Had Fun at the 2nd Big Dipper Meet!

The 2nd Big Dipper Meet was a blast! We started the early morning setting up with a bunch of other excited teams. Hosting the meet was hard-work, but it was fun and definitely worth it! The Meadowbrook cafeteria was a great open-space to hold it in, and there were great advantages of the huge screen we could project on. The only issue with the Meadowbrook cafeteria was the well-designed teacher’s room which was part of our pit area. It was designed to be sound proof so we had to improvise by opening all of the doors and announcing everything twice.

Andy, a team parent, was a great MC and brought life to the competition with his great jokes! We also were very thankful for Elise and Beth, who were great referees in the entire tournament.

Overall, all of the teams seemed to enjoy the day of hard-work, and everyone seemed to learn. One of our team-members, Dante had some very positive things to say: “It was a fantastic learning experience about what we need to do to prepare for the next meet.” 

Thanks to Ruland!

On our visit to Ruland, we had the incredible opportunity to tour the factory, where we saw a variety of machines, including very basic machines dating back to the 1940s as well as newer machines designed just six months ago by Ruland’s engineers. It was awesome to see how some of the parts on our robot are created! We also spoke with the marketing department and learned more about the ways Ruland helps many FIRST teams. At the end of our visit, we showed everyone our robot and we were happy to find out that we’re using the Ruland parts correctly!

This weekend we got a generous donation of parts from Ruland. The shaft connectors will help to correct to our misaligned motor and drive shafts in our drive system. These parts are going to really help us this season, and we are proud to have Ruland as a sponsor!

 

First Big Dipper Meet

Last Saturday we went to our first league meet in Manchester, NH. We used our robot from the block party challenge which was already fashioned to pick up blocks and balls. Over all, the meet was a good way to see what really needs to be done for our next competition. We learned the importance of climbing the ramp in scoring in the high goals. Additionally, we learned about the major penalty points that come from blocking the mountain. The meet was fun, and has given us lots of ideas in how to proceed with our season.

-Abby 11/27/15

Visit to Robai

Last Tuesday we visited a robotics company in Burlington called Robai. They showed us their office as well as come really cool demos about their robotics arms and what they are working on.  We learned a lot about degrees of freedom, and how adding one degree of freedom can add infinite ways to reach a certain position with an arm. It was a cool experience and really fun!

-AP 10/20/15