DEWBOT VII Build

Build season is the heart of the FRC year. It is the 45 days during which the team's students and mentors put their hearts, minds and hands into designing and building a great robot. Paradoxically, the time seems both far too short and much too long.

This page contains a day by day breakdown of what we did. Dates hyper-links go to the corresponding photo gallery.

On Saturday, January 8^th, team 1640 students, parents and mentors drove to Upper Darby High School on to watch the events from Dean Kamen’s home in New Hampshire, see the objectives of the 2011 game revealed, examine a mock-up of this year’s play pieces up close, and pick up our kit of parts.
We attended seminars immediately following the Logomotion Kickoff.
The Team returned to DRC following Kickoff for a read-through of Logomotion's rules.

Week One (1/9-1/15)

Sunday 9-January - Brainstorming

Siri Maley & Heather McKown inventoried the Kit-of-Parts (nothing missing) - KOP parts laid out for brainstorm "touch & feel".
Siri Maley, Heather McKown & Clem McKown set up a 1/7^th-scale mock-up field inclufing scale robots, bonus towers & game pieces
Strategy Brainstorm - well attended by 18 students and 14 mentors - we:

developed a large number of game-play ideas;
focus on what, not how;
consolidated, synthesized and built on ideas as teams;
presented team ideas;
simulated the game on the game table (mock-up field) - multiple itterations; and
consolidated , synthesized & built on ideas as a complete team

Monday 10-January (no photos to speak of)

FIRSTchoice parts ordered (FTC Kit, Solenoid Kit & Pressure Relief Valve)
Made key strategic decisions for DEWBOT VII

Tuesday 11-January - Meeting cancelled due to snow storm

Wednesday 12-January

Assembled Functions list - started to assign specifications
Arm analysis - started on arm design concepts
Started building the first scoring Tower
Started cutting Al for Pivots Sides
Welcome to new mentor, Juan Posada

Thursday 13-January

First Pivot sideplate has been machined - a thing of beauty!
Finished cutting Al stock for Pivot sides & tops
Continued practice field construction
Started prototyping and testing the claw
Started work on the Minibot
Defined teams and lead mentors for these teams
We have Internet!
Web-based colaboration file sharing initiated for CAD team
Functions and Specifications largely complete

Saturday 15-January

Continued claw prototyping
Cut stock for Pivot Tubes & Transfer axles
Continued to build field pieces
Started to play with Tetrix parts for Minibot
Specified belts & pulleys for drive-train
Started putting 4-linkage arm into Inventor
Organized shop & storage

DEWBOT VII Week One Build Season Photo Gallery

Week Two (1/16-1/21)

Sunday 16-January

We worked through & articulated our sensor strategy & requirements
Which required clearly articulating our autonomous strategy
Also provisionally worked through our motor needs
Final Pivot Drive stock cut
Cut a plane work area on the mill bed
4-bar arm entered into CAD (Molley)
Pivot drive pulleys & belts ordered
More arm prototype testing
Have a reasonable Minibot concept to develop

Monday 17-January

Siri's analysis of the 2-joint arm points out the need to manipulate the attitude of the Logo Piece - a strong argument for the 4-bar linkage arm
Prototyped the 4-bar linkage arm. It seems we should be able to score on the high targets. On the lower targets, however, we will need to approach the target grid at an angle to stay in the safe zone.
During prototyping, conceptualized a lighter variation on the 4-bar arm. Will test Wednesday.
Developed the 4-bar linkage arm in CAD
Chassis frame is developing in CAD
Minibot launch design started

Wednesday 19-January

Started improved jaw prototype
Started machining Pivot spacers on lathe
Building bonus tower
Establish material needs for bumpers

Thursday 20-January

Finished first bonus tower
Completed Pivot spacers
Started broaching keyways into miter gears and 9T sprockets

Saturday 22-January

Finished broaching keyways into the miter gears
Put together our first Minibot (certainly not our last) - did not take it for a vertical walk
Atarted cutting custom polycarbonate wheels on lathe
Chassis frame has been (somewhat) completed in CAD
CAD collaboration software is working - Andrew has Inventor 2011 running and is therefore in the running
Made significant progress on arm/claw