CenterStage Introductory Meeting & 9/16 Meeting Log

By Aarav, Anuhya, Krish, Tanvi, Sol, Alex, Vance, and Georgia

Task: Welcome Recruits to the Workshop and begin Robot Ideation

Today, Iron Reign hosted our introductory meeting for all new recruits at our workshop. We also began planning and brainstorming for our competition robot and potential subsystem ideas.

We had approximately 20 recruits in attendance, and we initially showed them the Center Stage reveal video and discussed potentially confusing aspects of this year’s game. We then talked about potential strategy while also sharing our Ri2D video. We tried to highlight the importance of building small and fast and decreasing cycle times and communication over more complicated designs. Lastly, we reviewed the main robotics subteams: build, cad/design, code, and the editorial team, along with logistical information about tournaments and the awards categories.

After, we split up the recruits into code and build teams and introduced them to the software/hardware used in FTC. Those interested in code were exposed to our repository structure, FTC Java syntax, and methods, and we were able to walk them through a basic program that makes a motor run. The build and design recruits started by learning about essential components such as motors, servos, control hubs, and REV rails, and we talked to them about basic building structure(how to connect nuts/bolts to rails), chain-breaking, control hub wiring, and the critical differences between motors and servos. Next week, we hope to be able to split them up based on previous experience into 2 teams and have them begin brainstorming, discussing strategy, and starting on assembling their robot chassis.

As for Iron Reign, we began with an ideation session with a whiteboard where we thought about chassis and gripper ideas. At this moment, we are leaning towards a mecanum-based chassis to allow for strafing, but we came up with various potential gripper ideas, from a beater bar to a box-shaped design. Finally, we came up with some ideas to allow our robot to suspend from the rigging, and we started working on CAD prototypes.

Next Steps:

The rookie teams will soon begin to split up into teams and start working on their robots. For Iron Reign, our next steps are to begin CADing a preliminary version of our robot and the requisite subsystems while also considering other ideas.