Today:

Now or never.

As Memphis begins to show its first signs of the Spring season, the Robotics Team is beginning to wrap up its finishing touches to “Hank’s Tank” version 1.0, pictured below:

The name “Hank’s Tank” was conceived after the unfortunate news that our programming mentor’s son (Hank) was admitted to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for ongoing treatment. Hank's Tank serves as a statement of appreciation to the fastidious dedication of doctors, scientists, and researchers, as well as the courage, bravery, and fortitude of the patients whom they serve.

And now the time of reckoning is nearly upon us. FIRST policy requires our robot to be “Bagged and tagged” for shipping by midnight of February 18^th, 2014 (i.e. tonight). After midnight tonight, we will be unable to apply any physical modifications or alterations to our robot until our arrival in Knoxville the week of the competition (March 26-30). The period of time between now and the competition will be spent modifying the programming script used to control our robot, as well as practicing some “quick” modifications on our wooden prototype that we will need to perform the Thursday after we arrive in Knoxville.

The tentative schedule for our trip to Knoxville consists of:
-depart from Memphis Wednesday morning (March 26^th)
-arrive Wednesday afternoon – orientation and welcoming Wednesday evening
-Thursday we will be allowed to perform any "last-minute" modifications to our robot before the competition begins
-Friday/Saturday – Competitions!
-Sunday – Return to Memphis late afternoon (March 30th)

One of the modifications that we will need to perform once we arrive in Knoxville is attaching a “collector” to our catapult apparatus. This will consist of wheel(s) and axle powered by a rotary motor and a pneumatic device that allows us to “scoop up” the game ball into our catapult cradle. The following video illustrates this mechanism (NOTE: this is not our specific robot, but instead one found in the grand archives of Youtube) :

Our divisions of labor are finally beginning to come together. Our frame (developed by the build/design team) now houses the entirety of pneumatic and electronic components (scripted by the programming team) needed to move our robot and shoot the 2.5lb game ball into the 7+ft goal. Many long afternoons and evenings have been spent in our host’s basement (Everest) following the guidance and tutelage of the most essential member of our team: the veteran design mentor Mr. Dennis Taylor. Despite our youthful energy juxtaposed with childlike behavior, despite our lack of mechanical organization skills, despite our de-calibration of $150 micrometers, Mr. Taylor has led us through fire and ice with never-ending patience to produce this apparatus we call our robot: Hank’s Tank. 

A month's worth of preparation, mechanical practice, and gaming strategy awaits the WSHS Robotics Team; but not before we celebrate today's deadline with a few games of FIFA and some of Wendy's Crispy Chicken sandwiches! 

Week 5 Day 2: Band and Wagon

Today and a Few Days Prior

Bandwagon is a particular activity or cause that has suddenly become fashionable or popular.

As the winds and rains grow more bitter, so do our fevers and coughs. Surprisingly, over the past few days, we've have a large amount of members show up more than usual, as though robotics was the new topic to hop onto the bandwagon. We're grateful for this, since with all our sick taking time off to recuperate, it's good to know that we've given ourselves head start to the week before our fevers and colds catch up to us.

As for work-wise, our mentor has shown us what we need to do and how to do it, so we just hop on board and get the work done. Finishing most of our crucial work for the day helps us remove some stress on our shoulders as we shovel away at the piles of details needed for the robot.

Of course, as we work though the robot and finished the work, the presence of music is ubiquitous. Everywhere we work, there will always be the sounds of music we enjoy. By the end of the day, we were taking a break and eating pizza, like we do sporadically. We pull up some soothing music to listen to while we eat. However, some of us preferred to listen to hip-hop while we ate. We vacillated over which music or band was better, or at least right at the moment. Of course Ms. Agee and Mr. Taylor (aka our mentor) put in their two-bits and we all agreed on music we could all agree on.

After our meal break, we continued to work on details, which included our wagon. The wagon was bought separately by Ms. Agee, Putting it together took some time to figure out, but with the manual and some expert builders, little could go wrong. After we finished the wagon, we had a little fun, trying out how much weight it could handle, and taking turns standing on the weak points (all with safety measures).

