Plainly Iron: bi-weekly blog Issue I

This Saturday, January 10th, the whole Iron Plainsmen Robotics team met bright and early for the release of this year's competition, REBUILT®! The team watched the live stream and reviewed the game animation a few times before, after a brief lunch break, going through the entire rule book. Then the team split into groups to go over smaller details on the rules. Next, after joining back into a full group, the team broke down point values and determined which strategies were best. The team decided on an overall plan for each portion of the game that everyone agreed to. The team also examined different levels of robots typically found in FIRST competitions and decided which level they would commit to be. Subsequently, the team discussed goals for their work approach. They decided to first get a ground intake and shooting mechanism prototype before they work on climbing. The goal for climbing is to do at least a L1 climb, but can complete a L3 climb.

On the following Monday, the team delegated different early-stage tasks amongst themselves and began their week 1 process. Today, January 13th, they began wiring and made strides in setting up the practice field. The team is now focusing on finishing assembly of the drive frame and build frame, wiring, developing CAD designs, and learning the rules. The team has taken off running in preparation for their first competition in San Antonio, Texas, on the 12th of March!