Week 6 - Twin Robots

  Six weeks have gone by so quickly and it's time to pack up the robot. This past Saturday, the team worked on the practice robot. The mechanical team assembled the chassis and started building the catapult. The electrical team wired up another set of electronics to be used on the robot. The programming team tuned PID loops and started the autonomous coding.
  It has been such an exciting and fun journey. Everyone was engaged with the building process and have certainly learned a lot. Parents have been a huge help! They prepared lunches and were willing to wake up early on Saturday mornings to drive students to Battle Creek. Parents, you are awesome!

  While it has been a long season, it is not quite over yet! The programming team will continue working hard to make the robot the most efficient with autonomous and vision tracking. Drive practices will start taking place where the drive team will be determined. We invite everyone to come see us at our tournaments(no need to pay!). We will be competing at Battle Creek Lakeview on March 10th - 12th, and at East Kentwood on March 31 - April 2nd. Come see our robot!

Build Week 5 Recap

  The build season is quickly coming to a close and there is still much left to do! The mechanical team have taken apart the shooter robot and worked on reassembling it as a catapult robot. This will serve as a practice/test robot. The tower scaling mechanism have been assembled and the catapult continued being tweaked. 

  The electrical team have worked hard today setting up the electronics on the main robot. They have created a layout and spend the entire day stripping and connecting wires and crimping wire headers. 

  The programming team worked on programming the catapult robot. They implemented code to launch the catapult and to position and use the intake. They continued working on vision processing and started learning how to use a raspberry pi to handle the task. 

Build Week 4 Recap

  Another long Saturday for the team. The mechanical team continued working on CAD drawings and improving the catapult design. A gear was implemented to reload the catapult after launching the ball. In addition, an intake mechanism was put together on the catapult robot.
  The programming team focused on autonomous driving. Throughout the day, they tuned PID loops, encoder readings and conversions, turning and driving forward, and having multiple commands run in sequential order. A dashboard to display values from sensors for debugging purpose is now in the works.
  The business group started working on designing the team's logo and slogan. They practiced giving their presentation and learned many tips and tricks from the helpful mentors.

Build Week 3 Recap

    This past Saturday was once again very productive and exciting! The mechanical team rebuilt the flywheel shooter with modifications and it now shoots the ball much more consistently and accurately. The mechanical team also have built a second robot with a catapult attached. By the end of the day, both robots have been tested and had great results. The shooter was more consistent.
  The programming team worked on implementing sensors onto the robots. They wired up a gyro and an encoder and learned how to read values from them. These values are being used as feedback for positioning. The team also looked into vision processing and began creating algorithms to track the high goals.
  Reaching out for sponsorship is one of our top priorities! The business team created a powerpoint to show businesses our motives and goals and to spread words about the team in the local communities.
  The drive trials have began. Over the next few weeks, students will practice driving the robots and get comfortable operating them in a safe manner. Using fair time-based trials, the team will determine the drive teams for the upcoming competitions.