by Vidur Maheshwari '17 and Eric Wang '17

Cleaning Routine

Since the scrimmage will occur on Day 43 and 44, today's work was primarily cleanup. Most teams in the area will attend; therefore, today's main goal was to make the lab as presentable as possible. The team finished assembling the whole field to be operated on tomorrow. 254 is very excited and looks forward to tomorrow’s scrimmage! Here is a list of the cleaning procedures today:

Parts Inside Shed

Students started organizing pieces of wood and scrap outside. This was for the scrimmage teams so that they could find parts easily and better make use of our facilities.

Barrage

The current 2014 robots, Barrage and practice Barrage \(P\-Barrage? Parrage?\), were carefully and safely brought to tables on the upper floor of the lab.

Battery battery

Also, because there will be many teams on day 43 and 44, the team organized the battery charging area. During the scrimmage the team will not only be charging other team’s robots, but will give its own batteries to other teams so that they can more efficiently drive and test their robots.

Past Years' Robots

Students packed the twin Overkills as well as the 2012 robot Skyfire into a mentor's car to be transported to the VEX lab so that they would not contribute to the chaos in the scrimmage.

Field Setup

As for the field, the visiting teams would need to test their scoring in both goals, so the team added a net to the blue goal. This would keep the balls that are scored from damaging the parts and machines behind the goal and hurting any drivers below.

General Cleanup

The final part was cleaning the shelves and putting away the tools and parts. Organizing and cleaning the shelves will make it easier for the team and others to find parts, but it will also lessen the team's struggles find parts in the future. For example, the team moved monitors from behind the driver control stations to the area near the drill presses \(the southern walls\). Upon realizing this created a mess as well, the team later moved those monitors outside and dismantled the shelves holding them. In addition, students moved the mess next to the east wall to the upper floor. This mess included the computer monitors plus the lost and found. Also, students vacuumed all floors, including the competition field, of all metallic bits. This was achieved using a combination of manual labor and the Roomba \(Consuela\). Finally , students built a new shelf for driver stations.

Actual Robot Work

Although most of today’s time was spent on cleaning, the team managed to machine some parts as well. Notably, the team got the flywheel powder coated and the bumper to work.

Additions to the Competition Pit

The programming team programmed the collage for the giant display screen in the pit during competitions.

Awards Submissions

The essay team worked on the Woodie Flowers essay today. They revised the latest draft, as the essay will be due on bag and tag day.

Action Items

• Check Trello for To-Do List
• Finish both robots
• Finish code for both the robot and the pit display screen
• Make the Flyer for both the robot and the team (Kevin, Godwin, and Jeremy)
• Make Technical Binder (Mani and Abhi)
• Help Mani and Jeremy finalize Woodie Flowers

Field Construction

Work began on assembling the field today. We first opened up all of the shipping pallets containing the field elements and laid them out on the field. The assembling crew started with the low goal. They assembled the two blue low goals and then moved onto the blue high goal. They assembled the goal including the overhang to protect the drive station. They then attached the poles on the truss that represent the limits of the field above the truss. The field team also assembled one of the podiums for the ball to rest on behind the driver station. A few people attached another stabilizing to the base of the polycarb at the end of the truss.

Wiring

The wiring team, lead by EJ and Mani, wired the banebot motors that drive the intakes as well as the encoders attached to them. They also wired the VEX button sensors that keep the ball stationary in the intakes. For driving and testing purposes, they wired a single pneumatic tank to the comp robot.

Bumpers and Driving

The bumpers were successful attached to the practice robot to allow the robot to be driven around and tested.

Coding

The programmers fixed and calibrated the encoders on the drive base

CAD

Travis made some minor changes to the bumpers in the CAD

Manufacturing

Parts for the intake encoder mountings and the hot goal sensor mountings were manufactured today. The wooden sides for the bumpers were also manufactured.

Action Items:

• Finish constructing field
• Finish building robot
• Talk to Tom or Jared about programming

by Matt MacDonald '17

Today, our team worked to address some problems in our intake and truss. We also worked on programming an important system in our robot.

Intake

Our team worked to install and improve our intake system. First, our team changed out the bent arms in our robot and installed some gearboxes and motors. Next, we drilled grommet holes and finished up some wiring. Lastly, we used pneumatic wiring to further improve our intake system.

Some students created intake holders very important to the success of the robot.

Truss Improvements

In order to make the truss more stable and reliable students made a bar that would ensure that it would work correctly.

Programming

The robot needed a system that would allow it to quickly ready its ball to pass or shoot for a goal. The team programmed the robot so it could quickly move through several pre\-made states and shoot at a goal.

Action Items

• Assemble robot with Mani and Abhi
• Programming with Kevin and Brandon
• Finish bumpers
• Finish truss stabilizer
• Continue control testing

by Quentin Delephine '17

Assembly

Today the team spent a lot of time assembling both the practice and competition robots.

Students added rubber bumpers to the superstructure using rivets. This prevents the front intake from hitting the superstructure and damaging it.

Wiring and Pneumatics

Students helped finish plumbing the pinniped on the competition robot and Practice robot. The two sides of the pinniped can be fired independently. Students also plumbed the cylinders on the gearbox for the competition robot.

Truss

Students assembled the truss, and mounted it on the field.

Testing

The drive base and the pinniped were tested. They worked well and the drivers were able to score in the low goal.

Action Items

• Finish attaching rollers (and motors) to both robots
• Add bumpers to both robots
• Improve Truss mounts and bases
• Complete Plumbing and Wiring

Today was a rest day at the lab. Here's some slow motion videos from the past few days of testing at the lab. One week to go...

by Abhishek Aditham ‘15

Bumpers

Today, students continued construction of the bumpers. On the pieces of cut Cordura they marked 4 inch by 12 inch boxes onto which 254’s team number will later be embroidered.

