This week we finalized our superstructure, making a system we believe will be a winner! We sent our drive base out to BAE Systems’ water jets to be machined. After prototyping several designs, we designed and CADed our bumpers. We have started programming our robot. To begin, we learned to use and program the Kinect software. We started machining parts of our structure. We hope to finish our chassis and side parts this weekend to send to the welder soon!
3 Weeks down, 3 Weeks to go!
The Cookiebot Zero Robotics team, created through a partnership between our team and the Gunn Robotics Team, will be traveling to MIT tomorrow for the Zero Robotics Competition finals! We’re so excited to see them run their code on satellites on the ISS! Wish them luck! They were also featured in the San Jose Mercury News and NASA News! Check out the competition at http://www.zerorobotics.org/ and the article at http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_19769701
This week the Space Cookies finalized our electronics board layout and protoytped several mechanisms for our “shooter” structure. We have also designed our bumpers and begun to look at the superstructure. We can’t tell you what it is, so hopefully you will come see it in action at one of our Regionals: Sacramento or Silicon Valley.
2 Weeks down, 4 Weeks to go!
Curious about recent Space Cookie activity? Dying to know what we’ve been up to? Of course you are!
Read our latest newsletter and then send it to all your friends and co-workers!
The Space Cookies have been busy this week planning for Rebound Rumble FRC Season 2012. We have been prototyping and deciding the orientation of our drivetrain and wheels. We have built certain aspects of the field, precisely one bridge and one basket. We have been prototyping the drivetrain by testing different methods of crossing the bump (4 inches tall and 6 inches wide). We created a weighted objectives table to determine our orientation, which we cannot reveal, but come find out at the Sacramento Regional in March. Also in the lab, we started working on the kitbot to prototype our orientation. We have been prototyping in CAD, for example our slot and the drive base.
Come see us at the Sacramento Regional, from March 15 to 17, or the Silicon Valley Regional, from March 28 to 30.
1 Week down, 5 Weeks to go!
After watching Kickoff yesterday, the Space Cookies are excited to begin Build Season 2012. If you haven’t yet, watch the 2012 game animation “Rebound Rumble.”
The team has been strategizing, analyzing rules, and planning for the season. We’re looking forward to an exciting season of building friendships and building robots. We can’t tell you about our decisions, but you’ll see our robot at the end of Build Season.
Good luck with your robot! Let’s Rumble!
FRC Kickoff 2012 is coming next Saturday. If you’re on the East Coast it will be shown at 10am, 7am on the West Coast. You can watch the live streaming here:
http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2011_kickoff.php
Enjoy the show!