2022 Build Season Newsletter Issue #8

Our Team

This week, Team 1403 has been working hard to finish the preparations for the Mount Olive Competition. With the event coming up soon, every subteam has put in a lot of time and effort to ensure that we perform as best as possible during the competition. We will continue to do our best and aim for the number one position.

Mechanical

The Mechanical Subteam worked on the bumper portion of the robot, which they plan to finish over the next few days. They will also assemble the climber portion onto the robot to ensure that it is ready by the first competition. 

Electrical 

At the beginning of the week, the Electrical Subteam took the electrical board off the robot to solder wire connections. After soldering, the board was mounted back onto the robot. Once on the robot, members continued to add more connections such as the NEO extensions, which connects the SPARK MAX motor controller to the electrical board.

Design

The Design Subteam finished up the small parts for the climber and helped the Mechanical Subteam manufacture it. They are also working on finishing the documentation for the technical binder and drawings. Next week, they plan to finalize the documentation and print the drawings to create the owner’s manual and technical binder. The Computer Numerical Control (CNC) part of the Design Subteam has finished all parts of the climber. 

Programming

After finishing the app and other softwares, the Programming subteam has recently turned their focus onto the robot. Throughout this past week they’ve been developing a software that uses math and autonomous code in order to figure out the trajectory of the ball. They started off by working on the Drive Train PID, which is simply a piece of code that finds values and adjustments. Since the Drive Train PID was quickly developed and finished, the programming subteam was also able to make another software called the Limelight that used values from the Drive Train PID in order to distance velocity values. With both the Drive Train PID and Limelight finished, the programming subteam will work on bug fixes and minor changes in the following week as well as continue to work to deploy their scouting app onto the Apple store.

Strategy

The Strategy Subteam has been working on the subteam standards and practicing scouting for the Bridgewater Raritan Competition. They are currently simulating their scouting during the competition and plan to continue this next week. 

Audio/Visual

The Audio/Visual Subteam has finalized a Battery Hazards video script and planned a video after working  constantly with the Safety Subteam. With the competition nearring its arrival, the Audio/Visual Subteam is working hard and hopes to complete the Chairman’s video in the next few days.

Business/Communications

The Business/Communications Subteam has edited their past newsletters by making minor changes such as corrections and grammar fixes. They have recently put all the finished newsletters on our website at (insert link) and they plan to finish both the March and April timelines in the upcoming weeks.

Outreach

The Outreach Subteam has done the training for the Rock Brook initiative and has hosted a meeting in order to go over the requirements to participate in the event. They have also sent out the Women in STEM emails and they plan to finish the Chairman Binder next week. 

Safety

The Safety Subteam has been working on a Battery Spill video with the Audio/Visual Subteam. They plan to finish all documentations for the nearing competition and they will continue to work with the Audio Visual subteam to get their battery hazards video ready. Since the Safety Subteam is almost ready for the competition, they are double checking their work and making last minute changes.