Week 7 day 4

Today we are working on minor adjustments that keep setting us back.like the ball picker upper and the transporter from the picker upper to the shooter the main problem is simple stuff like broken motors,loose collars and grinding gears.

solid works

Week 7 Day 2

Today, is the day before the final.  Our robot is practically done with  a few alterations left.  It shoots almost eight feet and is pretty accurate.  While our robot is on track, our Solidworks is however, not.  Kilian has been forced to do it, due to his experience and expertise on the program, but it should've been done by someone else who had more time. Regardless, we are on track to finish tomorrow, and receive an "A."

Week 7 Day 1

Today, we were making some minor changes to our bot. Our shooter was making a clicking noise, so we replaced one of the gears.  Also, we had to add a second picker upper mechanism to continue the movement of the balls.  We are so close to the finish line, this is the home-stretch.

Week 6 Day 5

Today we attempted to create a way to push the balls into the launcher without picking up more balls. One of our ideas is to use a motor and axle to push the balls up. On the other hand, we may attempt mounted zip-ties.   Hopefully we can finish brainstorming today to stay on track.

Week 6 Day 4

Today we finalized the shooting wheels. We added non-slip padding with fishing line to hold it down to each shooting wheel. We are in the process of adding another wheel or conveyor belt to help the balls shoot out faster. And to close the at off we tested the new padding on the wheels and it has made a great difference!

Week 6 Day 3

Today we have completed our robot. There are just some minor issues we have to fix. Like the shooter and what brings the balls up the shooter.  We used "no stick padding" on the shooter to have less space in between the wheels, and therefore shoot the balls farther.

Week 6, Day 2

Due to the fact that we never got our code working yesterday, we are hoping to finish it today. As of now, we plan on using the rubber bands around the launcher to gain friction and get the wheels closer together so the ball fits. We should be able to adjust the launcher once we can get the code working by adding or removing rubber bands on each wheel.

Week 6 Day 1

Today we are going to test out our shooter and our drive code. If it works as we planned it to we should be able to load five balls into our robot and shoot them one at at time. But if it doesn't work as planned we will have to consider changing our design to something more effective at that will allow us to pick up less balls, and shoot them more accurately (or the other way around depending on any flaws.)

Week 5 Day 2

Today, we are are finishing up the bot.  We got the launcher assembled and built yesterday and installed aswell.  Now, we are connecting the wires to test if it functions properly.  We also have to solve an issue with the launcher because the ball doesn't touch both ends of the wheels. So we are going to wrap it either in electrical tape or rubber bands.

Week 5 Day 1

Today we are going to attach our launcher assuming it is properly geared. We are also going to build a pathway from the gathering device to the launcher. Hopefully we can accomplish this using our limited tetrix parts. So far we have not found and flat pieces short enough so we may need to improvise.

Week 4 Day 5

Today 1/3rd of our group is absent.  Too make it worse, Brandon partially deconstructed our bot and we're not sure what to do because we do not want to be undo a change he has made to the bot.  Regardless, the code is fixed and things are running more smoothly.  In the next few weeks we have alot of days off so we have to make the best of it.

Week 4 Day 4

Today we are going to have a group discussion about the robot's launcher and how we want it to function. We did the math and we more or less need a 100% on all of the upcoming assignments to earn an A in the class.  I think we should model our launcher for whatever allows us to do that the challenge most efficiently. I also have to link the front motor for the ball picker upper to a button code so we can control the direction that the motor spins all the time.

Week 4 Day 3

Today we are adding a funnel to the front of our robot to allow the ball grabber to work more efficiently. We are also going to start mounting the launcher and mess around with that a bit to see what works and what doesn't. We are also going to go through and tighten the screws on our robot to make sure we don't have a pile of screws left over in the arena when we are done with our challenge.

Week 4 Day 2

Yesterday, although we finished our robot after school, we did not get the chance to do the challenge.  Today, we will attempt to pick up 10 balls for an 80 percent.  Kilian is recoding it and Brandon and I are tightening the screws on our robot.  Unfortuantely, over robot has barely exceeded 18 inches, and therefore we have to alter it, but hopefully it will be  a quick fix and we will be on our way.

Week 4 Day 1

Today, we completely revamped our robot. Instead of the tentacle arms to pick up the balls, we decided on two wheels powered by a motor to pick up the balls. The wheels will push the balls into a slanted tunnel to get them up the incline. Since the grade is already late, we are hoping to finish the competition this class.

SolidWorks Drawing

Week 3 Day 5

Today is the day.  The SolidWorks drawing is due by the end of class, luckily, Kilian is almost done mating all the parts and rendering it.  As for the actual bot, we have decided to opt out of the challenge today and attempt it on next Monday or Tuesday.  Our bot's endofactor isn't sufficent and must be replaced. Hopefully, we will be prepared for Monday.

Week 3 Day 4

Today we are organizing and cleaning up our bins. We are also finishing up the drive-train and gearing.  Kilian just finished up the programming for the bot now he is onto the solid works portion of it.  We were having some trouble with what was going to pick the balls up but we found a way using tubing and some tape.

Week 3 Day 2

Today, our classroom is preoccupied with film students who are hoping for a grant.  As a result, our group is confined to the computers.  Kilian and I are working on the Solidworks bot while Brandon and the rest are working on the gears.  Tomorrow is Labor Day, and therefore there is no school, which is causing us to stress because our first challenge is Friday. Although, we plan to divide and conquer.

Week 3 Day 1

Today we attempted to fix the atrocity that was our tentacle arms. Instead of using a metal plate, we tried to make it lighter by using a Popsicle stick. It seems to work decently, but I don't think it'll suffice for the challenge, although we are going to test it soon.

Week 2 Day 5

Today we worked on the scooper mechanism for our robot. We are going with a kind of tentacle design that scoops the balls and takes them to the launching mechanism. Hopefully we will be finished with the loading part by the beginning of next week and can start focusing on the drive system.

Week 2 Day 4

Today we started to create the ramp for our robot it was going to be made out of plexiglass and most likely still is but brandon broke out first attempt at it. We also started gearing our ball launcher which consists of two wheels spinning together creating hopefully enough power to launch a ball.  Our progress and productivity is increasing and we plan to e prepared for the first challenge.