DPRG Meeting Presentations
Task: Share R2V2 and Ri2D with mentors at DPRG
Throughout this month, Iron Reign has been presenting its recent work at DPRG(Dallas Personal Robotics Group) meetings on Tuesday evenings. On August 22nd, Iron Reign...
Welcome to Iron Reign at Dallas ISD's Science and Engineering Magnet
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Center Stage Robot in 2 Days(Ri2D) Overview
Task: Build, Code, Test, and Film our Center Stage Ri2D
This blog post...
Center Stage Game Reveal and Ri2D Day 1
Task: Assess the Center Stage Game and begin Ri2D
Today, Iron Reign attended the season reveal for the new...
An Overview of the R2V2 Steering Wheel
Task: Design a subsystem to control the steering wheel of R2V2
One of the main components of our...
An Overview of the R2V2 Braking System
Task: Design a subsystem to control the braking of R2V2
An essential part of effectively remote controlling R2V2 is the developing...
Flyset - R2V2 and Dashboard
Task: Give presentations at Flyset about progress made this summer
This weekend, we participated in the FlySet workshop, graciously hosted by team 8565, TechnicBots. We gave two presentations: one...
Iron Reign’s R2V2 - Safety Features and Protocols
Let's robotify this!
What if you took an RV, converted it into a mobile learning lab, and then turned that into a droid? What would you call it?...
Recruiting at Flight School
Task: Recruit new members at the TAG Flight School
Today, Iron Reign presented at TAG’s Flight School in order to recruit new members in preparation for the upcoming season to...
Frontiers of Flight Moon Day Outreach
Today, Iron Reign presented at the 15th annual Frontiers of Flight Museum “Moon Day” celebration, meant to...
How To Get Your Daughter (or Son) Started in Robotics
FIRST Robotics is an incredible opportunity for kids of all ages to get involved in STEM! It starts with FIRST Lego League (FLL), which...
FTC World Championship 2023
Our Experience This Year at Worlds
Over this past week, we had our final preparations for the FTC...
Scrimmage Before Worlds
Attending a Final Scrimmage Before Worlds
Today, we attended a scrimmage that team 8565, Technic Bots, graciously invited us to. The point of this scrimmage was to get some...
Consequences of Removing the Shoulder Support Spring
We learned the consequences of making small changes to build without fully knowing the outcome
A small change can make a huge difference: we have...
Meeting Log 4/9
Task: Prepare for Worlds through Build and Drive
Today, we did drive practice, and worked out some of the smaller issues with transfer.
While doing robot testing, the servo on...
Meeting Log 4/1
Task: Gripper Redesign and Build Fixes
Trey redesigned the gripper stopper on the underarm to limit the degrees of movement so that the underarm...
Texas State and UIL Championship Post-Mortem
Discuss the events of Regionals, analyze our performance, and prepare future plans
This weekend, Iron Reign participated in the FTC...
UIL and State Play-by-Play
Review the events of the UIL and FTC State Championships
This past week we participated in the...
Meeting Log 3/3
Task: Plan and strategize for the Road to State
Finally back from a much-needed break after regionals, the team got back...
Meeting with the Head of the Dallas College STEM Institute
Task: Meet with the Dallas College STEM Institute
Today, team 6832 met...
NTX Regionals Post-Mortem
Discuss the events of Regionals, analyze our performance, and prepare future plans
This past Saturday, team 6832 Iron Reign participated in the NTX Regionals Championship...
NTX Regionals Play-by-Play
Review the events of the NTX Regional
Today, Iron Reign participated at the NTX Regional Championship in Flower...
Meeting Log 2/21
Regionals Prep: Work on Build, Code, and Presentation
With regionals just 4 days away, we had a lot to work on for TauBot2. Today,...
Meeting Log 2/18
Task: Regional Prep, Portfolio Development, Underarm Wiring and new Shoulder and Turret Assembly
To start we began to...
Meeting Log 2/17
Work on build, code, and presentation in preparation for Regionals next week.
With the Regional competition coming up quite soon, we needed to get to work...
UnderArm Inverse Kinematics
Task: Implement Inverse Kinematics on the UnderArm
Inverse kinematics is the process of finding the joint variables needed for a kinematic chain to reach a specified endpoint. In the...
