THE LIFT mechanism was completed on Saturday, we can now successfully lift the balls off the ground and close to the hopper, however we have not quite gotten to get the balls into the hopper, but I expect that it will be accomplished in the next meeting.

THE CRATE has been re-painted with our new logo for this year and has now completely dried and had all its detail work done.

DRIVER TRAINING has been done throughout the week with everyone getting a chance to drive. Both with the trailer and without it.

THE BALL PICK UP was determined to not be as effective as originally planned after much testing, so the metal scoop on the bottom of the bot was moved back a bit so the pool noodle can grab the ball and gain control before it hits the metal scoop.

THE PROGRAMMERS have been working hard on the code for autonomous as well as listening to the demands of the drivers and changing the code accordingly. They have also been doing a lot of theoretical programming.

THE PR TEAM has been working on a scrapbook to display in the pit during the competition. Much progress has been made on the scrapbook.

THE MENTORS all deserve a large collective thank you from the entire team for all of their hard work. Being it helping with design issues, programming problems, updating the website, or just bringing food, I can say without a doubt that we would not be were we are now if it wasn’t for the mentors giving as much time to the team as they have.

SUNDAY two students and Mr. Kautz were at the workshop installing the electrical equipment to make the robot drive-able with the chassis that will be used in competition. Also the shooting mechanism was set in place on the top of the robot. By the end of the day our robot was competition legal.

DRIVER TRAINING has been taking place throughout the week, both with and with out the trailer attached, we are currently planning to have two drivers, one on locomotion and another to control the ball mechanisms (the ball pick up and shooter). While the ball driver training is more difficult because the pick up is not yet connected to the ball hopper locomotion driver training has proven quite educational.

The PUBLIC RELATIONS team has been working hard over the past week. The have put together almost 300 buttons for giveaways during our two regional competitions, as well as ordering tattoos to give away. On Saturday they painted our new logo onto one side of the crate for it to be displayed to all during the beginning and end of our regionals. The have also been tirelessly working on getting more sponsors.

BUILDING THE ROBOT has been coming along nicely, Saturday the pick up was fully mounted to the robot although the lift mechanism is still being worked on. Also the pool noodles for the bumpers have been measured and cut.

STRATEGY for the game was discussed through out the week along with what our plans for autonomous would be. A general idea for overall strategy has been conceived.

OVERALL this week has not been the most exciting, but a lot has been accomplished. We are much further then we were at this point in the build season last year, and I expect to have most of the building done by the end of the next week so that we can program, practice, and tweak, for the last several days.

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we had a work day. We did a simulation of the game with buckets hooked to the “robots” back belt loop to simulate the trailer/hitch. We then ran a two minute simulation of the game (excluding autonomous mode) to get a better idea of what our strategy needs to be to have the most productive robot and how to work together with our alliance partners to highlight each others strengths to win the game.

Also on Monday, the Shawnee Mission Northwest Robotics Team did not have a sponsor that was available to work that day, so we opened our shop and resources for them to use. Over the course of the day, seven members were in our shop to work on their robot.

On Wednesday we placed the electrical equipment that we had put together for bench-top testing onto the chassis that we built to get a good idea on how different the driving would be this year from past years. After just a few minutes of driving both on the regolith and on the tile floor it was apparent that driving well would require a lot of practice. We then attached our mock up of the trailer to the back of the robot to see how much difference that would make. The trailer makes turns a lot more difficult, as well as backing up. However during our testing the robot was estimated to weigh about 30 pounds, about one fourth of the end weight. Before more decisive drive testing can be done more of the robot must be constructed.

On Saturday the build team split up into three major groups, a few members worked on the ball pick up/delivery system to the hopper and built a prototype of the best way to do it. Another group worked on building the battery case and base for the electronic equipment. While the third group worked on the launching mechanism to shoot the balls from our hopper into the other alliance trailers. After some trial and error they found the best way to shoot the balls and the shape of the hopper.

Over the course of the week the PR Team finished work on pre-scouting the teams that will be at our two regionals, and made a “Threat List” of the teams that have been to the championship tournament.

Work on the scrapbook and poster for the pit is expected to begin at some point in the next week.

The programmers have continued to refine the code for the robot to drive and have been working on a code that makes it take a few seconds before the robot gets to full speed as to avoid spinning out.

We are now almost half way through the build season and are close to having a fully functioning robot. I expect within the next week to begin testing so we can refine the robot as to avoid any problems we can during competition.

Over the past week we have built prototypes of different ideas to see what would or would not work. Along with the prototyping we have begun the basic construction of the chassis and placed the cRIO on it with hopes of driving starting around Tuesday. We found out today that our “wobble wheel” idea is illegal and we would not be able to compete if we continued construction of the mega wheel. A nearby metal shop had donated the time and metal to construct one of the wheels and we received it this morning, only to find out half an hour later that we couldn’t use it. We have talked about a few different ideas on how to get the orbit balls from the floor into our hopper. At the moment our best thought is to have a few brushes that kick it up a shaft and into the hopper. A few members and a mentor started work on a prototype today, and expect to have it finished soon. Our PR team continued to design t-shirts and started work on our banner for the pit in the competition. Also two members of the PR team have been “scouting” prior to the event by looking up the other teams in the KC Regional to see how well they have done in the past to have some idea which teams to watch for early in the competition. Within the week major construction of the robot will begin.

We have now had one week to design our robot. We have several good ideas, one of which is to have six wheels in a circle around a center point, and at a slight angle so that the wheels that are touching the ground are turned as to gain more traction then if the wheels were straight like a car. The down side to this design is the large area that the six wheels would need takes away from our area to place the electrical equipment and the cRIO. I believe that the extra time and effort that the wheels would take and the problems that they would create is worth the extra push power that we would gain by using them. As the work load of the season increases we divide the work in to three sections; the programmers, the fabrication team, and the public relations team. Over the past week the programmers have achieved the Wi-Fi connection from the controller to the robot and then began work on getting the camera to recognize color. The fabrication team continued working on the overall design of the robot and started building the basic chassis that will be used. This week the PR team continued to try and get more sponsors as well as designing this years T-shirt, flag, and banners. Much work has been done this week, but a vast amount of work will be done over the next five weeks.

Today was the FIRST Kickoff where it was announced that the 2009 game would be Lunacy. The game presents many new challenges, such as the fact that the floor we will be playing on in combination with the wheels we must use simulate the gravity of the moon (1/6th of the gravity on Earth). That creates problems with a lack of traction which makes driving more difficult. I project that knowing a solid strategy and having a lot of driver training and experience will be more important this year then in the past. After the game announcement we spent the rest of the day checking our Kit of Parts and beginning the design process. We have several good ideas but need more time to further think through the task set forth and to test our designs.