Monday 1/13
On your marks, get set, CAD! – By Medha G.
Welcome back from the weekend! The usual whirr of the CnC during the week was quelled this Monday because this day was a celebration- a milestone in our robot design. That’s right, this Monday was the start of CAD week! Not as exciting as you might have thought? Well, the quiet of the room was masking some awesome developments as our robot as a team of some of our build members were designing some first looks of our robot and prototypes, before later this week our design review meeting takes place and we start finalizing the design of our robot.
However, the business side of our team was working as well, with three subteam meetings taking place today. The first of our meetings was our media meeting, where a lot of plans were happening for posts and plans for merchandise that we may be producing soon! Right after came our Inclusivity meeting, our neutral subteam, where they continued plans on our annual Women’s Panel. Finally came Marketing, where we practiced our company presentation, went over some goals, and worked out some details for more potential sponsors. Overall, it was a productive and successful day!
Tuesday 1/14
“Space Grade Robot” – By Naren B.
As soon as our open room started today, things started with a bang! As it is CAD week, our design team immediately got working and the rest of the team worked on building field elements.
There was also a Fundraising meeting. In it, we reviewed our current fundraiser, selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! If any of you awesome readers want doughnuts, please contact one of our team members!
We also had some of our members finish disassembling an older robot for parts that we could use for the upcoming season. This really showed some of our younger members how our robots are structurally designed and made like a “space grade robot,” where we make a robot with certainty and not guessing.
We also had our weekly team meeting tonight, where, as usual, we went over our weekly schedule, announcements, and shoutouts. Every subteam’s lead gave a summary of what they’ve been working on for the last week, and the team captains highlighted the stress and anxiety prevention presentation we will have next week.
After the team meeting, our scouting and strategy team had a meeting where we discussed how this year’s scouting app is going to look like, and our autonomous options.
With everyone working hard every day, we’re gearing up for an incredible season. We thank you for your support as we continue designing, building, strategizing, and coming together as a team to make this season unforgettable!
Wednesday 1/15
Pigeons in the Limelight – By Timothy M.
As this week is CAD that was the primary activity of the day. Members of the design team worked tireless on several elements of our robot such as the elevator, climber, and electrical panel. By the end of the day, the majority of the robot was designed!
In addition to design work, we also had team members working on field elements for robot practice later in the year. Lots of excellent progress was made on parts for our reef and we can’t wait to see the finished product!
We also had students meeting for our programming subteam. They discussed our new navigational sensor, the pigeon. This will help our robot know where it is on the field and determine its orientation better than the traditional NavX. Additionally they worked to get our cameras, called limelights, properly incorporated into our rust ecosystem. Finally, the day ended with an outreach meeting, where we planned some exciting projects!
Thursday 1/16
Meet the Mentor: Kelly R. – By Juan Diego C.
Who are you?
“Kelly Rogers the media mentor”
What is a fun fact about you?
“I speak Danish”
Why did you choose to mentor Talon Robotics?
“It was late season opening, and media happens to be something I have experience with. And I wanted to learn a little more about what robotics was”
What is your favorite part of mentoring Talon?
“Getting to know all the team members ”
What is some advice you have for robotics kids?
“Make a balance between how much time you spend in the robotics room and caring for yourself ”
What advice do you have for robotics mentors?
“Dont be afraid to ask questions”
Friday 1/17
Design Review Committee! – By Vonnie D.
On Friday, our annual Design Review Committee met to review the overall CAD design of this year’s robot. The Design Review Committee is made up of students that took part in the making of the robot as well as alumni and mentors that dedicate themselves to looking over the robot to improve its design. The Design Review session was a great end to the whole week, which we spent CADing out our whole robot design as we received helpful feedback that all goes back into the success of our design process. The meeting had 8 students and 9 alumni/mentors, thank you to all mentors and alumni that dedicated their time into the improvement of our robot!
Saturday & Sunday 1/18-1/19
Discord and Kit Connor – By Medha G. and Ally L.
On Saturday, work with the robot continued. But after hours, we all decided to let off steam- with a Discord Game Night! This is a new weekly tradition that we recently started doing, organized by our Inclusivity subteam, to have fun and bond with our team members, in and out of the robotics room.
Sunday’s open room started early with another teambuilder! This time, a Blooket team builder. Blooket is a competitive online game where you answer fun questions to win. Some of the Blookets that were played were a review of this year’s game rules and a Kit Connor trivia quiz. Everyone had a lot of fun!
After the teambuilder, we continued the work on manufacturing parts for this year’s robot. The CNC started running only a few minutes after open room started and ran for hours! We also began work on assembling the drivetrain using the frame pieces manufactured by our sponsor, CEM. Thank you CEM! The swerve modules were attached to the frame, too. Our drivetrain should be ready for the programmers to work with soon.
At another table in open room were the programmers working on odometry code. This will help us have more accurate scoring during our competitions! Odometry helps us know where the robot is on the field, and works with the April Tags (FRC QR codes on the field) to help us line up the robot. To do this, they had Cronus, our robot from last year’s game, driving around to test the code. It was fun to see our old robot helping us out this season!
Due to Martin Luther King Day on Monday, we were able to leave robot parts out on the tables instead of the usual frantic weekend cleanup. It was a fun break from the usual panic and urgency to organize the entire room before time ran out.
Stay Connected With Us During The Entire Season!
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