Day 7:
Today was another busy work day, and much more progress was made today. We planning ahead for the long weekend, many groups set up plans and goals to accomplish by Monday.
Flywheel Shooter
Today, a lot more progress was made on the shooter. Grant, the Isaacs, Kayla, Rohan, Maddy, and Miguel worked together to add an automatic feed system using polycord as well as other fine tuning and adjustments. For testing purposes, this will be run off of a 64:1 Bainbot motor. Today and tomorrow will be focused on making a consistent shooter (goal is 95%), and firing rate will be improved after consistency tests, starting on Sunday. Our goal for the weekend is to get a simple and fast feeder that can also take in balls from a theoretical hopper. We made a lot of progress today, and by the end of the day, we were making about 60% consistency. We have many ideas, including different hood materials, countersinking some holes, and adjusting/improving the feeding system. Most of the day tomorrow will be fine tuning and testing.
Knotted-Rope Climber
Isaac Ash-Johnson and Nathan Seelig continued to work on their climber prototype. The idea of this climber is to have a winch with slots in order to catch a knot in the rope. Currently, their prototype can catch the rope and hold a large amount of weight, but they will strive to work on a more final version that can be more durable.
Dual Wheel Climber
Today a lot of ground work was done in order to get towards a working prototype. Although visually not a lot of work was done, a lot of planning and testing was done. Bethany added a motor, and has started working on replacing the 80/20 with wood so she can put bearings in them. She plans on getting a working prototype by tomorrow.
Pneumatic Tubing Active Intake
Today Poorva, Josie, and Maddy worked on improving their design, making it much more sturdy, efficient, and less rickety. By adding stabilizers, they have made it also more consistent. Tomorrow they plan on adding a wood or cardboard backing and sides to the prototype to help funnel balls and keep them from going all over the place.
Dual Wheel Shooter
A new shooter prototype was started today by Carson and Katy. This design will be two wheels spinning in opposite directions that will propel the ball forward from a spot further away than up against the boiler. Today they specifically addressed adding a feeding funnel and increasing accuracy. Tomorrow they plan on refining the funnel
Catapult
More work was done today on the catapult shooter. The team of Tomer, Rohan, and Kyle worked on finishing the catapult and testing it. Although they did get around to testing it, the catapult fell into two pieces during tests. Tomorrow they plan on replacing the broken metal pieces and improving their design.
Day 8:
Another huge day for prototyping, as we had a full 9-9 day at robotics (12-9 for those mentoring FTC). Many prototypes were tested and improved. In addition, we planned to evaluate our current shooters and decide if we can do an effective high goal, or if we should set our sights on low goal. The results of the tests was that it is advantageous and effective for us to make a robot that can shoot high goals. In addition, Chris finished the boiler assembly and brought it to the high school. It is very beautiful, and came in just in time for a lot of the shooters to be properly tested.
Single Flywheel Shooter
Today the flywheel shooter V.1 was finished and was sent out to go under fine tuning and adjustments. The team of Grant, Miguel, Rohan, Kayla, and Isaac Wenc finished their feeder, and focused on accuracy. At one point in the day, we had a very consistent shooter, breaking our goal and hitting about 98%, but something happened to it and its accuracy plummeted. Tomorrow we will start work on an efficient feeder that can intake from a hopper. We will plan to have this finished and tested by the end of Monday. Our goal for that day is to break 1 ball/second and 90% accuracy.
Dual Wheel Climber
Today Bethany finished switching chain and stabilized shafts and motors so the prototype can function properly. Although in its current state, the climber cannot actually grab and put the rope into the position required for climbing. Tomorrow she plans on filing the wheels and being able to grab the rope.
Catapult
Today, Kyle, Tomer, and Sam finished repairing their catapult. Throughout the day they tested their catapult, but every single test resulted in something breaking, and they did not get it to function how they wanted. Tomorrow they will work out the kinks and try to make a better shooter.
