October (before kickoff)
Before the kickoff event, we started making teams and deciding roles. The robot team made a base using 2 mm titanium, then added pneumatic wheels mounted on aluminum angle frames. We also attached the electric motors under the base. The coding team practiced programming an Arduino controller. The kiosk team started planning the dimensions and the staging of the kiosk.
November
After the kickoff event, we received a kit, so we were able to progress into the project more. First, the electrical team did a “staging” of the circuit to understand the details of assembling it and to iron out any issues that might occur. Then, we had a training session with the CRC coordinators and realized many faults and many ways to improve every component of our project. We comepletly redesigned the robotbase using Tinkercad to make 3D versions of the sketches as well as carboard to get proper visuals of what we want it to look like. The other groups managed to come up with ways to integrate the overall theme into each component.
December
Due to miscommunication a few of our members decided to part ways and with that we tried to get more organized by dividing the tasks more equally and efficiently throughout the teams and encouraged others to speak up about any other issues. We prepared new goals and dates to finish and start the rest of our project; however, due to mid-year exams taking up a lot of time, we decided to add more workshop dates to increase our progress. As a result, we were able to finish painting the kiosk walls and start working on elements to include like our logo for this year. Our codding team was able to program a controller for the motors after some tinkering and minor problems. Lastly, our website team finally started the website by adding in general information. Since one of the website team members did not know how to code, it was difficult but because she learnt it a bit and was able to help.
January
With little to no time left we try our best to finalize our project components that are due at the end of the month. With the basic framework of our website done we focus more time on the aesthetics and the enrichment of the content. Our videographer films the interviews and with the help of a teacher/mentor, we put the video together. As the robot building team waits for certain parts to be delivered, they help us in the kiosk designing aspects, and continue to work on the arm when materials arrive. The programmer finishes the third coding challenge and continues his progress on the code for the robot. The wheels now work and can be maneuvered using the controller. However, we played around too much and had to rush certain things. The kiosk team in particular loved to play music and would occasionally sing and dance. The songs that played were certainly of taste.
Our Experiances Throughout The Process
Our team definitely struggled a lot. We lost a lot of time and we didn’t know what exactly to do. We didn’t know how to communicate with each other or focus on our work when we had the time and as a result we lost countless hours of sleep, our sanity, having to stay multiple days after school as well as sacrifice time from other extra curricular activities. To add, the void of all those people who left the team due to how unorganized it was, had to be filled in by the remaining members. Regardless, we had our fun bothering other teammates and playing around, creating memories we won’t forget. We learnt from these experiences and hope to do better next year. After all, being rookies is more about learning and building experiances then winning.
