February 14, 2009

Today we split up into groups, this allowed us to be much more productive. We mounted the lexan, worked on changing the flag design to high resolution from a low resolution, and we finished installing the control. We also mounted the chute and hopper and we weaved the pneumatics. We are staying on task and being very productive.

Febuary 11, 2009

Today we worked on mounting the lexan. We corrected the bumpers and sent off the final design for the flag. We worked on programming and prototyping the robot. We also installed the control board and the bumpers. We planned how to mount the wheels and axels. And we drew a design for how to mount the lexan and sono tubes. Today was a very productive day!

Febuary 10, 2009

Today we installed the supports for the chute. We also worked on completing the hopper. We finalized the design for the flag and we updated our attendance records. All in all, the construction of the robot is going quite well.

Febuary 9, 2009

We worked more on the chute supports. The programmers also worked on programming the robot. We drafted the hopper and chute design.

Febuary 8, 2009

Today we worked on the chute and hopper construction. We hit a minor dilemma when we discovered that we had incorrect measurements for the chute support bars. We also cut Lexan to protect our precious control board. We had to rebuild the chute and hopper supports, but it was not that difficult. The shooting team also continued their research on the shooting statistics. Woooooo!!!!!!!! GO ROBOTICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Statistics, Probability, Optimal Shot Diagram

We have created a diagram to show where we will have the best chance to score; take a look:

The court is 18m wide by 9m high

Key:

Brown=One Hand Shot

Blue=Basketball Shot

Green=Soccer Throw

Lines are dashed/struck through with a particular color to show the best throw if facing away.

There are 3 shooting stations for the team, bottom left, bottom right, and top middle. The shooting arcs overlap, and the hardest part to hit is when the robot is in the middle orange. Lines overlap to show our common shooting ground. The middle bottom orange and purple/brown is the outer reaches for any shot, which is best shot one hand or soccer.

The overlap zone is marked with a yellow or brown outline, and look like eyes slanted towards the nose.

We expect a diminishing of 20% of sitting down shots due to positioning and potential path, which we altered the arcs to be 80% of the standing up shots range.

The maximum shot range for shots is as follows: 6.5m for basketball, 10.5 for soccer, and 16.5 for overhand. They can be exceeded by some members of the shooting crew, but it is not common to the squad.

Shooting Rules and arc ranges:

0-2m: One Hand with Soccer towards

2-4m: Basketball with Basketball towards

4-5.5m: Basketball with Basketball towards

5.5-6.5m: Soccer with Soccer towards

6.5-8m: Soccer with Soccer towards

8-10m: One Hand with Overhand towards

Anything beyond is highly unlikely to score. Shot type is not best suited for all throwers, some may show excellence in a particular throw due to sports.

At our build session today we continued working on the hopper and decided to built its frame out of aluminum rather than plastic. We had to go buy more aluminum so we went to Home Depot. Upon returning, we measured out the sizes of each piece of aluminum and finalized the format. We will cut the aluminum and assemble the frame on Saturday.

Continuing Steadily

Today we:
-built and installed the crossbar supports to hold up the ramp on the hopper
-continued the programming
-practiced shooting tactics
-constructed a hopper design
-constructed the framework of the payload out of plastic. We had our misgivings about the the plastic being strong enough, and thought about making the framework out of aluminum, but once we but a crossbar on the plastic, it seemed to be a lot stronger.
-worked on the bumpers