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      We’re down towards the last week and our main focus is finishing up the arm for our grabber. The bottom portion is made up of an aluminum 2”x 1” tube. Mr. Leong drew out the arm on Auto Cad to figure the dimensions and angles of each part. After machining the pieces for the arm, we laid out the parts so Mr. Ing could weld them together.
       At the same time, Mr. Leong and Mr. Ono made a turn buckle, which is mainly a shaft with threads on both ends. This will connect the chain and prevent backlashes when the sprockets rotate. And with Mr. Ing’s “sprock-o-matic” we made the sprockets for the arm’s chain.
      Finally we have the arm temporarily mounted to the chassis! Only about four more days left to weld the top part of the arm and mount the electronics.

      During week six of robotics, the electrical team managed to get a lot of things done. First we finished programming our prototype arm and formed set points for arm movements. We determined the set points by looking at the potentiometer values and scaled drawing when the prototype arm was placed on it. Additionally, we managed to finish writing the code for the other autonomous scheme. The autonomous schemes we managed to get done were the ones for moving across the field and shaking the rack in which will make it difficult for the opponents to score. Even though we have finished the code, we did not get the opportunity to test it out so testing will occur during crunch time.
       Moreover, our team also did some housecleaning this week. We cleaned up the entire workplace area and the playing field on Thursday evening. After vacuuming and organizing everything there, we can now work safely and accessibly during crunch time. After tidying, we got our IR sensor wired and tested. The IR sensor will be mounted to the grabber. When the IR sensor’s light is blocked by the presence of the tube, the grabber will be triggered to grab the tube.

       This week we were able to visit the other teams on the island for their respective open house or "unveiling of the robot". Only a few members of the team were able to visit Waialua on Thursday to see their robot, and we were able to see the many parts of the school in which they operated. On Friday, we visited Punahou with Waialua, where we was able to see their robot and Waialua's attempt to climb Punahou's ramp.
       The biggest update for the website is the Frequently Asked Questions section. It is located under the Links menu item at the top. The FAQs section contain question that students, parents, educators, FRC teams, and volunteers might have.
       One concern about the website is its compatibility with Macs. We are aware that the website does not look the same on a Mac as on a PC. Mac web browsers read the CSS and Java coding a little differently than PCs do. Since this website was made on a PC, only PC compatibility issues have been addressed. We apologize for technical problems Mac users are experiencing. Mac users can still browse the website by clicking on the menu items at the top. All pages have sidebar for easy navigation.

      This week we started to finish the designing of the control box. After brainstorming many different types of configurations, we had finally agreed on one unique design and made a mock up to see how it would look like and if it would hold all of our equipment needed in the control box for the competition. We are very grateful to Mr. Min, Owner of the Min Plastics Inc., along with our mentor Mr. Lau in making the final product of the control box. The control box came out extremely well-made and we couldnt have asked for a better one, thanks again!
      After we finished the control box, we proceeded in making a new crate to fit our robot. Unfortunately, our old crate was too small to put our robot in and that is why our new crate was being contructed. With our mentor to guide us in measurement and tool handling, as well as supplying the wood, we were able to finish the crate fairly quickly and coated it with yellow paint to make it look stunning!
       What really surprised us this week was when the Punahou Robotics Team invited the McKinley and Wailua Robotics Teams to come see them demonstrate their robot. From that night we learned what kinds of strategies and techniques the other teams were going with and what their objective was.
       We are proud to say that we have accomplished our goals from last week with remarkable results. Although we finished the crate and control box, we still have many things left to do as the deadline comes near. We hope to refine our strategical methods from seeing firsthand what other robots can do, and to have practice more on operating the robot with our new control box.

 

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