This week, drive decided on mecanum drive, while electronics created an auxiliary electronics board and fixed a few small problems. Scouting finalized the shirt and button designs and continued to observe the other sub-teams at work. The programmers continued to write code and got the ultrasonic sensor to work.
As other sub-teams completed their first priority, they began to help specialty. As the scissors lift is essentially done, the team is concentrating more on several possible manipulators. One of these, a fork lift, would be able to pick up the ball off the ground and load it onto the scissors lift. Another possibility, a hinged pneumatic manipulator, would also work with the scissors lift, but would in addition be able to herd the ball. There are two other options, a ring-shaped grabber that would only be able to herd the ball, and another grabber that would be able to raise itself high enough to hurdle the ball. Though some of these have been tested on the robot, the team is waiting until all are complete to make their final decision on which to use.
