2020 Build Season Week 3 Newsletter

Our Team
This week, Team 1403 has made significant progress. With prototyping coming to an end and tremendous progress being made towards building the robot, the week has been running very smoothly. The logistics side of the team has also made great progress within each of their respective jobs. Members are excitedly waiting to see how the robot will turn out.

Mechanical
Last week, Mechanical started to work on the field elements so that we can create a basic field to use and test our robot in. This week, they were able to finish creating these elements quickly and efficiently. They also began to create new prototypes to help with the robot building process. As
prototyping is coming to a close, Mechanical has been switching over to making parts for the gearbox and drivetrain.

Design
The Design subteam has finished CADing (Computer-Aided Designing) the robot’s drivetrain and will soon hand it over to the Mechanical subteam to build the necessary parts. Other parts such as the turret, shooter, and hopper, also have completed CADs. The Animation team has finished setting up the VR front and have submitted their animation for the Digital Animation Award. This can be viewed under the resources and animations tab on the website. The team has also finished prototyping a sprocket, a type of gear with teeth used to move chains, using 6061 aluminum, an aluminum material that is commonly used in mechanical work for its
weldability. The team will be testing the sprocket to make sure that it can be effectively used in competition.

Electrical
Electrical has made a lot of progress this past week due to the progress of the other subteams. This subteam has finished planning out the electrical board, which houses all of the robot’s internal electronics, and is in the process of producing it alongside the Design team using CAD. The team has also been working alongside Programming, helping them wire the robot for testing the autonomous code.

Programming
Members of the Programming subteam continued to work while split into two groups, with one group working on the “Scouting” app with the Strategy subteam, and the other group focusing on motion profiling and working on the autonomous framework for the teams prototypes. Progress
on both of these is going well, with both teams working fast and efficiently on their respective tasks.

A/V
The Audio/Visual subteam is working on filming small clips and videos for the Cougar Robotics’ Instagram page, found here. Along with taking pictures of the team during meetings daily, the subteam has also continued to work on the Chairman’s video, gathering clips and pictures for the video and putting them together.


Business
The Business subteam is continuing to work on updating the website and preparing posts for the Cougar Robotics’ Instagram page. Additionally, members worked on finalizing the Woodie Flowers and Donald Bowers essays with the team advisors. The subteam is also beginning to
work on parts of the Chairman’s binder that catalogs the history of the team and past events.

Strategy
The Strategy subteam started to discuss the playbook for the app that is being created. Meanwhile, several members started to lay out the field elect and are in the process of prototyping. Lastly, the Strategy team has been taking an inventory and making a list for the motors and batteries.

Outreach
The Outreach subteam is continuing to work on the Woman in STEM event. The team has invited several people into the event such as Trisha Andrews, Karen Husar, and Dr. Arpan Nandra. These women will be attending the event as presenters, speaking at the event to inspire and educate women on how to work in STEM. Outreach will continue to work on inviting more
women to the event to make sure the event will be the best it can be while working on other events.