After four days at the Bertaut’s house, our eight person team finally called it quits and was able to go home at 6pm today.  In total, many members of the group spent over 150 hours at robotics in the last week.

During our final day, we struggled to modify the mecanum frame so that it could go over bumps (it was an inch too low).  After spending much of the day trying to make do with the supplies we had (we lacked the right bolts), we realized that roads were clear enough to get to Strosniders.  After returning with the proper hardware, the drive was redone in the time it took me to prepare dinner (Spaghetti with sausage sauce).

Following dinner, we took power naps so that we could work late into the night machining the winch lifter, wheel guides for the lifter, and modifying the ratchet kicker so that it would fit the mecanum frame.  Around 2:30, the last of us succumbed to sleep, waking up at 11 to finish the work.

Tomorrow, we head back to school with a nearly finished First Generation robot (a Second Generation may be in the works…).  With the snow finally clear, we look forward to getting our hands on lots of equipment and hardware that we haven’t been able to use in over a week.  The current plan is to have the robot finished by Sunday so we can start driver practice.  And this year, it just might happen.

On Monday, our Burtonsville base was finally plowed, allowing us to go home.  14 hours later, I found myself back at robotics, this time at the Silver Spring Base.

That’s right.  With another snow storm on its way, we moved back into a mentor’s house so that work could continue.  We are only using one center, so that all our resources and parts would be in the same place.  There are seven of us here, mostly machinists and cross-trained people (mech/elec, mech/elec/programming).  We have put in two 14 hour workdays so far, in a desperate attempt to finish everything in time for driver practice next week.  As we worked late into the night, the noise of our machinery overpowered the howling winds of the blizzard around the house.

Finally, the storm subsided, leaving us surrounded by snow.  But the entire effort has been worth it; at the end of night two, we have two fully functional robots ready for anything.  Now comes the part harder than fabrication: selecting which parts will go on the final robot.  Many of our designs perform at near identical levels, but have minor personality differences that differentiate them and how they would be used in gameplay.  As a group, we already have our preference, but the final decision belongs to the team as a whole, who will be able to decide via email based on factors we have identified.  We hope it won’t be long until we start assembling a final robot.

We’ve been at robotics for three straight days now.  Around us is 3 feet of snow; most other streets have been plowed, but our base is out on a small street that may take a while to plow.  In the meanwhile, we’ve gotten a lot of work done.  Our ratchet kicker now works completely with sensors and code, and kicked almost 30 feet this morning.  Its been integrated with a 4WD Kitbot frame, which we’ll be able to drive with as soon as we figure out how to get CAN to work.

Around midday, we trundled out to the main road to bring one of our members to his father’s car, and hitch a ride to Home Depot, where we picked up some much needed tools and supplies, namely 1” x 1” aluminum tube and bandsaw blades.

We caught some of the Superbowl today, although I chose to work through it (FRC > Football).  We’ve been eating well, compliments to Mrs. Van Albert.  I have no idea how we could have survived without her cooking.

By tomorrow, we expect most of us will be able to leave.  Until then, we’ve got plenty of work to do.

2 weeks of build season left!

Today started in complete chaos.  School ended early, causing us to scramble to find each other and get to our build locations to hunker down against the winter storm.  When we left, snow was falling rapidly, but not sticking to any surfaces, allowing everyone to get to their hub safely.

I arrived with the advance team to our Burtonsville/Cloverly Hub, where we waited for the later team which took the school bus.  We had 7 students, one of whom somehow managed to get home at 8pm, despite at least 3 inches of snow on the ground.

I brought a camera to document our snow day, but haven’t had a chance to upload pictures.  Maybe tomorrow…

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