Hey my name is Michael and I'm the co-leader of the team 3871. Since our last update we have finished the bumpers, managed to get the loader attached to the robot and redesigned the shooter yet again. Sadly, we do not have pictures we can attach at this moment, but we will put them on as soon as possible.

     Today, we made progress on a few key areas.  First, we nearly completed the battery holder, where the battery will sit on the robot.  This part is essential, because FIRST will not let a robot with an unprotected battery compete.

     Next up was some organization.  Philip and I measured and recorded our entire inventory of 30-30 metal.  Moving forward, it will be important to know how much of each material we have.

     Finally, we had Michael call up someone who was interested in donating to our team.  Although early in the attempt, we believe we will be receiving a donation from the individual.  We are thankful for people like this, who contribute greatly to our ability to build the robot.

     Sorry about the lack of images.  Hopefully next post will be more colorful.

--Isaiah Tongedahl

First Visit Field Evaluation

Philip went over to the TRA (Tacoma Robotics Alliance), where 3781 used to be built in 2011 and 2012. The two teams that were there were way farther ahead. 3393, Puyallup High School Robotics Club, have a pick-up system almost identical to ours. Their shooting system is based on our failed "boot" shooter. They lift the ball to the top of their robot, and use a pneumatic piston to swing a arm towards the ball, with a weighted metal brick at the end. 2557, SOTABots (School of the Arts Robotics), pick up the ball like a vacuum cleaner (but with wheels instead of suction), and use a mini-catapult that is spring loaded. Both teams have great ideas, and gave 3781 tips on how we could improve systems on our robot.

In addition to visiting the teams, TRA builds a practice field every year of the year's game. They weren't completely finished, but they were done with a majority of it.

Doing a series of tests, we found that the low goals are quite difficult to simply roll the balls into the goal:

The same goes for pushing with bumpers; it isn't easy:

On the bright side of things, the high goals aren't that hard to get the ball into. It doesn't require much aim, you just have to have the mass to bump it into the goal:

From the looks of things, our shooter looks like it will work quite fine.

-- Philip Rader

Slingshot Shooter

We built a mockup of the slingshot-like shooter we designed, after realizing the catapult design was impossible. We built it fast, and tried it out. The results were promising:

Wanting to try yet another alternative, our mentor suggested trying a arm that "boots" the ball. We built it and tested it. It was a complete failure, and would not work at all. So, we decided that we would finalize and use the slingshot shooter. We created a "grocery list" of things we would need, so that our mentor could get the materials over the weekend.

In addition, our pick-up system is almost complete. All that is left is to attach the motor, chemical weld the wheels to the churro, and attach it to the chassis.

-- Philip Rader