Mahr’s Metal Beavers
We’re about to play our fifth match at the Pacific Northwest regional competition. We’ve been having trouble getting the pneumatic piston to work, but the problems seem to be corrected now with some significant design changes. We think the drive system is ready and the pneumatic actuator works, and we have code for autonomous that should just drive forward slowly, although that has not yet been tested.
We’ll just have to see how it goes.
The robot shipped several days ago. We were sad to see it go… parting is such sweet sorrow. We’re planning what to do when we get to the competition and have some more time to work on the bot. There’s hybrid mode code to be tested, motors to be changed out, and so on.
We’re into button production full speed ahead. There are 4 different styles of buttons, but if you want to see them, you’ll have to visit us at the competition. We also have some comics in the works that should appear on our website soon.
Today we tested the robot on the ground for the first time. Most of the time all of the wheels move, and we can go most of the directions that we originally wanted to. We’re still fixing little problems, and working on the code. After we fix all of the bugs, we will start working on the arm.
There was an instance where the robot attacked the trashcan, when the Operator Control died resulting in the robot doing unknown, uncontrolled things involving many flashing lights. Fortunately, the trash can is still intact, and the robot was stopped with only some minor damage to a cable that got caught in the wheels. We now have an easy-to-hit-at-high-speed reset button on the top of the robot, which will facilitate dealing with future emergencies.
The title is a lie. We’re not almost done, but we are close to having a robot that at least moves. Under its own power. Within 24 hours from now, the code will be uploaded, the transmissions mounted and the robot driving, we hope. Pictures and maybe a video to follow if a camera makes itself available when the time comes.