At the end of the day, we had finished our quota of work. Given the amounts of people showing up, we increased our pace and continued to do our best and continue to strive towards completion, like a true Spartan would.

Week 2

After the Quick Build session, the frame was built. Then it was time to launch into new ideas.

Week 4 Day 3: Three types

Today

Everyone has a purpose in life.

The day after Superbowl usually never means anything good. Many of our members showed up today, despite being exhausted from lack of sleep, which was very unwonted, yet very appreciated. Of course, as most missed Sunday for multiple purposes, we're slightly behind schedule. As we have a decent amount of members here, we got to work immediately, determined to catch up to daily routine.

First, our marketing team had to get ready early for their appointment with a business. Marketing is heavily underestimated in the matter of importance. While on one hand, building and programming are essential, without marketing, there would be no funding and promotion for new members to join. While most would say it's useless, we value it as much as we value our other teams. As of today, the marketing aspect of our team talked to several businesses for grants and donations with some mediocre success.

• Memphis Pizza Cafe
• Gigi's Cupcakes
• Muddi's Cupcakes

With the marketing team returning to bring news of their adventures, the build team quicken their pace to match the Marketing Team's success. Having the mentor has helped them significantly over this competition. With guidance and support, we finished our third prototype with the up most celerity. Having now three designs can help the choices we make and the path we choose. Rule of three is always the most important rule in any situation.
With build and marketing finished with their quota, the rest of the team, wiring and programming finished up their day's work as well. As most of their work was done earlier, they finished the wiring.

At the end of the day, we were presented with three branches of our robotics, three different products, and three happy teams. We may work well as separate groups, but we work best when our three teams are one.

Week 4 Day 2: Filing

Today

Filing is the process of smoothing rough edges. 

Today, we had a good amount of people to show up, so with the surplus of people and a limited amount of work to do due to our well-planned schedule, we had people filing the edges of our metal hinges and other sharped edged pieces, which is a necessity.

We had our moments these past few days. Having lots of people brings comfort to the team, assuring them that there are always members who are willing to devote their time and help. However, some got too comfortable. As the sporadic breaks start turning into habits, we noticed a plethora of members giving in to video games and movies. These gave some of our hard working members an edge against those who spent their time having fun. On the other hand, the relaxed slacked on their quota of work. This experience alone caused two edges in our schedule.

Of course, there were those who were natural leaders. Having stepped up to their comfort zone, they gave inspiration to the others. Motivation and an unplugged TV brought both the reclined and relentless new motive to work hard and together, we all came to a consensus on our new work habits. At the end of the day, with lots of work finished, we dulled out the edges and made everything come around.

Earlier weeks

A test of good spirit and wills is always important in a team.

As we've neglected the process of updating our blog the last couple weeks, we'll give a minor recap here:

• Having checked our Inventory, we came together to come to agreement on our idea.
• With our ideas, we split into two teams in our building process. One to work more on the base and wiring, the other for our prototype of the upper robot.
• More materials have come in, as our mentors works relentlessly to assist us in every way possible.
• We built a prototype out of spare wood and pipes from previous years competition.
• Having messaged to our members, we gathered to test the prototype.
• The bitter winds left many of us sick, but even then, we continued to test and improve the prototype to reach the ideal goal.
• The cold and rain slowed us down, but it could never lower our spirits as we finally reached our goals of how the prototype should work.

This was our schedule. We always hold our heads high and continue to work, even in the hardest conditions. Of course, we care about the safety of our members, as there were plenty of heaters and jackets to go around. But the hard work of our members never stops growing, because that's the nature of a true Spartan.

Week 1 Day 6: Inventory

Today we did inventory of our kits  and met our mentor who graciously agreed to help us on our long and treacherous quest to victory.

Week 1 Day 5: Brainstorming

After finally discovering our task, we started working. Since we returned to school on Wednesday, we gathered to brainstorm for ideas. We shared plans for the final product, signed up for one of the five committees, and discussed dimensions and ideas for the base that will be built this Saturday. Thereafter, we split into our committees (building, design, marketing, programming, and safety). Go Sparta!