First week - First moves

We know very well from past years how difficult it is for us to build the robot in time and test it properly before we leave for the US. We didn't hesitate and started with the construction of a mock competition field. In the meantime, we are finalizing our drafts for the robot and deciding which ones to use and which to leave out.

Every robot starts with a chassis. It consists of the base plate on which we assemble everything, the bumpers on each side, and the Swerwe drive system. The chassis has to be made first, because it determines the space for each component and what features our robot can have. For example this year, a smaller robot means that more robots could fit on one chain during the final stage, earning us bonus points. On the other hand, it means that we would have less space for the intake. The Notes are 14 inches in diameter, so any system to collect them, including motors, belts, gears, etc. will take up a lot of space. Therefore, when designing the chassis, we need to have at least a rough idea of how our robot will work.

The season also means working on weekends, and the sound of drills roams PORG (our school) even when there is no one else to hear it. We have already built the elements of the playing field that we will be throwing our Notes into. We plan to focus on our AMP abilities, but we also need to be able to shoot into the Speaker as well. That being said, we don't yet have a robot to use the field. Not yet. Our goal now is to build as many elements of the robot as possible. We're starting off with intake and a shooter. These inital parts are not made to be implemented in a robot afterwards. Instead, we use them as a proof of concept and a useful tool to improve.

After a few slightly rushed attempts, we've had our first proper successes. We now have a basic shooter model capable of sending a Note into the Speaker and a basic intake capable of collecting the Notes. We will see how they perform once we get the official Notes, as they have not been delivered yet, but they seem very promising with the Notes we created ourselves!