Team-Wide Update Sophia Trabanino Although this year's Gatorbotics season is coming to a close, the entire team has, without a doubt, been working very hard. The Entrepreneurship team recently presented their Chairman’s Award proposition to a panel of judges and is continuing to update the Gatorbotics website and social media. They have also been working on interviewing various members, leads, and mentors of Gatorbotics to create a team video and have designed gear and surveyed the team to order gear for the rest of the season. The Strategy team has been doing team workshops, and one of their most recent ones was a scouting party. They learned scouting and team ranking techniques, individually scouted a 2013 game, and made team rankings as a group. The Strategy leads are continuing to take the feedback of the strategy sub-team members on what they are interested in learning about, and the topics they want to explore for the rest of the season. The Programming team has just finished Sprint 2: writing autonomous code to move the robot from the starting position to the power port, and at their most recent code review, presented each group’s autonomous code, and introduced Sprint 3: Mechanism Code, which they are currently working on. For this sprint, their group will be working with a programming lead or a specialist so that they can guide them and answer any of their questions. The goal of this sprint is to write an intake subsystem, a shooter subsystem, and a climber subsystem for the robot, and they are working closely with the build team as they are working on the mechanisms of the robot, and their designs are being finalized. The build team has also been hard at work, finalizing their designs for the different mechanisms on the robot using CAD (Computer Aided Design) techniques, and they have taken full advantage of the opportunity to test these mechanisms during in-person lab hours. Being able to come on campus for lab hours has allowed the whole team, especially the build team, to not only use the equipment they would usually use in the Bourn Lab, and work with physical materials and the robot, but has also given everyone the opportunity to bond as a team, and work together, while having fun and learning new things around the shared interest of Gatorbotics. Robot UpdateSophia Trabanino The build team has been working on creating the mechanisms of the robot, and finalizing their designs that they created using CAD. These include the intake mechanism, which is nicknamed “Shish Kabob” or “Bob”for short, and parts of it were 3D printed and once the design and placement of the hardstops is finalized, the programming can begin and the motor can be integrated. Another mechanism is the ramp or transition, which has been prototyped and the team has been working on testing the intake of it and how it brings the balls up, and they are almost ready to start milling. The build team has also been working on the flywheel of the robot (nicknamed “Falafel”), and they have been designing it and modifying it using CAD, while prototyping it and testing it on campus. Being able to come on campus for lab hours has allowed the whole team, especially the build team, to not only use the equipment they would usually use in the Bourn Lab, and work with physical materials and the robot, but has also given everyone the opportunity to bond as a team, and work together, while having fun and learning new things around the shared interest of Gatorbotics. Team Member Feature: Sierra Stark Sophia Trabanino with Sierra Stark
Sierra Stark is a current senior on Gatorbotics. As a Competition Strategy Specialist, she is in charge of picking and training the drive team for the competitions. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions this year, she unfortunately hasn’t been able to take on that role, but she has still been able to bond with the team and have a lot of fun as a working member of the build team. This season, Sierra has focused on the flywheel mechanism on the robot. Her favorite part of Gatorbotics is “the very beginning of the season when we get our design challenge and start brainstorming. The energy is high and there is so much excitement and camaraderie in the lab.” She joined Gatorbotics during her sophomore year, and says her friends talked so highly of the team, and she wanted to “join in on the fun.” She described that “they were right– this team is a lot of fun and the work is really rewarding.” Throughout her years of being on the team, she has a lot of fond memories, but she says her favorite is the first competition she ever attended with the team: “It was my sophomore year, and we drove up to a high school in San Francisco for a regional competition. It was really the first time I had seen the full extent of what FRC is really about– there were dozens of teams all decked out in full spirit with face paint, big banners, some had even brought team mascots. It felt a lot like a really nerdy sports game!” Through team meetings, lab hours, competitions, and just being alongside the team, she has not only learned technical fabrication skills. Sierra shared, “robotics has taught me that even the smallest and least glamorous tasks are important and have real value and that teamwork relies on people stepping up to get things done. I have also learned that what you put into your work is what you get out of it.”
1 Comment
|