This week, we had another brainstorming session, our second of this season. To allow ourselves to rework and review our ideas as needed, we simply organised our ideas into a sheet of paper, but it will be moved to a Word document in time.

Game plan

For the Autonomous period, we aim to preload a single sample, which we have dubbed “Soap”, into a basket, with an attempt to take possession of and deposit another if we can get sensors working in time. Additionally, we plan to park in the observation zone for some extra points.

During the Driver controlled, or Teleop period, we aim to score predominantly by placing samples in the high basket, moving back and forth between the submersible for the match. An alternate strategy if we are paired with a robot unable to lift samples is for that robot to feed our robot with samples, which we will then upgrade to specimens, then hang those. If our arm, or arms, break during this period, however, we will simply have to grab any stray samples and push them into the net zone.

Our endgame plan, however, is our least developed, and consists of attempting to hang on the high chamber. If not possible, we will either hang on the low chamber or park in the observation zone, whichever is possible at the time.

This week we had a brainstorming session, which revolved around our game plan and outreach. We’ve divided our team into sub-teams, a change which was sorely needed in previous years. Our Hardware and Software teams collaborated to begin to produce a game plan and our outreach team began plans for fund-raising.

Game Plan

We decided to focus our robot’s design on picking up and storing a single sample at a time, in adherence to the rules set out for this season and started producing ideas on the general structure. For example, we plan to have an arm with an active intake to grab and store samples from the Submersible, and a linear motion mechanism to move them to the back of the robot, to secure them. We will also construct a separate arm at the rear end of the robot in order to hang in the endgame, as we have identified it as the most effective use of our time because of the high number of points it provides.  

Aside from the pair of arms, we plan to have a drive-train similar to last year, using chains to increase the gear ratio to achieve high speed. With the addition of mecanum wheels for omnidirectional movement, we feel this is the most advantageous method of movement that we currently have access to. 

Outreach

In terms of outreach, we were more limited, as we have been relying on funds from both our school and, predominantly, bake sales. However, we have produced three ideas that should, in theory, be quite successful:

• The first is setting up a game, for our upcoming open evening as well as in other schools, which consists of racing simple robots around a track. A small fee will be involved, but we believe this will have the additional effect of inspiring more pupils to take an interest in the world of robotics.
• Our second idea is much easier to enact and consists of ‘auctioning off’ services to teachers in our school in response for favors. This would allow us to both aid our teachers by making their lives just that little bit easier, as well as providing us with a larger network of resources or other services.   
• Our third idea relates to taking advantage of the large crowds of parents and students alike that attend the school pantomime each year, and involves renting out certain areas in our atrium for outside businesses or people with similar interests and capabilities to set up stalls on, and would provide both our team and the school with some passive income.