Wednesday 12th February 2025, with Half-Term week blocking us between now and Qualifiers we were tense to get everything done as once we got back we only had a day to be ready. Our robot was half-unfinished and our Engineering Portfolio not nearly done yet, we were all feeling the pressure. We stayed behind at school longer than usual to ensure we could get as much work done as possible.

This week – instead of separating into our usual sub-teams we simply split into two groups: one working on the robot, another on the engineering portfolio and judging presentation.

The Robot

Our robot was still completely in pieces and we were tight for time in terms of finishing everything. In the session we assembled and tested our intake which was finally working, we switched out the rubber tubing for a mix of rubber tubing and cable ties so that it could efficiently take in the samples. We also staggered the alignment of the cable ties and tubes for that they could be more efficient. We tested the programming and we found it worked but for some reason would tilt the samples the wrong way occasionally which might prove a hindrance if occurs in a game situation but we chose not to focus on fixing it at the moment. We also adjusted the height of our back arm as it slightly exceeded the limit.

Engineering Portfolio and Presentation

For our engineering notebook we had 3 of us cycle between the pages so we could finish the pages that were our personal speciality so it was more efficient for us to finish – we didn’t complete it by the end of the session but it was only missing a couple refining details by the end.

The presentation for judging was similar – with people on the powerpoint adding and formatting the slides to present everything we could as well as possible. To save time we copied some information off of our engineering portfolio and blog to fill the space (however during the competition we plan to present without looking at the slides – just summarising them).

By the end of the session, both were mostly done with only a few details to be refined.

Outside of Sessions & Half-Term

Outside of our sessions – and over half-term – we were finalising everything and we made lots of progress, specifically to the robot. Our main focus for the robot was the intake and had been for several weeks – we kept re-iterating the roller design and the mechanisms but we finally assembled it to the main robot and tested the software over half-term – ensuring it all did as planned. Furthermore, we re-printed our bucket to be larger so the samples fit and didn’t risk missing and/or bouncing out. We also printed a spare in case it broke during the game.

We also submitted our engineering portfolio – after having added all the final touches. It was the day preceding the deadline and our teacher emailed letting us know he’ll check over and submit it for us, which was a huge relief.

It’s been massively stressful but we can’t wait to see how all our hard work pays off at Qualifiers!