This video requires the latest version of Quicktime 7.
To download click here.
It's the first day of week four and Team 359 had a very busy day. They got a lot of work done today. All teams, excluding the graphics and construction sub-team, had major work to do. Mr. Glenn Lee, head of the program, met with each group. For the visual media team, Mr. Lee critiqued Week 1's, 2's, and 3's video. As the students took notes on what needed to be done, he briefly told them what changes needed to be done, such as the scrolling of the captions and making the video flow and have it tell a story. As for the documentation and web-site team, Mr Lee walked them through each section and page of the web-site, stopping and explaining what he wanted fixed to update the Waialua Robotics site. Some of the things that needed to be updated were the biography pictures, bio's, and the addition of the new sponsors. He also stated that articles and pictures of the facilities and the many events attended by the team should also be included. After the meeting, the video, documentation, and web-site teams went right to work making the necessary changes and updates.
Students and mentors of the construction team focused all of their energy on building the frame support for the bumper mounts. Mr. Matsunaga, one of 359's mentors, worked on installing an adapter to the robot's frame which will lock the kicker. Once they were done, the robot was taken to the testing room to see if it could go over the bump without touching anything on the bottom of the robot. As a result of the testing, it was determined that the hitch support had to be milled down an inch in order for the robot to clear the bumps. While some worked on the robot, others developed a tentative design for the end of the game bonus. They are currently working out the details in hopes that the design will be a success.
In the testing room, the programming team also had a very busy day. They were able to install a new speed controller for the ball magnet controller and added a new control for the pneumatics and electronic board. The graphics team continued to work on the pit crew booklet and made the bumpers for the construction team. In the end, students took a dinner break, relaxing after all the vigorous work they did today. Team 359 had a wonderfully delicious dinner. The dinner menu consisted of Kalbi ribs, BBQ chicken, fried rice, somen salad, potato crab salad, and four different flavored cream pies from Ted's bakery. Everyone enjoyed the delicious dinner, several students had three servings of everything. Once the team was done eating, everyone went back to work trying to finish as much as they could for the first day of Week 4.
Today is a very beautiful day unlike the past week when it rained. Students walked to and from their work stations, checking what needed to be done for the day. Today, the construction crew dedicated their time constructing the bumpers for the robot and worked on ways to cut down the weight of the robot as it is very close to the weight limit. To decrease some of the weight, Cody Smith, a former student team member and now one of the few mentors, cut down some material from the gears of the transmission. Students and mentors also helped to decrease the weight since we still need to add more things to the robot including the part for the game bonus. While some worked on the robot, others polished the transmissions and wet sanded the plates of the transmission. In the mean time, they also worked on constructing the bumpers by cutting wood and pool noodles. While the construction crew worked on the robot, the programming team had their own tasks to accomplish. They managed to hook up the magnetic switches on the pneumatic accurately. They also measured the speed of the piston in the actuator to try to control the power of the kicker and crimped the wire. After they crimped the wires, they tested it to see whether or not it worked.
The graphics team practiced making stickers that will be placed on the robot. They were busy using Photoshop to create a design, trying to get used to the program so that when the robot is finished being built, they will know how big they should make the designs. To end the evening, Team 359 cleaned their areas and then had dinner, getting it ready for the next day of work.
It's the first day of the month and we are a step closer to the end of the six weeks when Team 359 crates and ships the robot. Today all sub-teams continued their work, trying to get as much of their work done as possible. The construction crew worked on the bumpers, eight of them, which will protect the robot during competition. It was a long and arduous process to complete them - wood had to be cut to a particular size then sanded until they were smooth, the material had to be measured then cut, and then material was place on the wood then stapled. This process was repeated eight times to create four red and four blue bumpers. While a few of the students worked on the bumpers, the rest of the construction crew and mentors continued to drill holes into the gears of the transmissions to lighten them. Once that was done, they tested the roller of the robot with the soccer ball, checking to see if any changes needed to be made.
Jandie Sabo, who is working on the Chairman's Award binder, was hard at work making the business and sustainability pages using Photoshop. She also took notes on last year's Chairman's banner so that a new one can be designed for this year.
As for the video team, they continued to work on week four's video by filming footage of the construction team at work so that it could be used. Since Open House will soon be here, the video team discussed ideas with the documentation team and developed an outline for the Open House video for this year. After creating the outline, they then began writing the script for the video. They will be starting on the video as soon as possible, hoping to get a lot of it done this week.
