We met with Jack from CyberHawks to talk about different ways to implement spring-loaded Odometry to the robot. We learned that Jack originally used rubber bands to keep tension in his pods but in order to keep the footprint of the odometry small, he switched to torsion springs to keep the space of the pivot point small. This allowed him to fit his odometry into tight places while still maintaining accurate readings. After we showed Jack our odometry pod design and he gave us pointers on how to spring-load it. Overall, it was really fun hanging out with Jack and talking about different ideas for the season.
Author: Derek W
Benton County Fair
We were invited to demo for two days at the Benton County Fair. We had a field and table set up in a barn with other FIRST Programs such as FRC and FLL. We had a total of three robots on the field, two of them were ours and one was from another team, Cat in the Hat Comes Back. Many kids and adults had a chance to drive around the robots and deposit freight around the field. The adults were very curious and the kids had fun trying to drive the robot. We also explained to people how our robot works and what FTC is as we had many people ask about who we were and what we were a part of. This event helped us spread awareness about FIRST and FTC and get more people interested in STEM.
Stratasys Tour and Demo
We had a Q+A session where we interviewed the engineers. One engineer told us that he got a physics degree and ended up in engineering. He said that you don’t need an engineering degree to become an engineer. Colton showed us some of the different 3D printers Stratasys makes and how each one prints differently. Besides FDM printing, which is what we use, Stratasys also uses other technologies such as PolyJet, SAF, and P3. Polyjet allows Stratasys to make colorful prints to create replicas of final models. SAF uses melted-powered polymers to create large volumes of parts with even strength. P3 uses light to cure resin to create fast low tolerance prints. Overall, we enjoyed the experience and we’re glad we returned.
Kaposia Days
Kaposia Days is a community celebration in South St. Paul where people get together to learn, increase quality of life and develop a sense of unity. We showed kids and adults our robot and allowed them to try to drive it around. We had a mini Freight Frenzy field set up so people had a chance to pick up and deposit the Freight into the Shipping Hub. Our team gave kids robot driver’s licenses once they successfully drove the robot. There were other FTC and FRC teams that were also at the event so kids were able to see and experience different team’s robots. We met some people who were new or trying to start teams and we told them they were free to contact us for help. We went to this festival to get more people interested in FTC and STEM, and to connect with other teams and see their robot designs.