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!

 

Visit to Brookhaven

We visited a Brookhaven, a senior living home in Lexington, and set up a robotics expo of sorts- we ran our two robots, displayed our Creo designs to residents, and set up other stations and activities, like a Rubik’s Cube solver and the Lego segways. It was lots of fun! Some of the seniors had worked in engineering before and told us lots about the work they did years back.

The drive team demoing our Block Party robot.

The Orange Gearticks explaining the Trash Trek challenge.

Talking with seniors at our Rubik’s Cube solver station.

Explaining our Creo designs and models.

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

Launching Our New Season at the Res-Q Kickoff!

We had a blast attending this season’s kickoff at Needham High School on September 12! We partook in various sessions about key FTC components such as the new drive system and PTC Creo. We also helped lead sessions about judging and the engineering notebook. This year’s challenge was also revealed at the kickoff. It includes a ‘mountain’ with bars across it that the robot must climb and ball and blocks that the robot must deliver into buckets.

After the event finished, we were buzzing with ideas. We stopped for an all team Chipotle lunch before heading home for a meeting, where we brainstormed drive systems to accommodate climbing the mountain, ball and block pickup/delivery designs, and robot lifting designs. Irene drew a great summary of our initial ideas below.

We’re so excited for the season and can’t wait to get started.

-AS 10/10/2015