Machining

Some students machined two pieces of tubing that will be used to hold up the shooting arm on the robot. These will temporarily be used for testing purposes until pistons will replace them.

Robot Construction & Testing

Some students and a mentor worked on the competition robot by attaching and organizing pneumatic tubing on its drive base. Later on, the mentors and a group of students began testing the robot’s shooter and were able to score into the high goal.

Award Submissions

Today a group of students continued writing and editing 254’s submission for the Chairman’s Award. A few other students created a to do list stating what would need to be done to complete the Media and Technology Innovation Award.

Action Items

• Assemble robot with Mani and Abhi
• Programming with Kevin and Brandon
• Check trello

By Luke Gardner

Machining

Students machined wood for the bumper and the pool noodles arrived. Parts for the control board were machined for later construction.

Robot Construction

Work on the practice robot continued including more wiring and work on the gearboxes. The pneumatics for the pinniped were built and attached to the robot. The gearbox for the intake was attached. Work on the bumpers began late in the night.

Programming

Our programmers worked on a team hours app, and others also researched and brainstormed the LEDs for the pit in Waterloo.

Later in the night the programmers worked on the mechanisms within the robot code.

Release Video

Students brainstormed and started writing the script for the release video, as well as collecting pictures and videos to be used.

Miscellaneous

More catchy slogans were thought up to be put on the Canada T\-shirts such as "Get ready to Waterlose" and "We came for the bacon and stayed for the robots." The outside wood was organized according to size and dimension. The shed is mostly organized now and should not have to be disturbed until packing.

Action Items

• Assemble robot with Mani and Abhi
• Build Bumpers (cut pockets into wood and finish marking up Cordura)
• Programming with Kevin and Brandon
• Check trello

by Eliot Smullen '16

Graphic Design

Several students continued to brainstorm a Waterloo-specific T-shirt. Some of them began considering the issue of whether the back should be left blank if the design on the front were of sufficient size and graphic complexity. The rest brainstormed catchy slogans such as "From C(ali) to shining C(anada)."

Machining

Today’s machining consisted of creating pulleys for both the intake and the shooter. Also, students begun machining parts for the bumper. The team plans to work on flywheel for the shooter.

Robot Construction

Today, students and mentors worked on constructing the intake for the practice robot. The competition bot has its intake installed and its pressure gauge wired. The practice bot will soon follow.

Award Submissions

Today, students worked on our chairman’s submission. However, they still need to edit and add evidence to the essay portion of the submission. In addition, some students began work on the Entrepreneurship Award Submission by matching up sections from the Business Plan written in the first semester with sections and prompts in the Entrepreneurship Award criteria.

Action Items

• Assemble robot with Mani and Abhi
• Wire sensors with Mani and Tom
• Programming with Kevin and Brandon
• Make bumpers
• Check trello

by Eric Wang '17

Machining

Today, students manufactured internal shaft\-like connectors for the superstructure. These were designed to give durability to the superstructure when under stress. Also, students machined gussets for the bumper.

Scouting

The scouting team began brainstorming a new method of ranking teams since the traditional method of OPR would not be effective this year. This is still in progress.

Lab Maintenance

The driver station windows were replaced with brand new polycarbonate windows. These were then meticulously cleaned.

Robot Construction

Students and mentors mostly focused on wiring today. The regulator and the router in the drive base frame were wired, along with the wheel encoders. Also, students drilled holes through the superstructure and routed wires and pneumatic tubing for the shooter and other cylinders.

CAD

The CAD team completed part drawings for the robot bumper connectors.

Chairman's Award Submission

The awards submissions team edited part of the entries that they created previously for the Executive Summary prompts and the major essay \(second draft\). Also, they searched for evidence in previous submissions and changed previous answers to be more direct, so that it would enhance the reading experience for judges.

Programming

The programmers busied themselves fixing bugs and issues in the current iteration of the code. This also involved uploading several versions of the code to the 2013 practice robot.

Action Items

• Work on the scouting system: see Art Kalb for details
• Edit Chairman award submission: see Jeremy Tanlimco for details
• Construct the robot with Abhi and Mani
• Debug code with Brandon
• Check the Trello

CAD and Machining

The CAD is nearly finalized and only minor details were flushed out tonight. The various gearbox plates \(intake, front intake, rear intake, shooter\) were finalized and CNCd. Today we also machined new pieces for the shooter drive shaft. Super structure,and shooter were cleaned with scotch bright. Soon a bunch of parts will sent to be powder\-coated. Once all parts are back from powder\-coating, all we have to do is assemble the robot!

Drive Base Wiring

We finished up wiring the competition bot and are nearly finished wiring the practice bot.

Scouting

Today students and mentors began to discuss methods of scouting the game at regional events, determining objective metrics to compare robots. This will continue over time.

Prototypes

Today all the prototypes for this year's challenge were disassembled and the parts put back in their containers. We no longer need the prototypes and they were just taking up space. However, they served their purpose.

Miscellaneous

We cleaned out and organized the Mentor and Office Supplies Cabinets to make our mentors happier.
We also now have made 2 of the plates for the cordless drill holder. More plates will be machined when we have time.
The robot cart had some extra rails attached to sides for strength. The entire cart was prepped for power\-coating.

Action Items

Finish machining parts for the shooter and front and back intakes. Send to power\-coating as soon as possible.
Finish wiring practice drive base.
Finish Chairman's \(see Jeremy\).