Issaquah Robotics Log
2006 FIRST Competition

Build Period: Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6
Competition Period: Pacific Northwest Regional - Fix-it Window - Davis/Sacramento Regional

It was an early morning on Saturday. We met at 7 a.m. at Bellevue's International School to finally find out about this years game! Following the game presentation, there was a half of the game playfield for teams to check out and get a better feel for the game. Our team was chosen to help the demo the game at the kickoff, so it was purple shirts vs. sweatshirts. Watching Erik ‘do the robot’ (literally) was highly entertaining. We then broke into strategizing groups where members from multiple teams got together to get ideas flowing which they then brought back to school.

After caravanning back to IHS, we brainstormed until about 5 carefully weighing the pros and cons of each design. We settled on a shooter, which would be really cool, and a 6-wheel design much like last year's when we used the kit chassis. Picking up the balls will be important as well, and reverse picking up (a.k.a. dropping) into the side goals would be nice, but not vitally important to success in this year's game.

les penseuses

Yay! Discussion time!!!

The last hour the remaining team members did a kit inventory, no missing pieces this year! The team left that evening with good design ideas under their belts along with high spirits about this year's game.

Barton from the Seaweedwackers came today along with the Saxtons, the two Jims, and a few students. After taking inventory of the storage shed for playfield parts, Christopher and Kayla got to work CADing the playfield. The rest of the team did some fun calculations for the shooter and decided that we should be able to fix an angle and hit the target based on speed. Regarding drivetrain, we explored wheel options as well as made the decision that it would be too difficult to use a pneumatic wheel with the dead axle design. Once a shopping list for playfield parts was complete, we called it a day!

mentors thinking... hmmmm...

Our photographer! We needed at least one picture of her.

Today we retooled which team everyone was on because we found out people were a little too over committed (but it's so much fun!). After picking primary teams, each group of primary team members got together to make a task list, complete with deadlines, for when they hoped to accomplish most everything this season. The communications team got to work on the display board for the open house next week, mechanism started working on single wheel designs for the shooter, and people got to CADing the prototype. Between the afternoon meeting and the evening meeting, a few members plus Saxtons headed on down to the library to give a presentation to the booster club.

Ellie brought in a LEGO shooter prototype, a two wheel model that sends 1.5" diameter balls flying amazingly consistently, especially with the loader attachment.

The drive train folks looked at options for wheels and gearing options. The CAD work was started. The playfield team were pleased to have their first lumber purchase made, and cut the boards to length. The mechanism team finished CAD for the shooter prototype using direct drive, although the coupling mechanism is still TBD.

The software team worked on the robot camera and built the light box.

the CMU camera

The electronics team identified parts the robot will need and figured out mounting hardware. They also wired cables onto this year's batteries and created a shopping list. The spirit team designed the artwork for the playfield platform!

Great news! Our proposal for $300 from the booster club was approved.

Playfield made short work of what was on their list

the completed frame for the ramp

They finished construction on the base as well as cut the rest of the lumber for the playfield and goal.

Tom cutting plywood for the playfield

Erik and Kris managed to get the camera up and running after a few initial problems with the software. On the drive train side of things, some progress was made with CAD until we ran into problems with Inventor 10. But those software folks are smart, they should be able to figure it out!

Today the communications people got the platform mural painted for the base of the playfield (and it is pretty darn neat!). The polycarbonate to go over the mural as well as the diamond plating for the ramp is ready to go.

Alex, Elyssa and Caitlin painting the platform board

CAD was not cooperating too well today, Kyle finished the arm prototype on it, but then Inventor ate it once it crashed. CAD for the drive base was not eaten, thankfully, so that project is moving right along. The green light box was also completed this meeting by our favorites, the software team. So far, so good, and cheers to our first full week!

Build Period: Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6
Competition Period: Pacific Northwest Regional - Fix-it Window - Davis/Sacramento Regional