A Deep Dive into the Shoulder and UnderArm
Describe our Implementation of the Shoulder and Turret Subsystems
With our primary game strategy for this season being to limit our movement around the playing field,...
Meeting Log 2/11
Task: Continue to assemble TauBot2, work on portfolio, and prepare for Regionals
First off, we...
Meeting Log 2/10
Task: Attend to TauBot2 and transfer knowledge to the new recruits
Today was another day of onboarding recruits. For the next few weeks, along...
Sudie Academy FLL Team Mentorship
Task: Help the Sudie Academy FLL teams prep for Regionals
Today, Iron Reign attended a meeting with multiple local FLL teams...
Dallas ISD Stem Expo
Task: Motivate the community at the DISD Stem Expo
Today we hosted a...
CONNECTing with Professionals at the DISD Stem Expo
Task: Explore Possible Connection Opportunities at the DISD STEM Expo
Today, Iron Reign presented at the DISD Stem Expo in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention...
Meeting Log 2/3
Task: Onboarding New Recruits, Organization, CAM, and Connect
Today we onboarded most of the new recruits...
D&U League Tournament Post Mortem
Task: Discuss the events of our first tournament of the season
Team 6832, Iron Reign, and our sister teams, Iron Core and Iron Giant had...
D&U Tournament Play by Play
Task: Narrate the events of the D&U Tournament
Today, Iron Reign and our two sister teams competed in the D&U League Tournament...
Overview of the past 3 weeks
Task: Recount the developments made to the robot in the past 3 weeks
The past three weeks have been...
League Meet #3 Review
Task: Review our performance at the 3rd League Meet and discuss possible next steps
Today, Iron Reign and our two sister teams...
Presenting to DPRG
Task: Present a status update to Dallas Personal Robotics Group
You can watch our full presentation here. Today was our second meeting with
Meeting Log 1/6
Task: Documentation and CAD
Today,we focused mainly on documentation and the continued CAD for the next iteration of TauBot. We worked on the outreach and Motivate sections of the Engineering Portfolio...
Meeting Log 01/04
Task: Build and CAD
Today we focused on building and modeling our second iteration of Toubot. After designing and cutting out the parts for the underarm on the CNC we began...
Meeting Log 12/30
Task: Driver Practice!
Recently, Vance implemented a new control scheme : scoring patterns. This required some changes to the way the cone is “transported” throughout the field when the driver operated,...
Virtual DPRG Meeting 12/17
Task: Present TauBot to the Dallas Personal Robotics Group
Today, we virtually presented...
Townview Tournament
Hosting the Townview Tournament
Meeting Log 12/06
Task: Improving code
We implemented inverse kinematics with driver...
League Meet #2 Post Mortem
Task: review the progression of matches in our latest League Meet
Team 6832, Iron Reign, and our sister teams, Iron Core...
Meeting Log 12/02
Task: Prepare for Our Second League Meet
Today we worked on finishing the nudge stick and auton code, along with doing driver practice and other preparations for the upcoming...
Meeting Log 11/29
Task: Code and Build Before League Meet
We partially remade the joint that connects the extension part of the crane to the turret, as we found that under high stress...
Meeting Log 11/26
Task: Build, Modeling, and Drive Practice for Upcoming League Meet
We spent today's meeting fixing minor build problems, then ran timed practice matches. Additionally, we started modeling the prototype for the...
Code Progess for November
April Tags
Meeting Log 11/19
Task: Drive Practice and Improving Code
Meeting Log 11/18
Tasks:
1. Fix Issues from the Last Meet
2. Build Upon our Current Strategy
2. Continue to Develop TauBot 2.0
The League Meet was a rude awakening for...
1st League Meet - Post Mortem
Tasks:
1. Review 1st League Meet
2. Analyze 1st League Meet Performance
3. Discuss Possible Fixes + Next Steps
Play By Play
1st...
Meeting Log 11/11
Task: Finalizing the Robot the Day Before Competition
The day before a competition always sees arguably the most productivity from all the teams in a rush to finish up...
Meeting Log 11/10
Task: Finishing Code for Upcoming Meet and Drive Practice
We fixed the turret heading PID so that it does not spin uncontrollably when the angle changes from 359...
Meeting Log 11/8
Task: Preparing the Robot for the Upcoming League Meet
General Fixes:
The LED battery holder from the previous meeting snapped, requiring us to rebend and make a new gate for the LED...
