WEEK 3 UPDATE

Elevator:
          This week, the team started to make physical progress on the elevator. They made a  small mockup to prove the concept before building. After finalizing the CAD design midweek, parts were ordered. As the parts came in, they quickly began constructing subsections of the elevator with our Bridgeport mill and Shapeoko CNC Router. Over the next week, the team will have their first iteration of the elevator done. This will allow software to test code and debug the elevator code.

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Intake:
        Last week, the team was trying to design an intake that could manipulate both game pieces. However, this week, they determined that a specific cargo intake and specific hatch panel intake would work better. The team prototyped and tested their hatch panel manipulator. This design will ideally use a flipper powered by a piston to grab the disc and secure it onto the robot. The team is currently working on the design to ensure that the disc is secure when they grab it. Also, the team still needs to figure out how to make this intake mount on our elevator with the cargo manipulator. For the cargo intake, the team agreed on building a top-roller design and then built a prototype. The team is currently testing the design to see how well it manipulates the game piece. Once these intakes are fleshed out, the team can assemble final designs and put them on the actual robot. 

Electrical:
          The team also started the do some of the electrical work on the robot. They started to map out the electrical board and zip tie down the PDP (Power Distribution Panel), VRM (Voltage Regulation Module), and Robo Rio to the panel. Then, they wired the drive train to the PDP, and secured the CAN (Controller Area Network) wires. This week, the team will continue to finalize the electrical.

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Software:
​          The team has been working on developing Line Follower code for every case in which the robot would approach one of the reflective tapes on the field. This takes factors such as length and width of reflective tape, configuration of photoelectric sensors, and orientation of the robot approaching the cargo ship/rocket into account. The software team is also using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) code will to measure distance from our robot to the cargo ship and/or rocket. This distance is useful to know so that we can coordinate with our other subsystems, namely our drivetrain and our elevator.
          The build team of 4909 has officially finished the chassis of our robot for Deep Space. So, we on software are preparing to push the drivetrain code we have already been developing over the past couple of weeks to the robot and test it out. 

The Green Alliance:
          In terms of user interface, the general look and feel, as well as key metrics for Deep Space, of the app are decided and already in working software. We have work to do on the database end, as we will be using Firebase to store the data we collect, access it thereafter, and analyze/represent it in different ways, such as graphically, numerically, etc.

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