mechanism is spring loaded, and deploys in an arc.

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January 19 - January 25

Another week, a final design. We finalized on a design that is able to meet all of our requirements, such as hitting all three challenges, but it has the advantage of having all of the vital electronics being accessible. We are finally going to be able to start building. 
     Our intake has undergone the most changes with the finalized design. Our intake looks like a mailbox in terms of shape, but its a lot more complicated. It uses motors, gears, and lots of pipes. The motors serve to move the "mailbox" up and down, while the other provides power to the rollers(pipes). The rollers pick up the balls, and also prevent them from getting stuck while in the box. The box is also able to pivot on two of its arms, with the help of gears. Balls can be picked off the ground or provided from the player station. 
     For the grabber, we decided on the spring-loaded design. Essentially, with the release of a pin, our mechanism shoots up, and grabs the bar. Afterwords, our robot will be lifted by a winch mechanism. 
     Our spinny has unfortunately been a little neglected with the final design. Our focus was on the mailbox, so we didn't focus on it too much. Nonetheless, we will be revisiting it soon, most likely within a week or two. However, at the moment, it is posed to be enacted by a flip-motor. We haven't determined what type of sensor to use, but we will likely be aligned 90 degrees to the wheel. ​

January 26 - February 1

      Order! Order! Order! We are behind, and must have order! Well, technically. This week was one of ordering (HA) and finalizing all CAD designs. Improving and perfecting designs can save lots of time in the long run, so while behind schedule, we are taking measures to reduce errors in future testing.
     Our intake mechanism is looking more promising with each passing day. We finalized our CAD designs, (We swear, it's not for mail!), as well as a list of parts. We also placed an order for those items, and expect to begin assembly shortly. The intake will make use of various motors, gearboxes, and poly-carbonate, which is just a fancy word for strong plastic. Our intake is designed to be as fast as possible, so we are trying to make it as light as possible, as to make it easier for the motors. 
     Our grabber mechanism has also made loads of progress, though not as much as we’d like. We have finalized it's CAD design as well, and finished prototyping our mechanism and the game piece it's supposed to latch onto. Again, we expect to begin assembly next week. 
     Our spinny has received yet another week of neglect. While we have left room in our CAD files for a design to fit, we have yet to finalize or even address a legitimate design. Why it may seem like an issue, our neglect has a reason. We can’t actually use our mechanism unless we score a certain amount, and we gain more points with our grabber piece as well. Given this, we are prioritizing those mechanisms first. Never Fear, however, as we will return to the spinny to give it the attention it deserves.    

February 2 - February 8

     The status quo remains unchanged; behind schedule with great progress. Unfortunately, with a few setbacks, we were unable to finish the intake mechanism as hoped. However, progress was made. We finished the majority of the intake, just needing to assemble the pieces and parts together. Additionally, we finished a lot of general assembly. Our main two mechanisms have concrete, final designs. We intend to finalize our intake, and begin our Grabber and Spinney. 
     Alas, we didn't finish as planned. We need another day or so, to finalize the assembly of the intake, and bring it all together. However, with a concrete final vision, and the dedication to bring ourselves up to schedule, we will be back in no time. In the meantime, there’s little to report. We plan to finish in a  few days, and unless there is a serious design flaw, our intake will be ignored for a week or so. 
     The grabber has also been shot up to speed. With all prototypes finished, parts arrived, and our intake almost done, our grabber is about to receive all the teams love for the next few weeks. Our old design still holds, and the sleek black hooks shine like our hope and optimism for the season.
     Our spinney has again been slightly ignored. However, we have developed some basic concepts, but nothing really concrete. Once our intake is finalized, and our grabber is almost done, we will once again refocus our attention. 

February 9 - February 15

     After weeks of toil and duct tape, we have finished our intake (Finally, right?). It works even better than we imagined, able to cycle the max cap of five balls easily and quickly. With more practice, our drive team should be able to finesse the course. However, we do plan redesigns, for purely aesthetic reasons. As it is, our intake is an eyesore. 
     Our grabber mechanism has a legitimate final design as well. The only thing left to do is to prototype and test. We plan to use a pulley system to lift a beam with a hook almost 6 ½ feet straight up. A winch and motor will likely be used as well. 
​     Our spinney mechanism is borderline neglected. However, we did take into account spacing needed, and talks about how to best implement have occurred, with a loose design being drafted. 

February 16 - February 22

     Testing and stress, an integral part of public school, but fun for robotics. This week consisted of mostly stress testing and anxiety inducing spatial layout, with some minor tweaking. We really paid close attention to our intake, but also built a prototype for our grabber. Hopefully, we can finalize our second intake by the end of next week. 
     Our intake is both janky and ugly. We did a lot of various tests and tweaks this week, like a supermodel down a runway. Our primary tweaks occurred on our mailbox top. As a part of maximizing space, we want to design our top to be as small as possible. We did just that. However, further testing will be required to make sure that we didn't compromise our cycle speed. 
     Our grabber prototype was built, and is ready to go on a sub. The mechanism works as  a proof of concept, but was built too late in the week to do any weight-based tests. However, we can extend it and fit in onto the robot, which is a positive.
     Lastly, our spinney finally got it's neglected attention. We have a CAD model ready, and an idea on where to place it. However, we wait on our programming team to fix the limelight, which would allow the mechanism to spin on its own to a specified color.

February 23 - February 29

     With a little over a week until our first competition and slightly behind schedule, a build lead coming down with a cold is perhaps one of the worst conceivable setbacks to happen to a team. So, after our build lead got sick this week, our build team was thrown into disarray. However, we still accomplished quite a bit this week.
​     With our intake finished, there wasn’t much we did with it this week. However, we did finish welding together a less janky replacement, and contemplated whether to spray-paint our mailbox or not. Additionally, we measured out and cut some replacements for the hex-shafts. 
     We seem to be making much more progress on our Grabber than we did with our intake. We have a finished prototype, and a place to put it. Other than a much needed refurbishing, we only have to design a deployment system, probably a winch system.  
     Our Spinney is the last thing we focused on this week. We have a rough design, and need to configure some kind of actuation. We also need to figure out spacing on our bot, as we are currently being pushed for space. 

March 1 - March 7

     Well, we did it. We finished our last full week before competition. And what a week it has been. We finished almost all of our robot, and we still have a few days to jimmy and play with the bot. This competition should shine for us, and we will only improve by MBR. Our intake, though finished, was given a slight artistic makeover, as we engraved our logo to its side.
     Our Grabber was all but finished. The mechanism leaned a bit, so we needed to add some reinforcements, as well as add some more hooks to it, as one hook wasn’t enough to accommodate for error. However, we will work around it, and expect to finish some time on Monday.
     Our Spinney will not be ready by competition most likely. We have the part and programming ready, but our actuator, the part responsible for moving the Spinney, will not arrive in time to work on it before competition.