Meeting Log 11/5
Task: Fixing Issues from the Screamage Pt.2
In tandem with yesterday, the main goal of this meeting was to improve upon the robot after the Screamage. This consisted of...
Meeting Log 11/4
Task: Fixing Issues from the Screamage
After the Screamage, many different problems became apparent, including the fact that the robot just barely fit sizing requirements. In order to combat this, we...
October 29th Screamage Overview
Screamage at Marcus High School Overview
Today, Iron Reign attended the Screamage at Marcus High School to play a couple of practice matches. This event...
Meeting Log 10/22
Task: Drive Practice and Getting Code to Work
Today was mainly focused on getting proper drive practice and getting the path following for the April Tags...
Overall Progress From the Past Two Weeks
Tasks:
1. Working on path following with Code
2. Creating prototypes to optimize the Build design
3. Gaining experience with 3D Modeling using Fusion 360
...
Think Robot Ideation - TallBot
Task: Design and Think about possible robot ideas after Ri2D
After Robot in 2...
Meeting Log 9/24
1. Game strategy 2. Tombot as sparring partner. 3. Gripper Designs. 4. New recruit build teams.
Game Strategy
Robot in 2 Days
Our First Ideas: Robot in 2 Days!
Our Ideas with Build
As a base robot, we started with an 18 inch cubic frame. This...
Season Reveal
The Season Reveal of 2022-2023's Game: Power Play!
Today was the season's official kick off the 2022-2023 game, Power Play! However, Gabriel, one of our members, gave...
Interest Meeting
Our Interest Meeting at TMC
To gain more members for our sister teams, Team 15373, Iron Core, and Team 3734, Pandemonium, we held an interest meeting...
FLYSET Workshop
Task: Give a presentation at the FLYSET Workshop
At the FLYSET Workshop, hosted by team 8565, Technicbots, and team 20313, Mustang Robotics, we were tasked with introducing...
Recruiting at Flight School
Task: Recruit new members at the TAG Flight School
Earlier this afternoon, at TAG's flight school event for new freshmen, Iron Reign had a club booth for all the new...
Dallas City of Learning at Frontiers of Flight
Task: Connecting with the communoity through the Frontiers of Flight
This morning, Iron Reign demoed at the Dallas City Learning event at...
Designing the New Workshop
Task: Design a floorplan and model for the new workshop
With the limits of our current workspace reached and the need to expand with more recruits and machinery; Iron Reign set off on...
Iron Reign’s Mechavator - Safety Features and Protocols
Let's not do this!
Intrinsic Hazards and Safeties
Primary Safety
Backup Safety
Site Safety
Operational Safety
Intrinsic Hazards and Safeties
Intrinsic Hazards
It’s important...
Last Practice Before UIL!
Our Last Meeting Before UIL!
This marks our final competition of the Freight Frenzy season.
Getting in our final drive...
Meeting Log 4/2
Task: Solve minor issues with the robot’s design and code. More drive practice in preparation for the UIL Championship next week.
With only one week...
CONNECTions through the season
Task: Getting in some serious drive practice at Woodrow
This past year, we connected with a lot of professional engineers that helped us optimize our robot performance and capabilities. We...
Think Gripper Progression
Gripper Progression
V1
Our first gripper design was for robot in 2 days and with the time crunch came some downsides: little power and poor reach. Our second design intended to fix...
Meeting Log 4/01
Task: Replace Crane Servo with a Motor
After six broken servos amounting to around 240 dollars worth of funding, it became apparent that the current model of servo we...
Meeting Log 3/29
Task: Getting in some serious drive practice at Woodrow
We took some time out of our week to get in some drive practice at Woodrow so we...
Meeting Log 3/26
Task: Work on teamwork with drive practice for the UIL Championship
This weekend, we worked on giving the new recruits a basic understanding of HTML...
Solving Tipping Issues in The Reach
Task-Identify and solve the problems that led to The Reach tipping over mid-match.
Our robot, The Reach, utilizes a hybrid-differential swerve drive along with an extending design...
Repairing ‘Reach’
Task: Fix issues found by Drive Practice in the robot
To better prepare for UIL, we have started using Driver Practice to find issues that would’ve impacted the robot performance at the competition. Within the first 15...
