Weeks 4-5 recap

Software: 
Over the past two weeks, members focused on multiple tasks in preparation for the upcoming Week 0 event. They started by working on LimeLight vision and coding autonomous movements.  This included moving towards tactical points on the field, picking up game pieces, and placing them to earn points.

The group has also been working to create a scouting app which will be used to collect data during competitions. The goal of this is to streamline the data-collection process for the team’s scouts, aiding in strategy during final matches. 

Intake: 
During Week 4, the intake subsystem group continued working on their prototypes, aiming to finalize a design. After choosing a design, they continued work on the CAD, perfecting it before adding it to a main CAD assembly. This assembly is going to be used to better understand how the intake, elevator, and end–effector subsystems will interact with each other and understand any problems that may arise once they are mounted on the final robot. 

Over Week 5, members completed CAD for the finalized design. On Thursday, manufacturing for the subsystem began. This process included making large plates and 3D printing main parts of the structure. Later, the group began mounting the finished parts on to the frame while simultaneously manufacturing smaller pieces intended for the interior of the robot.

Lift/Extend/Launch: 
The elevator has officially been mounted on the robot! Members of the lift/extend/launch subgroup are adding final touches to the first iteration of the design. These include hard stops, which ensure the elevator goes to the height determined by CAD. An E-chain protects the wiring for the end-effector that will be placed at the end of the elevator. During this process, students learned that the down pulleys were too close together causing for one to be taut while the other wasn’t when the system was extended. When non-extended, the same issue occurred but with  opposite pulleys. To solve this, members removed one of the down pulleys so now it runs with only one down pulley. These were the latest design changes made. 

Operations: 
Members of the operations team worked on multiple projects over the last two weeks. They made the most progress on this season’s business plan, finalizing many details and sending a draft to mentors for review. Students also finished planning for their upcoming Scratch Ticket Raffle, choosing dates for selling tickets and drawing winners. Their time was also spent creating promotional material about the 2023 New England Robotics Derby, intended for distribution at competitions. On February 10th, they hosted an incredibly successful ‘Hour of Code’ program, where they introduced elementary school students to block-based coding through simplistic games. The event also included a detailed shop tour and a robot demonstration featuring Pandora, the team’s competition robot for the 2021-2022 season. 

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