It’s another wet and muggy day down at the North Shore. The temperature is mild, but yet the students need to wear jeans and shoes everyday for the construction season as a precaution. The programming team waits patiently for the construction crew to finish working on the robot and to assemble the transmissions. After they were done with that task, the crew worked on the wheels and put it on the robot. While some where occupied with that work, others touched up the bumper. To do so, they needed to cut part of the pool noodle because it was too long. They also cut aluminum into pieces which will support the bumpers. On the other hand, some made a new pneumatics board. They first had to draw out the shape onto the board, and then cut it out so that it fit nicely on the board. Once the board was completed, they took it to the testing room where the programming team was waiting. Now it was their turn to do their share of the work. They transferred the prototype electronics onto the new pneumatics board, placing the battery onto one of the boards, which will go on the lower level of the robot. All of the electronics will be placed on the upper level after they finish the lower level. The lower level needs to be done first because it will be the center of gravity for the robot so they need to make sure that it works. They hope to transfer all the electronics as soon as possible so that the drivers can do some test driving to see if they need to make any adjustments.
The video team had a very busy day also. They worked with Mr. Kois, the video mentor, on the week four video as well as filming the different areas for footage that could be used. Once again, they were ordered to edit the past three weeks of videos; checking for spelling and grammar errors. The team hopes to get a lot finished for the week four video before the week is over.
The construction team dedicated their time today, trying to come up with a design for the end of the game bonus for the competition. The pressure in the air is very intense, as the week is nearly coming to a close. They deliberated and coming up with once again another tentative design, they built several pieces that could go onto the robot at that instance. Working with the programming team in the testing room, they were trying to figure out how their temporary design will work. They measured different angles of the pieces and deciphered what materials they will need to use. Chadwick Ulep, Co-Lead of Construction says in high hopes, “At best we will build the design for the bonus of the game starting tomorrow.” Once the crew was finished conversing amongst one another, the programming team got to work. They busied themselves reducing the pneumatics board so that it could fit inside of the robot frame. They then hooked up the pneumatics board, wiring up the electronics to it. In the meantime, the bumpers were once again being worked on. Today the students assembled the angle support, finally finishing all eight bumpers. In the documentation and video room, students worked on the picture crew booklet, and designed the banner for open house. Meanwhile, the media students were able to get an interview by Claire Munguia from the construction team, who talked about week four. They also managed to watch previous Open House videos to get ideas for this year’s video.
The stress of the six weeks has finally affected us. With all of the difficulty and problems that occurred with what has been built thus far, they were able to test drive the robot on the playing field. What they discovered is that the roller that was installed onto the robot does not work efficiently, it moves too slowly. Now the team is under great stress. After all the progress that was made during the past four weeks, with this new problem they will need to postpone work on the end of the game bonus design. They have a lot of work to do as the six weeks is quickly coming to an end. The Open House is in exactly two weeks from today and the robot needs to be completed by then. Now the construction crew is working vigorously, changing the roller motor to enable it to grip and move the ball while the robot is moving. Before the drivers got to test the robot, the programming team was occupied with wiring all of the electronics, making sure that they were secured before the robot was tested. While some was checking the wires, Jonathan Oishi, a rookie member of the electronics and programming sub-team, was busy soldering extensions for the wires. All the while, the construction crew worked on the Omni wheels, which was finally delivered today. Team 359 hopes to figure out a solution to the roller problem and a way to follow through with the design for the end of the game bonus.
Yesterday was Mr. Matsunaga’s, who has been out team’s machinist for four years, last day with us until next week Wednesday. With his absence, the day went by very slowly. It seemed like the construction team were just sitting around, waiting for tasks to work on. When asked what the construction and programming team worked on today, Ryan Pierce, Co-Lead of construction, replied, “Today, we took the air storage (pneumatics tank) and mounted it underneath the electronics board, which is basically beneath the robot, which lowers the center of gravity. After discovering that our roller doesn’t work, we needed to replace the Fisher Price motor with a CIM motor for the roller. All in all, we were occupied working on pneumatics throughout this very slow day. We’ll also work on building another insert for the goal, but we will get to that once we finish fixing the roller.” But the team is still extremely stressed not to have the team’s mechinist for a short while. The complications with the robot caused the team additional stress. The construction team spent most of the day working on the ball controller and testing it to see if it worked. The programming team spent some time thinking about where the transmission should be placed on the frame along with the chains.
Throughout the slow day, the video team was very busy. With Open House on February 18 just around the corner, they hustled to get footage for the video that will showcase what we did each day during building season. They deliberated amongst one another, discussing what they should have in the video. They decided that they will have everyone on the team wave into the camera for three seconds. After getting the footage, they uploaded what they got on camera. Besides working on the Open House video, they also did some last minute touches to week four’s video before they submitted it to the web-site team for uploading.
For the documentation team, they were very busy in their work areas. The web-site team busied themselves, uploading all of the web-site files onto one of the computers as a backup; just in case the web-site laptop crashes. Some also had a head start on their scripts for Open House, as each student has a speaking role for that day. Altogether, all sub-teams got some work done on this last day of week four.