Meeting Log 3/19
Task: Get more drive practice before the UIL Championship
This weekend, we focused on on-boarding new recruits as well as getting more drive practice to get us...
Hybrid Swerve Drive Progression
Task: Fix issues found by Drive Practice in the robot
Iron Reign has seen several dIfferent iterations of our swerve module this past season. In this post we’ve identified the different...
Iron Reign and the Three Magnets
Task: Evaluating what magnet type works best with the FFUTSE and bucket attraction
Iron Reign has its final event of the season, the UIL championship,...
Meeting Log 3/12
Task: Decreasing the Movement of Linear Slides During Expansions
The continuous expansion and contraction of the robot placed a lot of stress on the mounting gear attaching the slides directly to the chassis. With...
Deriving Maximum Chassis Length On Turns
Task: Derive The Maximum Chassis Length On Turns
Having a chassis able to elongate and contract during play poses its advantages and drawbacks. If properly used, the chassis...
Deriving Inverse Kinematics For The Drivetrain
Task: Derive Inverse Kinematics For The Drivetrain
Due to having an unconventential drivetrain consisting of two differental wheels and a third swerve wheel, it is crucial that...
Flyset Workshop Vision Presentation
Task: Deliver a Presentation Over Developing Vision Pipelines At The Flyset Workshop
This Saturday, we had the oppurtunity to present at the Flyset workshop, an event in which multiple teams could present a topic of...
Chassis Brainstorming
Task: Build a robot that can be adapted to any challenge
The new challenge is upon us and with a new challenge comes new robot designs. This year we have found that we are...
Code Cleanup
Task: prepare code-wise for robot in three days
To better prepare for “robot in three days” (ri3d for short), we decided to get ahead a bit and resuscitate the code base. After making sure everything...
A Prerequisite Chassis to Robot In 3 Days
Task: Build a robot that can be adapted to any challenge
The challenge reveal is going to be quite soon. In the weeks leading up...
Future Plans For Programming
Task: Plan Out Changes To Codebase and Use New Libraries/Hardware
This season, we plan to utilize the PAA5100JE Near Optical Flow Sensor (left image) and Realsense...
Club Fair 2021-2022
Task: Welcome New Recruits!
Thank you for your interest in Iron Reign robotics! Please fill out the following interest form. Check out the rest of this article for more on our robot!
...
Wattever Meeting
Task: Meet with the team Wattever and give insight
This Saturday, all of Iron Reign met with team 16296, Wattever, to discuss how the Iron Reign robotics program...
Recruitment in Senior Season 2021
Task: Decide plans for expansion and recruitment strategies
For the first time in 11 years, Iron Reign had a no-recruitment year, owing to the pandemic, and the difficulty...
UTD Qualifier Build Post Mortem
Task: Review our failure of rushed build leading up to the UTD qualifier
As discussed in the post "Making the Ringevator Legal" there was a lot of rushed build leading up...
Making the Ringevator Legal
Task: Make the Ringevator legal so we can use it in competition
We’re at the point now where we have a lot of our systems ready to...
Ringevator Overview
Task: Describe the construction and development of the Ringevator intake
This year we have done a lot of work on intakes and launchers. The purpose of this post is to...
Morph Chart
Task: Create a flow chart to analyze all our intake designs so far in this season.
Iron Reign has seen several iterations of our intake over this...
A Lot to Intake
Task: Prepare the intake before the qualifier
At today's meeting, Paul worked on the ringevator, with the guidance from Mr. V. The intake mechanism required a motor to be installed,...
Accounting For Offsets And Launching In Motion
Task: Build A Forward Kinematic Model Of The Robot To Account For Turret And Muzzle Offsets, And Counter-Lead The Target To Allow For Launching In Motion
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A Lot to Intake
Task: Prepare the intake before the qualifier
Today’s meet consisted of Cooper working on code, Paul burning polycarb, and Trey working on the intake with Paul. We were able to...
Control Mapping
Task: Map and test controls
With our first qualifier being a week away, Proteus (our robot) needs to be in drive testing phase. So, we started out by mapping...
Achieving Continuous Targeting and Launching
Task: Achieve Continuous Targeting and Automatic Launching
With the goal of having the turret continuously aim towards the goal, the elbow tilt to the correct...
