That's all folks!

Boy did I overestimate how much time I had this week. Between finals and presentations I didnt get to test out or even build the new robot designs that I came up with :/ Oh well, I guess you'll just have to come back and read my blog in Janurary to find out how it goes. Dont worry though, I wont leave you hanging, I do have some interesting stuff to share with you this week. I found a quadcopter that is waterproof and can double up as a submarine! CHECK IT OUT!!! 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/a18419/waterproof-drone-transforms-from-quadcopter-to-submarine/

It is amazing where advancements in technology are taking us. I am excited for the day where I get to be a part of this technological revolution. 

Nearing the end.

This week in robotics was a slow one to say the least. Not much was done to my robot other than putting a vacuum like system on the back to help it pick up the game balls easier, and experimenting with some new tracks. I mostly focused on thinking up a new design to make my robot more competitive. I developed a couple ideas that I would like to try out. One of the designs is just another manipulation of my current bot where the other is a whole new bot itself. Hopefully this week I will be able to test out these new designs and report with good news next week. Till then, here is a link to
a Ted talk about flying robots (drones) and what they are being used for, as well as what they could be used for in the futuer. Super cool stuff!

http://www.ted.com/talks/vijay_kumar_the_future_of_flying_robots

I also found out a way to get free solar panels installed on your home's roof to help lower your electric bill. The only catch is that you need APS as your power company. I never though I'd be so dissapointed to have SRP.

Post Competition

This week I learned that you should always take the time to carefully read the rules before competing in a competition. Unfortunately, I learned this lesson a little late, like most lessons learned in life. Luckily, this lesson did not prevent us from competing in the competition, but we did have to frantically scramble to modify my robot so that it was eligible to compete. To give you an idea of the extent of modifications that had to be made, here is a before and after picture of my robot.

                Before                                                                                                             After

   

It's almost a completely new robot. Luckily we were able to make this modification thanks to another member of the robotics club who let me use the track system, which you can see on the robot in the picture to the left, that he developed for his robot that wasn't functioning at the time of the competition. Despite frantically trying to make quick modifications to our robots between rounds, and my robot being the janky mess that it was, and being eliminated during the first round of the preliminary matches, the competition was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

We have already begun to come up with new ideas to implicate into our robots in order to make them more formidable for our next competition in January. We are better off now for future competitions now that we are armed with knowledge and new ideas.

Here is a picture of the playing field that our robots compete on.

Crunch Time!

Progress this week has been substantial. Due to the Robotics Clubs first competition on this Saturday the 14th, everybody has been working frantically trying to get the finishing touches taken care of. I made a series of changes to my robot which include completely rebuilding the upper arm of my robot as well as adding two motors to the base arm of my bot. 

(Upper arm of bot)

The rear motors I added still need to be wired and tested. I decided to add them because the arms are having a hard time rising. When they do fully rise, they stand over a meter tall. 

The bucket modification that I made last week also proved itself this week during testing. The design does a fantastic job picking up the balls. 

All in all, after a few more hours of work, my robot should do very well in the upcoming competition. 

Thank you. 

Hello and welcome to all! Thank you for viewing my blog.

For my S-STEM project, I am building a robot as a member of the robotics club. My robot will be entered in a series of competitions where it will compete against other colleges and universities to win the event and gain glory for our school. The event that my bot will be competing in this semester is called "Nothing but Net" and is ran by Vex Robotics. The goal of the competition is for yours and your teammates bots to score more points than your opponents bots by collect foam balls and placing them in your teams net. There are two different color balls, each worth a different amount of points, as well as two different nets, also both worth a different amount of points, that will be used as the main way to score points. There are also several different ways to earn points, such as having your robot move during the autonomous period, or by having one of your bots pick up the other.

This week I made some modifications to my robots bucket that I 3D printed due to the issue that it was having a difficult time picking up the balls.

This design didn't quite get the job done so it is subjected to further modifications.

I also made some modifications to one of my robots arms. I geared it up in order to slow down how fast it spun. I am hoping this will make it more stable and easier to control.

This design needs to be further tested before I can accurately report its success, but it has shown promise.