Build Season – Week 6, Part 1

We entered week 6 behind schedule and had no option but to hit the ground running and bring all hands on deck.  Just as the week before, the decision was made to come in every day of the week to ensure we could complete our awesome robot!

However – being dedicated and focused doesn’t mean we don’t stop and smell the roses.  Especially when they’re made of frosting.  We had the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of the youngest mentor on our team, Will Toth!  So after spending the first half hour of our meeting finalizing our Woody Flowers nominee, it was time for cake!

Happy 23rd to Will!
Happy 23rd to Will!

Monday and Tuesday ended up being super productive and in a flash the robot was looking super robot-y.  The more technical description is that we mounted our pneumatics, put the Jaguars in place, and added our battery mount and strap.  Mechanical team finished off the choo-choo, mounted it in place, and which meant that having a shooting robot was just within reach.

Really starting to come together now, only a few steps until live testing
Really starting to come together now, only a few steps until live testing
Students Oscar G. and Arturo D. do some quick modifications to our bumpers
Students Oscar G. and Arturo D. do some quick modifications to our bumpers

With our competition bot nearing completion, and time running scarce, we set up another driver test to challenge our students’ driving abilities.  This time it involved cooperation between two drivers at once to complete a mini obstacle course that was set up.  The degree of difficulty thwarted some, but we were pleased that we still had students that were able to navigate the course quickly and without any penalties and we narrowed down our driver finalists to three.

Driver training course set up for
 Students Ivan G., Alberto M., and Alex V. talk strategy before their run
Students Ivan G., Alberto M., and Alex V. talk strategy before their run
 Students Katya G. and Anilu H. mid-challenge
Students Katya G. and Anilu H. mid-challenge
Mentors discussing the results of driver tests
Mentors discussing the results of driver tests

By mid-week we managed to make some solid progress and things looked very promising, if a little slower than initially expected way back on January 4th.  We will be back this weekend with the second update for our final work week.  Remember to check our progress throughout the week on Facebook and Twitter!

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