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!

Back Again

After a shamefully long hiatus of frenzied work on a Latin project, I have returned to clear off the dust and cobwebs and revive this blog! Huzzah!

So, as some of you may know, this is one of our last build sessions before competition next weekend (conveniently during spring break, not-so-huzzah). We have a few things to tidy up before Rebound Rumble commences, such as the position of a ball-guider on the shooter. Henry and I maintain that our team motto should be "We know the game and we're gonna play it," so I'd like to remind everyone to go over the rules once more. I myself shall now proceed to do so before continuing the blog post.

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Okay, that's done. In other news, one of Marquel's friends has started to hang around our build sessions and is apparently interested in making a documentary on FIRST. I promise a further update when I'm able to talk to her about it. A new student at the school also expresses interest in FRC, possibly a future member of the team.

New Member!

A good friend to several of our members has now joined the team! Since I'm not sure how comfortable he'd be with my tossing his name around, I won't name him, but suffice it to say he knows what he's doing with machinery and is a valuable addition to the team. Huzzah for new members!

Dan Land can't make much progress until we're able to test our programming, and we need a complete robot in order to do that. With only one week left until ship day, we really have to speed things up and get all the pieces assembled!

Work continues (old members, not new members pictured):

A Moment of Silence, Please

It has come to my attention that the robot known affectionately to us all as Butter has been disassembled, after a period of about ten meetings' discussion. This news greatly saddens me. :( I must request a moment of silence, in memory of our buttery friend.

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In other news, today we received our Fall Rookie Challenge for 2011. Our task is to design and build a robot that can move a soccer ball 20 feet into a 36-inch-wide goal. So far, we have decided on a robot that grabs and pushes the ball into the goal with its pincers. Expanding on that, we've chosen to decorate it with a spider theme and name it Aragog. But we're only just in the brainstorming stages, so it will be a while before Aragog is scuttling around anywhere.

Everybody's excited to see new faces and learn new names, such as Rashad and Kang. Looking forward to a great Fall Rookie Challenge and a great year! :)

New Members of Robotics, Part 1 of an Unknown Quantity

This season has brought with it several new members (chief among them me, of course... just kidding). I've already introduced myself, so here are two other new members:

Crystal Clay, 10th grade

"I joined Robotics because I enjoy building and learning more about technology, and I like science. I am also thinking about taking engineering as a career or mechanics and I know Robotics can help."

Glenda Nelson, 9th grade

"I joined Robotics because I love the knowledge of engineering and technology. I like to help teams with fundraising because I just love helping people. I love science, communication arts, reading, and math. I would like to have a career in either engineering and/or law."

And I feel like jumping on the bandwagon:

Andrew White, 9th grade

"I joined Robotics because... umm... I'll come back to that... Actually, just check the blog entry entitled 'Hello, Everybody'. That should tell you all you need to know."

Hello Everybody

You may have noticed that the previous post, "Butter Shows Off," was written by someone other than Robolions, Captain Grace, or danpolitte. The author of that post was me, Andrew White, and I'm one of the team's newest members. I don't want to drone on and on about myself here, because the blog's about robotics, but suffice it to say that I've joined the team because several of my closest friends have been on the team for a while now, and the more extracurriculur activities I go to, the better. Given that my true passion is for writing, rather than connecting wires, bolting together robots, and (heaven forbid) programming, we decided the best position for me was blogger. I'll be writing up an account of the latest build session every now and again, unless the other authors beat me to it. If you want to know anything additional about me (and I'd be pleasantly surprised if you actually do), you can check out my profile.