Saturday, February 16, 2008

Week 6 Build Update

Friday night we finished installing a stronger cylinder (cylinders extend when air is pushed through them) that would pick up the trackball (this year's playing object, a 40" ball). At the time we were apprehensive; last year we finished the robot 2 weeks before ship date and needed the remaining time for improvements, this year we only finished 4 days in advance!

It was amazing to see our robot pick up that trackball the first time we tried! With very few modifications, we were in business. Today, we went to a practice competition hosted by Simley High Robotics. Our robot was able to complete all 4 tasks: knocking a ball off the overpass, herding/capturing the ball, lifting over the overpass, and placing on the overpass. Out of the 12 teams present, only our robot was able to successfully place a trackball on the overpass for the 12 point bonus.

All that remains is for our software engineers to fix the bugs in Hybrid Mode (at the beginning of the competition, robots are controlled semi-autonomously). On Monday we will go to another practice competition, then immediately pack the robot for shipment on Tuesday!

No comments:

Post a Comment