The robotics team will be attending their first competition this year on March 6 and 26. The team’s task is to build a robot capable of navigating through a course, shooting a ball and hanging off monkey bars. The team had to troubleshoot before getting a functioning robot that fit the competition’s parameters.
Pneumatics System
One aspect of the robot is the pneumatics system, which allows the robot to change gears to move with increased force.
“You see [the system] in other robots and you’re like, ‘wow, that’s really cool.’ So it took a lot of time, but we were able to get it together,” robotics administration captain and senior Azalea McMillen said.
Tower
The team wanted a design that curved the ball up a tower but realized that plan was impossible due to the frame of the robot being too small.
“What we ended up designing [was] a straight tower that picks up the balls and moves it directly up to the shooter,” robotics captain and senior Simone Gillott said.
Hooks
The final component of the game is to have the team’s robot hang from an inclined monkey-bar-like structure for at least five seconds after the timer ends.
“I mean, these are heavy robots,” McMillen said. “To have it lift itself is really cool.”
Limelight
On the back of the robot is a bright green light called the limelight. The limelight helps the robot both aim the shooter and guide the robot.
“When we get to our competition, right next to where we would want to aim our shooter is the reflective material, so we programmed our limelight to be able to track it,” McMillen said. “This will help turn and navigate the robot and get it where we want it.”
RoboRIO
The roboRIO functions as the brain of the robot, acting as a transmission between the computer and the robot. It tells all the other components what to do.
