End of Week 9

What to aspect next week

• Pick our groups for the next challenge
• Take apart everything except the base of the robot
• Aim to finish the robot for the Nov. 3 challenge
• Come up with a design for Dec. 9th challenge

These next couple of weeks are going to extremely busy because we have limited time to come up with a design for a robot that has to pick up balls and place them in a specific area. Several ideas have been discussed but we haven't been able to come up with a solid idea yet.We know that we want to use the base of our old robot, so we began taking out all the extra components and left the basics.

Results of the tug-a-war Challenge

We lost because:

• The axles kept coming out of the motors
• The gears still weren't aligned
• Bad communication amongst the team members

Although we were able to finish our solidworks build successfully, the lack of attention toward our robot proved to be disastrous in the end.  We were not able to get all of the gears in place or align them, causing them to slide as the robot moved. Also, the axles were not secure in the motors, causing one side of the robot to completely stop moving during the competition. Lastly, bad communication about ideas to improve the robot during the competition lead to our robot being prematurely thrown into a match, resulting in a fast victory for the other team. Overall, we learned communication is key and contributions from everyone is the only way to succeed.

Start of week 9

Goals for this week:

• Put the gears back on the robot
• Test out the robot and discover why the right side wont move forward
• Win a match against another bot

Tomorrow is our last chance at redeeming ourselves in this competition. We haven't won a match in the last two competitions. We learned from our mistakes that 1) our gears weren't aligned 2) one side of the robot was unable to move forward, only backward 3) many screws and gears were lose. We have been working hard to make adjustments and we hope we will be successful.

End of Week 8

What we didnt accomplish

• Finish solidworks
• Fixing the gear ratio
• Creating a working robot

Although we worked diligently, we were not able to finish the robot in time for the competition. The competition was a failure. Next week, we have a chance to redeem ourselves. We did not finish the solidworks and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Time management is something we lacked. We will try to make improvements so we can be successful next week. Overall, this was a learning experience. It also helped improve our solidworks skills, slightly. Building the robot, overall was fun, we all just wish the end result would've been different.

The Middle of Week 8

End the winner of the tug-a-war challenge is:

• Not us
• Our biggest set back was our gears

This week we challenged the other robots in tug of war. We placed at the bottom of the bracket. We might not have won, but we created a working robot, for the most part, and we are happy that the robot was able to move. Our biggest problem was that we did not make sure the gears we secured. Because of this, our robot was basically falling apart while it was tugging. In the future, we have to make sure we have the correct gear ratio for the event we are doing. We also need to make sure all of the screws are on tight. Lastly, we need to make sure that the controller is working properly.

Start of week 8

Goals for this week:

• Finish the robot
• Finish solidworks
• Test out the robot

We have encountered several obstacles these past few weeks. Building is such a tedious task that has several variables to account for. It is extremely frustrating, but we are pushing through it. We hope that we can finish the robot in time for the competition, but we aren't so sure at this point. We are hoping for the best, but prepared for anything.

End of week 7*

What we accomplished:

• Changed the gear ratio.

Although we changed the gear ratio for the robot, we are unfortunately still having issues. We know that there is no excuse for this, but the axles are giving us issues. They keep sliding out of the motor when they turn. Some of the gears are not turning and we still haven't made progress with solid works. 

Start of week 7*

Goals for this week:

• Finish the robot
• Fix the gear ratio (again)
• Program the brain

Next week is the tug-a-war competition so we have to step up our game. Although working with this robot is stressful, we know what we have to complete. When we tested out the robot last week, it was built for a speed robot, not a torque robot. Our compound build was wrong, so we have to fix it. 

End of Week 6

What we accomplished :

• Fixed the gear ratio (again)
• Finished the mechanism that'll hold our weights
• Re-sized our robot because it was too wide

This week we did a lot of re-arranging. We found out that having our wheels on the outside of our robot made it 20' wide, when the maximum length is 18'. We moved the wheels into the inside and had to reposition the gears. We realized our brain wasn't working because none of our batteries were charged. Next week, we have to work on programming the brain with the remote control.