Ringslinger 9000 Step-by-Step Guide
Task: assemble different intake prototypes
The Ringslinger 9000 is a crucial part of the robot and requires careful planning to build. Although we have a relatively...
Adding Margins Of Error To Desmos
Task: Add Margins Of Error To The Desmos Calculator
In order to visually represent the significance of placing the constraints we did, we modified our desmos...
Meeting Log
Task: Prepare the portfolio and intake before the qualifier
The three of us worked on the engineering portfolio, discussing what we needed to get done in these 3 weeks between now...
Accounting For Initial Height
Task: Account For Initial Height
In the previous trajectory calculations post, "Derive And Translate Trajectory Calculations Into Code", we did not take into account how the length of the launcher would effect...
Ring Launcher 9000 On-Bot Testing
Task: Test the intake now that it is on the robot
Today we performed proper field testing of the Launcher subsystem. While we have done many tests in the past...
RingSlinger 9000 Summary
Task: Summarize the key components of Ring Launcher 9000
A ring launcher is more than just a flywheel; it needs a barrel to give the ring a path to move through. A 90 degree...
Materials Test Planning
Task: Create a system to test our materials to better understand their grip potential
Here at Iron Reign, we're used to using off-the-shelf materials for our robot. For this season,...
Intake Iterations Summary
Task: Go over our 5 intake iterations
This season, we experimented with 5 gripper models - both for our robot in three days project and for our competition bot. While...
DPRG Virtual Meeting 2/9
Task: Present our flywheel launcher to the Dallas Personal Robotics Group
2 weeks ago, Iron...
Pink v. Cyan Remote Scrimmage Post Mortem
Task: review the progression of matches in our latest scrimmage
We participated in the “Pink v....
Programming Session 1/31
Task: Set up FTC Dashboard
We wanted to setup FTC Dashboard for graphing, configuration, vision, and later on, odometry. FTC Dashboard enables graphing of numeric variables, which can simplify PID tuning...
Build Progress 1/30
Task: assemble different intake prototypes
Today we worked on different intake systems to place the rings in the launcher. We finished our first prototype for a belt type intake and lift....
Derive And Translate Trajectory Calculations Into Code
Task: Derive And Translate Trajectory Calculations Into Code
To ease the work put on the drivers, we wanted to...
Correcting the Trajectory Calculations Equations
Task: Correct the trajectory calculations after the DPRG meeting
In the past week, we've been experimenting with a series of equations to derive the angle...
New Addtions to the Elbow
Task: Design new parts to better mount the ring launcher and encoder
First thing to do in this CAD session is to design a secondary mounting point for the ring launcher. To...
RingSlinger 9000 Build Progress
Task: Build and prototype the Flywheel Launcher
For this years new season we used an innovative flywheel-based...
DPRG Virtual Meeting
Task: Present our flywheel launcher to the Dallas Personal Robotics Group
Every year, Iron Reign presents our robot or standout subsystems to the Dallas Personal...
Iterate Trajectory Calculations in Preparation for DPRG Meet
Task: Improve the Trajectory Calculations
As mentioned in our earlier posts, one of the biggest control challenges we face in this...
Ring Launcher CAD Meet 4
Task: Finalize the ring launcher design
The main thing here is a huge wall on the left to guide rings to their resting position at the back of the ring launcher. But...
Ring Launcher CAD Meet 3
Task: Expand the ring launcher to begin accomadating for a controlled system of firing the rings
The first step in accomplishing this task is to expand the center aluminum plate to almost...
Code Changes Leading up to the PvC Scrimmage
Task: Finalize code changes prior to the PvC scrimmage
Leading up to the scrimmage, many code changes happened, mostly in the area of auton. To start, I tried to run 10...
Updating Proteus' model
Task: Update the model to plan TomBot's build
With our first qualifier being around a month away, Iron Reign is currently in the midst of trying to...
1/16 Build Progress - The first rings fly
Task: Continue developing the ring launcher and do preliminary testing
Today we continued to further...
Presentation Prep-Run
Task: Practice the presentation prior to the PvC Scrimmage on Saturday
Iron Reign will be participating in our first competitive event of the year at the PvC scrimmage. One of the submissions we...
Flywheel Assembly
Task: Assemble the flywheel with the readily manufacured parts
Following the milling of the aluminum plates and the 3-D printing of the core of...
