WEEK 3 UPDATE

Intake:
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For the Intake group this week was one filled with lots of learning and growth. The group continued to build a prototype. They focused on assembling a Versa Planetary Motor, which is a motor used to rotate an object. The older team members have been guiding some of the newer ones for assembly.

Drive Train:
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Throughout the past week, the team manufactured the pieces needed to assemble the drive train. In order to get a precise cut, they used the Velox CNC — a machine used to cut materials, like wood, with great precision. In addition, they custom cut their own Gearbox plates. These plates were created so that they could mount Falcon 500 motors (brushless motor that spins objects) onto the drive train, allowing them to achieve a speed of 15 meters per second.

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Shooter:
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This third week of build season, the shooter team designed and prototyped the indexer: the part of the robot that holds the power cells (balls) before they are shot out. They went through a few different ideas before finally deciding on one specific, improved design. The group is excited to create the final version to go on the robot in the coming weeks.

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Software:
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This week, the software team started to work on the PID, a program that helps the robot drive in autonomous mode and sense the distance the robot travels. They have also been working on controlling the velocity of the shooter mechanism. Lastly, the software team has finished writing the code for the sensor to detect which color the control panel (colored disk) should stop on to activate stages of the shield generator.

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