The Business team finished off the week writing thank you notes to our generous sponsors who are continuing to donate to Team 2220. They also finalized the script to our news video update, now named the “Blue Twilight Telecast”. Another project that is in the works is a grant being written to the Minnesota Common Grant worth $10,000. The accounting team is working on updating their money flow info for the district. As other news, the media team is working on the website and filming for the weekly news cast.

The FTC team is working on building a field by using foam mats for the floor. They also assembled the walls, and made part of some ramps for the field. They built two arms and attached them to the servo. A servo is a motor that can only rotate 180 degrees. They then attached it to their robot, making that the FTC’s first manipulator! They also attached and installed Samanthon.

The electronics team successfully finished the test board, and power board. Unfortunately, they are having problems with air compression, and they still need to fix some problems with the programming.

After several testing sessions, the initial launcher model was deemed unsuccessful and had inconsistency.The launcher is on its second prototype and the manipulator team is planning to keep it. All shots fired landed into a three square foot area. They plan on adjusting this model by editing the two drills used to spin the launcher.

The programming team lent a hand to the electronics team by helping them with the test board. They now have completed three driver’s stations so that we can have multiple robots compete against each other at the same time allowing for better testing of the robots. They are also about 50% done with the full autonomous mode. They would like to get the Kinect server working so they can start driving the robot.

The drive team got all six wheels attached to the frame and also installed two motors. This means that they completed the frame completely. They are also currently making a list of everything that they need to buy for the second robot, and a list of what they already bought for the first robot, and putting the cost of each. Overall the drive train works, and that subteam has a goal of getting proof of concept that the robot can go over the four inch high barrier.

Overall the second week of the build season was very successful despite a couple issues that occurred. Hopefully they will be fixed in the upcoming weeks and we’ll have our robot ready for our Practice Invitational on February 18, 2012.

Week 2 resource links:

2220 FIRST Robotics Alumni group on Facebook.

Key design resources:

http://www.scoutingfirst.com/ - Site containing pretty much all of the scouting sites teams need for FRC
http://www.thebluealliance.com/
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/portal.php
http://www.theredalliance.com/facebook - Contains excellent videos showing some teams prototypes for ball shooters and much more!