During our first week, we started our design process to create our robot for this year! The first day, each member of the RoboRavens was to know the manual inside out. This helps the make the design process easier so that the members won’t have to continually check the manual after every idea they have. To make sure everyone knew the manual, we had a small quiz session where a mentor would ask a question to a member and they would have to answer it.
Then we split into six groups. Each group was led by a leader. The leaders were to help the ideas of the team members move in the right direction and to point out the pros and cons of the designs. The six groups then were divided equally between 3 rooms. The captain, the mentors and the drive team leader monitored around the groups to help the follow of ideas from the bright team members and to answer any questions the members or the leaders had. At the end of the day, each group had to write a one page (doubles sided) on their final design and have it ready to present the next day.
The next day, our session started off with the mentors calling everyone to one room. Here, we discussed how to score points in a “perfect game”. We discussed the maximum number of points a team can possibly get and what as a team is our priority this season in terms of points and robot design. Afterwards, each representative from the six teams were picked on the spot by the mentors to show their robot design. The leads and mentors then would ask any questions pertaining to the design that was presented. After all of the presentations were done, the team split into their respective groups and once again started to refine their design.
On the third day, the six teams were then grouped up so that there were only 3 teams. Two teams were supposed to come up with the best possible robot with dimensions so the rest of the members could have an idea on how the robot would look like in reality. The final team was to then make an “imaginary” robot based on the objective of the robots that were discussed on the second day.
On the fourth day, one person from each of the three teams was to present their their robot design. After all of the groups presented, the leads were all called to one room and the rest of the team either left to finish their school work, to CAD or program. The leads and mentors then looked at the robot designs and picked the one they prefered. Afterwards, they started to refine the design even more. After a whole lot of animals crackers, fruits, vegetables and pizza, we finally came to the final robot design and was shared with the rest of the team.
On the fifth day, all of the design team members were called and they started to CAD our design. Each different part of the robot was divided amongst our design team by our design leads. Then the design team was told to work on designing the part on friday and over the weekend. Their goal is to finish CADing the robot by Wednesday. Next week we will be prioritizing building and the business part of our team.
Stay tuned for more updates on build season!