Where are we now ?
We are at the 3rd week of build season and things are starting to take shape . We are now in the design and prototyping stage in the process of building a robot that will competing in the FIRST™ STEAMworks competition . We had to design the various parts and mechanisms that go into a successful robot i . e . the pickup mechanism , ball pickup , and drive train .
Fuel shooter demonstration
The first step in the design process was to get together and decide on what we wanted the robot to accomplish . In the team meeting , all of the students and mentors were to brainstorm on what aspects of the robot that we felt were important . We compiled an Excel spread sheet that contained aspects and ideas of the robot i . e . robot height , fixed / non-fixed shooter , drive train , and wheel type among other things . After the Excel spread sheet was drawn up , the team ranked the ideas / concepts on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being not important and 5 being the most important . After the team finished ranking the concepts and ideas , the team split up into 4 groups , and each group was tasked with designing and prototyping a specific component of the robot . We had a group who designed a ballpickup mechanism , another who designed a shooter , and another responsible for a climbing mechanism that will allow our robot to climb the rope onto the airship .
The teams began this process by first drawing rough sketches of concepts that they came up with , then constructing a proof-ofconcept model , usually made of wood . This is called bread boarding . These bread boarded Building the airship field element ideas are then presented / demonstrated to the for the practice field rest of the team in order to gain valuable feedback on possible improvements that could be made to the mockup .
Issue 3 : January 30 , 2017 PAGE 2