OHMS
ROCKDALE MAGNET ROBOTICS and ENGINEERING TEAM
Blog
FIRST Robotics Summary
March 26th - 28th, 2015
FIRST was an amazing learning experience for us this year. Throughout the competition, we fill happy with our progress, even if we aren't happy with the outcome. We entered our 9th match in control of our fate. A win would have put in into the playoffs. A loss where we played as well as we had earlier on Sat. would have almost certainly put us into the playoffs. Instead our robot did not communicate with the field (the ping was very high) ending our chances. We hadn't changed our electronics or code and we believe that if we’d had that configuration in a prior round without any problems, our end result would have been different. There are some teachable moments related to it, but It’s a tough way to end the season. Regardless, we are happy that we built a robot that is more than just competitive and for working incredibly hard during both the three day regional and the weeks leading up to it.
FIRST Week 6
Feburary 8th - 14th
The base of the robot has been built. THe dimensions are 1'x1'x5.6" so far. We don't intend of attaching wheels, so the only thing left to build is the arm. Only 1 motor is attached to the base, so the other 2 will be used on the arm. We always need to configuring a counterbalance to the arm. CAD drawings should be finished by the end of the week.
The t-shirts have been finalized for the competiton, and should get ordered over the weekend. The area we'll be working in is coming together nicely, as well.
FIRST Week 5
Feburary 1st - 7th
The last work week of BEST Robotics is here! This past Saturday (October 12th) was our Regional BEST Mall Day at Osbourne High School in Marietta. Every department of the team has now been working very diligently to do their part for BEST. We are finishing up on our costumes, and tidying up our display! We're ready as we'll be for BEST this Saturday.
FIRST Week 4
January 26th - 31st
Giving ourself only one week to brainstorm for the 2014 game, Aerial Assist, we've had a flurry of ideas! A vacuum arm will probably be used to pick up balls off the ground, but that is still under testing for feasibility purposes (image attached). A Mecanum drive system will move the robot. This will be useful for strafing purposes and and will easily navigate the flat field of the competition. We have also learned that when blowing up we have to keep in mind the correct pressure so that the arm will be able to suck in the ball and make it available for the robot to shoot. We have a design for a claw mechanism that incorporates the bumper for assist (to keep in the 20 inch spacing). We were also able to build our inner chassis frame on Friday.
FIRST Week 3
January 18th - 24th
This week has been tremendously progressive in the work that has taken place on the RMRET OHMS! Each department has made great progress in task related to the robot game and robot itself. Due to the fact that were are not too many constraints on the size and frame of the robot (besides the size limit). We are working out the construction of our frame now, as we plan for our robot to be slender yet balanced enough for picking up objects.
ZR: Our Zero Robotics programming team did a phenomenal job at the ISS FINALS. Of the 14 alliances that competed, our team tied for 3rd INTERNATIONALLY; going 3 -1, only losing to the championship team.
FIRST Week 2
January 11th - 17th
Our departments have been working diligently towards developing the infrastructure of the robot and making parts of it significant. Each of the departments have been working together to cosntruct the frame, work the mecanum drive, and finish off the ball collecting and shooting mechanisms; the build team has been working closely with the electronics team to implement wires into the circuiting board, the programming team has been working closely with the build team to implement controllable functions for mecanum drive, and the electronics team has been working closely with the programming team to wire the mecanum drive.
FIRST Week 1
January 4th - 10th
We are approaching FIRST faster than we thought, and we are making progress on time. Though we had to make a few redesigns, we are looking for a great better efficiency for our robot. Thanks to our Mentors: Mr. Tate and Mr. Charles, we are on track for keeping the true values of FIRST in check while we work on our robots and communication among the team. The pictures here show how much progress we've made, ecspecially on the marketing department with new designs and more.
