New to FIRST?

Hello, Robolions team members, mentors, friends, and community members! Welcome to "The Fourth Law of Robotics," home to University City High School's FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Team. We hope to use this blog to inform you about what we're up to.
We compete in the FRC (First Robotics Competition), an annual competition where we have six weeks to build a robot from scratch. This year's game is Recycle Rush. We'll post updates here to let you all know what we're up to with building (and competing with) our robot!
We also are now competing in FTC (First Tech Challenge), the next level down from FRC. The game was called Ring It Up!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Wheels On The Bot Go Round And Round...

As you all saw with the video, our robot is now in motion. Well, to be completely correct, it is not moving right at the moment- there is work being done on it. Nathan, one of our newest (and youngest- we've got a brave 8th grader here!), is working on building a shield to protect the electronics and inner workings of the bot. He's in the midst of testing materials and angles right now, to figure out the optimum combination to protect against breakage. We've thought about using green or cloudy colored plastic and using LEDs or a blacklight on the inside of the shield to create a colored aura-type thing! It could look like kryptonite. Ok, well maybe that's just me crossing my fingers for a cool, aesthetically pleasing robot! This will be the year!

In other news, we had to break out the first aid kit for the first time. And I'm about to have a grand ol' time describing the event in thrilling detail.

Enter Christine, new freshman RoboLions member. A diligent worker, Christine takes the greatest of care when handling tools. However, on this fateful night, there was one tool which would turn out to be her greatest adversary: The file. As she filed away, the file slipped and grazed Christine's finger, ripping tiny bits of skin from her flesh. Droplets of blood began to bead on the surface.

Ok, that makes it sound a lot more dramatic than it was. It was a tiny scrape, and she slapped a BandAid on it and got right back to work, no big deal. But we did have to open the First Aid kit to get a BandAid. Exciting, this is the first time this year.

The naming of the robot is still in the works. I think an election shall be in order soon, so far the favorites are looking to be Serenity, Hammurabi, Huitzilopochtli (don't ask), Nazgul, and Fluttershy. Oh, and Nazca. I kinda want to add Galadriel to the list, if we're starting an LOTR trend here. Comment to add your ideas to the list!

There may be more posts tonight, as progress continues, so stay tuned!

1 comment:

  1. I vote nay to Huitzilopochtli, who was a very definitively masculine god of war in the Aztec pantheon. Additionally, our robot bears little resemblance to his symbol, the hummingbird.

    Galadriel is a good name, though. And female, too, which fits with the established pattern.

    ReplyDelete