Start of Week 6

Goals for this week:

• Check to see if the motors work
• Discover why the gears aren't turning
• Finish the compartment that will hold the weights.

Although we are finished with the basic structure of the robot, there are still some improvements we need to make. The gear ratio we have is not turning when the motor is on. Also, the compartment we built for our weights is not yet finished. We also need to re-program the brain to make sure the motors work

End of Week 5

What we accomplish:

• Found a design that can possibly beat our competition
• Programmed the brain
• Implemented our new design

This week we talked to some of the experienced engineers and received guidance and advice. We have discovered a new solution. Although we are limited by the amount of gear we can use, we hope that the compound gears will give us an advantage. We have to finish rearranging the gears next week.

Start of Week 5

Goals for this week:

• Finish the base 
•  Put in all of the gears
• Program the brain

This week we aim to finish the gears because we came up with a new design. We realized that if we build our robot to combat our toughest competitor, then we should be able to beat mostly everyone in the class. We are learning how to compound the gears. Hopefully, this will give us an advantage

End of Week 4

What we accomplished

• We continued to make progress on the robot
• We continued to make progress on solidworks

Although we continued to make progress, we are not where we want to be. Next week, we are going to put in over time and work really hard so we can finish on time. Today, we worked on solidworks parts so will be ready for the certification exam. It was challenging and proved to us that we have a lot more to learn. 

Start of Week 4

Our Goals This Week

• Make sure our gear set up is effective
• Continue to build our robot for tug a war

We want to make sure we make the most effective robot, which means it has to have a lot of torque. We also need to begin the programming process.Although it has not been stated, we know that time is running out and we have to finish this robot soon. The gears will hopefully be the key to us winning. 

End of Week 3

What we accomplished

• Inserted the motor into our tug a war bot
• Inserted the necessary baron flats
• Made progress on the solid works

This week we made significant progress on our bot, physically and on solid works. However, next week we are aiming to take a break from solidworks so we can focus on the robot. We are constantly thinking of ways to gain an advantage. We aim to be finished in the next few weeks. 

Start of Week 3

Goals for this week

• Insert the motors into our robot
• Decide what wheels will be best
• Begin drawing our robot on solidworks

We learned this week that we will have to create a diagram of our robot on Solidworks. We allowed one member to focus on the SolidWorks while the other two continued building. Although the other teams are waiting until the end to do it, we know how time consuming solidworks can be, One of our members has a speciality at building, so we are confident that we will finish both task with enough time to relax afterwards. 

End of Week 2

What we accomplished

• We finished most of the squarebot
• We finished the base of our actual tug a war bot
• We learned what good ratios are for building good torque

This week was a busy week for us. Our group split up and built two different robots at the same time. Our squarebot was being built so we could decided what wheels will be best to use for our tug a war bot. The smallbot is almost finished and should be able to be tested next week. As for our tug a war bot, we have the base completed and we put in the gears in a form that will give us decreased speed, but increased torque. 

Start of Week 2

Goals for this week

• Figure out a basis for our tug a war robot
• Figure out the best torque ratio
• Figure out what wheels to use

This week we learned that we were going to be playing tug a war on the asphalt outside. We realized that we would have to figure out which wheels would be the most effective. In order to do this, we are building a smallbot so we can test out the different wheels on it. We also learned that torque is a big part of a pulling robot, so we have to use gear ratios that give us the best amount of torque

End of Week 1

What we accomplished

• Finished sorting all the screws & nuts
• Finished sorting all the Vex Robotics Supplies
• Finished sorting all the Tetra Supplies

This week we finally finished organizing and sorting through all the Vex Robotics and Tetra supplies. We also finished taking apart the robots from last year. It took us 4 months to build them, and only 4 days to take them apart. We learned that we will be doing a tug a war challenge, so will we begin looking at ideas. 

Start Of Week 1

Welcome to our engineering blog, today we are getting into groups of 3 and creating new blogs on Blogger. We just finished organising robot parts and got into our new groups. We will begin soon designing the robot on solid works. Tug of war challenge coming soon!