Pre-Competition Preparations.

With the Competition Robot bagged, work on parts required planning on how to quickly add final items to the robot during the regional. The week was primarily consumed by testing final alterations and creating a finished robot. To do this, the team tested different tweaks and add-ons to the robot. The reverse carriage, which holds the totes and recycling bin in place, required the most testing, and needed three versions to be tested before a final design could be selected. While parts were being put together, mounted, tested, unmounted and changed, some students were busy machining parts for pieces which had been tested, as well as parts to test later.

                The intake was changed to be faster and more efficient by adding longer arms and a second set of rollers. The reverse carriage had separate components for the totes and recycling container finalized. Because there is a gap between the reverse carriage and carriage, the recycling bin has the issue of being loosely held in the robot until more totes are added to bring it into the grip of the reverse carriage. Until then, the can has the potential to fall out of the robot. To fix this, pistons were put onto the powered carriage to pin the bin in place until it reaches the appropriate height.