Every year our team gets together to watch the kickoff so we can learn what the new game is and so we can start talking about ideas for the robot. We normally have about a week where we give ideas about the game objective. After that week is over we break up into our sub teams and start working on each part of the robot. At the end of every night we have one person from each sub team give an update on what they completed that night. Once the robot is finished we have until the end of build season to pratice for competition.
Driveline, driveline, driveline ..... what to say about driveline.
Driveline puts together the bottom frame; gets our wheels together, attaches them to the frame; and gets our gear boxes together and put onto the frame. We also decide the length and width of the robot. I don't want to say too much about our amazing driveline, it really should be a surprise. However, I can tell you this much. We have finished our driveline base and are currently lightening our base so we have enough weight left over so we can attached our spectacular ball mechanism. We have four wheels on our robot and they are amazing wheels. Our robot is somewhat small, but as the saying goes good things come in small packages! Just like every team, we have had to take apart our driveline many different times because we have changed many different things to make our robot even more amazing!
Well, I think that is enough to keep you interested and wondering until we unveil our super duper awesome driveline with our fantastic game objective attached to it!
On team 279 there are separate divisions that are in charge of completing certain types of tasks. One of the key divisions of the team is the electronics group. The importance of the electronics group is to manage any electrically operated component, such as motors, switches, sensors or speed controllers. Some of the tasks just mentioned that the electronics group takes part in is wiring and soldering; both of which could be seen as tedious but quite interesting. Someone joining the electronics team will most likely learn much from the work they are doing. The information they learn will probably be useful in the future depending on the career field they decide to go into. The mentor of the electronics group is Skip and he is always willing to teach you more about electronics and he makes it sound exciting. The other way Skip makes the electronics group interesting is by wearing a different watch everyday. Lastly, the main reason why the electronics group is so important is because if there were no power to any electronically operated component, the robot would not do anything! So that is what the electronics team is about and why it is so important.
Game objective is the part of the robot that deals with the game components on the field. This year's game, Rebound Rumble, is a game that requires robots to pick up and score small basketballs into four hoops placed at different heights. Also the robot can roll and balance on ramps to score extra points at the end of each match. Game objective's job is to complete each of these tasks by working together with driveline and electronics. Without each group within our team working together, we would never be able to have a functioning robot.
Programming is described as the brains of the robot, but we see it as adding knowledge to every new creation. With the use of Java we can move our robot in any direction, from left to right, back and forth or in any angle. The program we load into the CRIO will be read and mechanisms on the robot will be easily controlled by the programmer. With the help of our programmers, we are capable of understanding Java and reaching new ways to benefit our team and other teams.
Here on the web team we help to share information. We help to spread the idea and work of FIRST, FIRST Team 279, Toledo Technology Academy and Dana. We keep the webside updated as often as is needed and make sure it's user friendly. The web team does all the HTML coding ourselves, creating the website from the ground up. Also, we are always open to suggestions for improving our site.