Ring Launcher CAD Meets 1+2
Task: Begin designing a ring launcher
The initial vision for the ring laucher was to be a semi-circle in order to give the ring as much acceleration as possible. In this meeting,...
Ladder Intake Build
Task: Physically build the ladder intake, based on the design in CAD
For the intake system of this year's challenge we first brainstormed several ways which a ring could be collected and...
Proteus' model
Task: Update the model to plan Proteus' build
With our first qualifier being less than 2 months away, Iron Reign embarked on an ambitious project to create a...
NinjaFlex Belt intake system
Task: Design an intake with the NinjaFlex belt
So far we have made a few Intake assemblies including the belt intake and the Tetrix tread intake. However, as is Iron Reign tradition, we...
Caterpillar Track Intake
Task: Build and prototype an intake system
One of the first intake systems we made was...
FTC Legal Belt Sander
Task: Create a prototype for a belt sander intake system
The so-called “FTC Legal” belt sander was an early iteration of the intake mechanism for this year's robot....
Modelling an Equation for Forward Speeds of a Ring
Task: Model a projectile motion equation to approximate forward speeds of rings launched from a ring launcher
A key challenge in this year's...
Auto Path Plan
Task: Layout a plan for auto paths this season
To begin, as you can see up above (a diagram that was generated on https://ftcchad.com/ ) our first auto path takes very little...
Ladder Intake CAD
Task: Design a mechanism to trasfer rings from the ground to a future ring launcher
The initial vision for this intake design was inspired by FRC team 1983’s Ultimate Ascent robot. The “ladder” pivots...
Recruitment Update
Task: Plan for sustainability goals
Owing to the ongoing pandemic, our recruitment goals are not similar to that of previous seasons. One of our bigger concerns is that it will be harder to teach...
Dealey Presentation
Task: Give a presentation to rookie teams at Dealey International School
Today we gave a presentation to rookie FTC teams about FIRST and our team over...
Dealey Presentation Preparation
Task: Prepare for our presentation to Dealey International School
On Saturday October 10 we received an email from the robotics coach at Dealey International School. Dealey...
Custom Flywheel CAD
Task: CAD a custom flywheel
Instead of using a grip wheel to launch rings we went with the approach to make a custom flywheel. The key concept of a flywheel is to maximize rotational...
Code Planning For The New Season
Task: Plan changes to our codebase for the new season.
This year's game saw a significant boost to the importance of the control award, now being put above even the motivate and design awards in order of advancement. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze...
The First Launcher
Task: Create and Test a Arm Disk Launcher
One of the centerpieces of any robot this year is going to be the disk launcher. It’s likely that most robots in the competition...
Archimedes Screw Intake
Task: Begin creating intake systems on CAD to test their potential
The Archimedes Screw Intake, as the name goes, was based on an Archimedes screw. A screw...
Simple Roller Intake
Task: CAD a simple roller intake design
This intake design is the most plain of them all, just compliant wheels on a shaft. The idea with this is to have it low to the...
Robot in 2 Days - But in CAD
Task: CAD a robot for the Ultimate Goal Challenge quickly in order to get ideas for a final robot design and prototypes
A new season, a new design challenge,...
Printing Rings
Task: Print some game elements to get a kick start on the season
Recently, this year’s competition details were released, and while we couldn’t quite get started on a robot immediately like we...
FTC 2020-2021 Game Reveal
Task: Watch the FTC Challenge Reveal event live
Today...
Connecting with Motus Labs
Reaching out to Motus Labs September 08, 2020
Task: Reach out to potential sponsors in light of the 2020-2021 season
Earlier in the summer, we learnt of an...
Co-Hosting the Caravan CAD Challenge
Task: Help design a CAD Challenge game, make a reveal video for the game, judge submissions, and give feedback
Over the summer, we collaborated with FTC teams 3658 and...
Summer Summary
Talking Heads: Summary July 11, 2020
Task: Prepare for the 2020-2021 Game Reveal season
Today kicked off our first...
Narrowing Down the Configuration of the New Vehicle
Introducing MXP 2: Electric Boogaloo
As we have explained in earlier posts, Iron Reign is currently involved in the process of creating a new version of...
Contact Us
E-Mail: ironreignrobotics@gmail.com