Who is ready to get CHARGED UP? After having an incredibly successful 2022 season, and with 45 team members for the 2023 season, Team 4909 is eager to discover what this new year has in store for us! Here is a recap of our 2022 preseason: CAD (Computer-Aided Design): Over the preseason, our team has spent significant time training new members in CAD. CAD is a tool used to design parts before manufacturing. Members interested in learning CAD were shown the basics of modeling. Veteran members interested in advancing their CAD skills were given projects to work on with a partner. In the level 1 course, students made parts given a set of constraints without guidance. They learned how to navigate 3D space on a 2D screen in the design process. The students that completed this program have become proficient in CAD and will be able to contribute during the 2023 season. Each group in the level 2 course built a subsystem for past FRC games. The course's objective was to go through the design process from scratch rather than build the system. Operations: During the preseason, Team Ops’ focus was heavy on fundraising for the 2023 season. At the start of the school year, we sold custom laser-cut chromebook cases to BMHS students. Through the next two months, Team Ops ran a Calendar Raffle where students sold tickets outside of Market Basket and O’Connor Hardware. We pulled a winner every day of December for a chance to win different prizes each day. Congratulations to everyone who won, and thank you for your support. To conclude the offseason, Team Ops began working on this season’s submission for the Woodie Flowers Award, our business plan, and updating the team website and social media. Manufacturing: The manufacturing team concentrated on developing the skills that will be most required for build season. Members first learned how to read and interpret part sheets on basic machines. After, students moved on to other machines in the shop and hand tools. The group worked on our T-shirt shooter from a previous season and were challenged to use their knowledge learned from training. Currently equipped with a single barrel, the T-shirt shooter requires reloading after each shot. Students were tasked with devising a method of firing multiple T-shirts without needing to reload. Software: During the preseason, rookie members were introduced to coding in Java through Codecademy exercises. After building a foundation of basic coding knowledge, students progressed to controlling the robot directly. To get familiar with this environment, members programmed the robot to perform simple functions. They then set up a limelight camera to automatically target April Tags, the new addition for the game this year, as part of an introduction to vision processing. This involved learning how to use firmware and APIs to determine the distance to a target with just a camera. Members were then split into two groups. One group worked on electrical wiring, wire crimping, wire connectors and the typical structure of a robot’s electrical system. The other group worked on building a swerve drive drivetrain from scratch. This involved laying out and connecting the wiring for the robot and learning about CAN systems and how to work with them. Students of this group wrote robot code from scratch, jumped into configuring and structuring swerve drive code, and learned to apply math and real world physics into a robot program. By the end of the preseason, they produced a working swerve drive that our team plans to utilize during the early stages of build season. Kickoff Schedule: - Arrive at 10:00 AM - Lunch - Game Reveal Video: 12:00 PM - Break into teams to read the game manual and discuss scoring, needs and wants, etc… - Ends at 5:00 PM Build Season Schedule: - Monday: 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM - Tuesday: 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM - Wednesday: no meeting - Thursday: 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM (Flex Meeting) - Friday: 2:30 PM - 9:00 PM - Saturday: 9:00 AM - 2:30 PM - Sunday: no meeting Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more updates, information on the team's accomplishments, and ways to support us!
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January 2025
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