Design:

The build process for our robot this year involved multiple steps. First, right after kick-off, as a team, we went over each thing that the robot would have to be able to do to properly to take part in the competition. Anyone could put up their own design for all of any of the components of the robot. Once this process was completed the robot that we decided upon would be sketched out on a whiteboard so that we could go over any concept tweaks. Second, the sketch of the robot was made into a 3 dimensional design on a digital program. This would be done so that the robot team could work out what all the separate moving parts would be and how they would work without interrupting each other. Third, is the really big time consuming step, the robot building. The robot team decided that whenever possible we would build the components separately from the robot base. This was done to reduce hassle and to allow individual testing of each set of moving parts before adding them to the robot. Once the base was operational we were able to start practicing driving it around. This helped us envision how we can best use the robot come competition. Finally, the full robot test phase. This is when we put the whole robot together and run it through all the situations of the competition.

Challenges

Our team has learned a lot during the course of this competition. Namely the importance of being organized. Disorganization caused our team a lot of problems, especially for the video and kiosk.

When it came to the kiosk, we had trouble deciding what to do with it in general. We wanted to change the way it looked while keeping the structural integrity of it. Initially, we were going to drape it in a canvas type cloth and design over that. However, it eventually became apparent that it would be hard to acquire so much of said material and we did not even know where to find it, so we settled on boarding it up with wood. It took us a while to come to this conclusion though, so once the kiosk was set up properly, the design of it was all done within the last few weeks.

Scheduling recording times for the video was a nightmare as everyone had conflicting schedules. A lot of the filming was done during the last few weeks as filming times kept getting pushed back. Next year we'll probably start filming earlier towards December or November.

The website suffered from a serious case of procrastination. It took us a while to get organized and than when we were no one did much of anything until the last couple of days. Fortunately, it had all been formatted by then so it was a matter of filling in all the blanks.

The robot team experienced very few problems compared to everything else. It was planned well ahead of time and we got new parts this year, so it didn't break as often.

We enjoyed the whole process of it as we got more time to hang out outside of the classroom in a productive way. We learned from our mistakes and how to work and communicate more effectively, as a team. We did sacrifice a lot of our free time though, to either stay late at school and work on the robot or the kiosk there or to go home and work on the video or website. The process cna be time consuming but it is very rewarding. Here's to hoping we win this year.