9/27 Meeting Summary

Hey guys!

Today we got to focus on some of the FTC design. The group got to get on the team's Onshape and work on getting ideas for the base designed and put into the group build. While we worked on that the rest of the team got to thinking about the new intake for Toasty and Moldy. We have chosen to follow a design that we got to see in action back in Vegas on team 4276"s robot. The idea is to have rotating flywheels that can suck in the gears and then rotate the entire apparatus until it is vertical and ready to be placed on the peg. Once on the peg the fly wheel design will allow us to spit it out and keep working, rather than wait on the human player to take it from us. Can't wait to get it designed to fit Toasty. 

- Adam

9/20 Meeting Summary

Hi everybody!

As a recap of this afternoon's meeting, today we were able to first get the concept down for "Relic Recovery," the just-released FTC challenge, and get an somewhat accurate inventory of all the materials for the FTC group. 

From there we started working on learning the rules and restrictions of Relic Recovery. In the end we were able to reach a consensus over our priorities in the competition and along with that a game plan. We wrapped up the meeting with a discussion of everybody's ideas on how to approach the tasks we prioritized for tackling the challenge. We left with the goal of individually generating design ideas to share at our "every other Friday" meeting this week.

We have at least one member who can collaborate with the FTC group that is meeting on Mondays, and we are looking forward to working with them on this year's challenge!

Here are some resources for Relic Recovery:

The Relic Recovery game video
The Game Manual (part 1)
The Game Manual (part 2)

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But that's not all!  We also had a team working on tearing down Toasty so he can be repaired and built back up again!  They learned important lessons like, "don't cut zip ties if you don't have to," and "wow, that Locktite is strong stuff!"  They've almost finished taking Toasty apart, and once that's completed on Friday, we will start repairing Toasty and designing the manipulator for and finishing assembly of Moldy.

Great job today, team! Thanks and see you on Friday!

- Adam, your VP of Robot

Onshape is our CAD Tool of Choice

Hi Team!

The purpose here is to let you know about Onshape, the CAD system that the robotics team uses.  Onshape is cloud-based and runs within web browsers.  Because of this, you don’t need to install any software to use it on desktop or laptop computers. Onshape also has iOS and Android applications that can be used to work on CAD.  No matter which way you access it, it really only needs an internet connection.  It is free to use Onshape through our educational licensing.

Some of you are already familiar with Onshape and already have an account.  The rest of you will need to set up an account.  This step will be made easier because I have already added you to the team within the Onshape cloud system.  You should have already gotten (or will get very soon) an e-mail invitation to the 2017 Fall Classic robot model, which is based on our spring robot.  Follow the links, and you will be setup to access our stuff.

Once you get established, you can get a lot of help and guidance from the help menu (question mark within a circle, by your name in the upper right corner).  There are tutorials and videos that start at zero, and go well into more advanced topics.  Create your own documents to mess around or add your own tabs to the team robot model.  The more you work with Onshape, the more impressive your models will become.

— Len