Dual Wheel Shooter
Today, Katy worked on her prototype in terms of accuracy and consistency. Although she put a lot of work in, she analyzed that this design might not be the most efficient for this years game, and it will probably not hit the 80% consistency mark without a ton of work. Tomorrow she will make tweaks to see what will happen. She also is looking for somebody else to lead the project.
Gear Ground Pick-Up
Josie and Carson started a prototype for picking up and scoring gears from the ground. It will be run by pneumatics, and it will also be able to rotate 90º from the ground to score it. They finished the day by adding the pneumatics, but tomorrow they will work on adding the rotation ability.
Gear Collection Box
Aaron worked on a simple version of a gear prototype. This will be a mostly passive system, that is essentially a bucket that can effectively grab gears from the human feeder station and score them on the air ship. Today he focused on making the box sturdier, and tomorrow he will strive to make it more consistent.
Day 9:
Today we continued to work on our prototypes, and many of them are starting to enter their final stages and preparing for presentation of prototypes on Friday. In addition, a table for our vertical bandsaw came in and got hooked up. It is a very helpful tool, and we are very glad to add it to our room.
Single Flywheel Shooter
Today we worked on making an improved feeder and also adding something that can intake balls from a hopper. Grant, Maddy, Christopher, Isaac Ash-Johnson, Aaron, and Isaac Wenc worked on moving the poly cord, adding a wheel/hopper agitator, and also adding a “rolling pin” before the shooter to more accurately control the balls from the poly cord conveyor. The prototype was also tightened and adjusted to be more stable and possibly accurate. Isaac Ash-Johnson also changed the sprocket on the Flywheel shaft. Although we did not get to testing today, we made many improvements and plan to be testing tomorrow.
Dual Wheel Shooter
Today, Katy worked on improving the accuracy on this prototype. She completely remade the feeder in hopes that it will increase the accuracy. She is also looking for help on this prototype. Tomorrow she will be working on an automatic feeder.
Gear Claw
Josie and Carson worked on the gear claw prototype from yesterday. Today they attached it to a plate. They plan on possibly making it go up and down tomorrow.
Pneumatic Tubing Intake
Today Josie Maddy, and Poorva worked on improving their prototype. Today they added a hopper and made a bunch of small changes in order to make it more consistent and efficient. Tomorrow they plan on improving their hopper so the balls funnel and come out better.
Gear Collection Box
The gear collection box was worked on and improved a lot today. A passive funnel was added to get the gear into one position. Aaron, Isaac Wenc, and Same also made modifications to the size. They plan to test their prototype tomorrow.
Dual Wheel Climber
Today Bethany finally got her climber prototype working. She fixed all of her issues with grabbing the rope, and the prototype can successfully grab the rope and pull itself up. Tomorrow she will work on improving it and attaching it to titanium to see how it stands up to more weight.
Day 10:
Today we had school off, so we got a full 12 hours of work time in. Many things got accomplished, and we were glad that we were able to have this time.
Single Flywheel Shooter
Today we completely redesigned the feeding system for the shooter. After testing we found out that the poly cord was only useful for about a quarter inch, so it got redesigned to feed the balls with two wheels instead. This was a huge accomplishment, as it can feed balls into the shooter very fast and efficiently, and it has also increased the shooters accuracy a lot. After end of the day testing, the prototype can shoot 1+ balls/second and has an accuracy of over 90%. We believe that this can be improved with the implementation of a hopper and mechanical systems instead of a human feeding the hopper. We do not have any plans for this prototype in the next couple of days.
Dual Flywheel Shooter
Katy continued to work on her prototype for the dual wheel shooter. She mostly worked on creating an intake to the shooter and adjusting accuracy. Tomorrow she will continue to work on the intake and improving accuracy.
Gear Collection Box
This prototype is starting to be improved, as it is starting to be combined with a couple of other ideas to try and make a good box prototype. Aaron and Carson will start finalizing dimensions for this prototype tomorrow.
Dual Wheel Cimber
Today Bethany and Maddy attached the climber to titanium. Upon attaching it, they found a lot of issues with friction. Their plans for tomorrow include trying out different ratios and ideas in order to try and get this prototype to work.