Hello! There’s a lot to report today, even setting aside the unusual date. As the competition looms, we’re going beginning the shift from finishing our normal goals (updating code, building the robot, and awards) to preparation for the competition itself.
The Build Team spent the day tying up lose ends. We now have a fully mounted electrical system, our first complete practice field element, and working bumpers. Even more exciting, the Cargo Cannon is now fully mobile and ready to fire, and the Climb Arm is attached to the robot. Although it’s not fully polished yet, we’re well on the way to making our 2/23 deadline for the robot’s completion, and once we do, we’re a good part of the way to having a functioning practice field to test it in.
The Programming Team finished programming the ball servo system, which is in charge of directing the Cargo Cannon before it fires, and is now fine tuning the PID system (the details of which I won’t pretend to fully understand) which will ensure it moves in precise, consistent measures based on input both from the pilot and a directly coded control. With that more or less ironed out, all we have left to deal with is the Climb Arm, which should be a walk in the park by comparison. From there, our programming operations will generally amount to staying on hand to debug, refine, and hotfix the code through the rest of the competition.
The Business Team set to work on community outreach, and is working to finalize the presentation for the Chairman’s Award. Although we’ve submitted the literary portion of the award, we still have to present it at competition, and will need to be prepared to do so. This mostly means polishing the script for our presentation, preparing for the interview, and filming for the video, although we already now have nearly all of the necessary footage. Once we get through that, we’ll have until the competition to prepare for scouting, dust of the team spirit signs, and practice the presentation.
That’s more or less everything for today. This has already been a busy week, and if we can carry it through to competition, I have full confidence we’ll put up a strong showing. But until then, enjoy the rest of your day, and stay tuned!
