Our Team
This week has been very demanding for Team 1403. The subteams have started working together more often to prepare for the competition season. As the team continued to work throughout the week, they faced many challenges that they had to quickly overcome. Since the competition season is getting nearer, efficient teamwork is necessary to ensure success.

Mechanical
The Mechanical subteam wrapped up their work on the upright, which carries the ball from the robot’s hopper (the mechanism that holds the ball) to the shooter. However, a crucial issue the subteam faced is that the belt inside of the upright did not make any physical contact with the ball, which would cause the ball to stay in the upright but never enter the shooter. Mechanical troubleshooted this issue by decreasing the amount of space under the ball when it enters the upright so that it would go upwards and into the shooter.

Electrical
The Electrical subteam finished fixing the electrical board to increase the efficiency of the robot. They also began preparing more motors for the robot so that they can be installed more easily in the future. Additionally, they helped the Programming subteam test their code so that the shooter could properly shoot balls into the targets alongside working on the autonomous code.

Design
The Design subteam finished finalizing the intake and hopper drawings. They also finished making the production drawings to give to the Mechanical subteam. During all of this, they have also been working on exploded views, which helps to show how exactly the robot is built. The animation team has been working on the VR system, and within that, they have been extracting assets from sources to build a 3D set-up so that they can display the VR creations at the competition.

Programming
This week was one of the busiest weeks for the Programming subteam. They primarily worked on programming the different modes of autonomous driving with the drivetrain of the robot; this is to prepare the team for the Autonomous stage of the competition in which the members will have no control over the robot. Additionally, the subteam worked on programming the shooter of the robot and the scouting app with the Strategy subteam.

Strategy
The Strategy subteam has been meticulously working on finishing the playbook and creating games so that the team members can understand the rules of the robot game and devise strategies. The subteam also worked on using measurements from the game field to analyze which pathways will be the most convenient for the robot to move along, in terms of speed and direction. Finally, Strategy started using a simulation of the competition to practice scouting and began teaching it to other members of the team.

Audio/Visual
The A/V team has been working on completing the Chairman’s Video, which will be crucial in the team’s success during the competition season. They worked with the Business/Communications subteam to create a script for the video. A/V also started working on the special effects of the video, including transitions.

Business/Communications   
The Business/Communications subteam worked on creating a script for the Chairman’s Video; the subteam, however, faced difficulty creating a script that would not be too long, yet still include the immense amount of information that had to be in the script. The Chairman’s essay has been completed as well, and has been turned in to FIRST. The team has continued work on keeping social media and the website up-to-date.

Outreach
The Outreach Subteam continued to work on planning the Women in STEM event. The subteam created brochures, which will be distributed to inform others about the event. Additionally, they started to confirm the guests who will be attending.