Plainly Iron: bi-weekly blog Issue III

These past four days, January 15th-20th, the Iron Plainsmen have begun week two of REBUILT with steadfast devotion towards their goal! The team, finished with planning, has started the actual build process and is making unwavering progress.

On Saturday, the team focused on building prototypes. Strategy designs around the intake involve getting fuel (game piece) into our robot as fast as possible, while designs for the shooter involve getting fuel out of the shooter as quickly as possible. Initially, all the prototypes worked when the team tested them. Unfortunately, the intake was broken before a video of it could be taken. Thankfully, on the other hand, the shooter prototype worked very well, and they were able to move forward with it. Additionally, the programming team successfully installed Photon Vision and detected AprilTags.

Monday, being a national holiday, was a break for most of the team; however, the lead mentor, Scott Houy, made several CAD designs for shooters and rolling beds. Now, the team plans to take the prototypes and designs to the next level and build the first versions of the intake and shooter. The team has already moved on to intake 2.0! Meanwhile, as the practice field doesn't have all of its parts yet, the team is taking advantage of the space for driver practice.

Even though the team had one less day to work with, they have still made just as much progress this week as they did the previous one. The Plainsmen Robotics team works harder every day, and is more excited every day for the coming competition!