One does not simply... oh wait

This is our Tel-op running Sonic, we still need to write an autonomous program for the IR beacon and elevate the arm for higher rows. In the mean time, however, we have a working arm that can quickly and easily place rings on the bottom row of the rack.
Another benefit of this test was that we discovered we could remove the rings from the grabber by simply tilting it, removing the need for our other ring flipper and making the transfer of rings from rack to rack that much simple

Bodybuilding

Nik is working on the Solidworks model of our arm for Sonic. Once we have our model, we can build the arm and test it out.

Invisible Sun

This picture shows the beacon and IR light that Sonic follows while in autonomous. This light is invisible to the human eye, but electronic cameras, such as the one that took this picture, and electronic sensors can see and follow this light.

Like a moth to the flame...

Casey finished coding for our IR (infrared) sensor on the robot. Now, as you will see, Sonic will circle while searching for the IR beacon and then drive and follow the beacon once it is found.
Sonic will use this IR sensor to identify the column with the IR beacon in the challenge. Now we have to finish and code our arm design so that Sonic can place the ring on the correct column without any human control; i.e. autonomously.

Organization

Organizing our parts in order to take inventory and figure out which parts we need to order. This is important as Lego and Tetrix parts are not cheap, so we can only order what is necessary.

Yours, mine, and ours

Today we combined our ring grabbing system and our ring release system, finding the two to work almost perfectly together. With some design modifications to improve performance, this system will work beautifully to grab and place rings.


This

+

This

20% Cooler

And They're Off!

After being operational for a week, our robot finally got graded for being able to move. While the other groups scrambled to get theirs moving, Casey just loaded up last year's program and got a grade so we could get on with building; it's awesome to be ahead of the game!