Since kickoff, the team has been working to complete our robots plan and then start building it. Our goal was to design a robot that could successfully throw a crate into the scale, which is the high balance beam. During the first week of building, we decided to go with a C chassis and spent the first two weeks building that and thinking of ideas for the upper part of our robot. Towards the end of the second week up until now, we came up with two different prototypes to throw the crate into the scale. One prototype was a catapult that would use a piston to launch the crate into the air. Our struggle with this prototype is trying to create a light enough platform to launch the crate high enough. Also, we are experimenting with other pistons. The second prototype is a sixty degree angled ramp that uses a piston to push a crate up the ramp and into the four wheels at the top. The wheels catch the crate and then launch it into the air. We managed to get the ramp prototype to launch the crate a foot into the air. A problem with this design is that in order to increase the gear ratio, we cant use the one we already own. Were also working on coming up with ideas to pick up the crate. In addition, we are currently using the Andy Marc kit of parts and it won't be able to test the compliant wheels that were thinking about using until they come in the mail. For the programmer, who is testing the program, they have been taking the robot and making sure the sensors are working. Once we know the sensors are all set, we are going to move on to designing and testing our autonomous mode.
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