Hey everyone, so here in robotics we have just completed week two of the six week build season. So far progress has been amazing. The long weekend has really let us catch up on our prototyping and allowed us to concentrate on putting together how we are actually going to build our robot. This weekend was completely robotics filled for some of the students on the robotics team. We had build sessions on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday, plus after the build session on Saturday we all gathered at Harris’s house to talk strategy and make some tough decisions. All together student and mentors together have put in over 200 hours of work time into robotics just this weekend. Those long workdays paid off however. This weekend we were able to shoot our first high goal. Not only with a catapult, but also with a prototyped wheeled shooter. Truthfully the catapult is slightly terrifying but amazingly ravenous (this means awesome in the Waterford Ravens robotics world). However that was not the only exciting thing that happened this weekend. We were also able to help Brighton build their drivetrain. This allowed them to drive their robot around the practice field for the first time and make their first goal in the low goal. Way to go 5159! We also had tons of visitors this week who got their names printed on the 3D printer, saw the prototyping of all of the shooters/pop-and-catchers, and were able to drive the robots!!!

Now here comes my favorite story of the week. It was kind of a uh-oh moment for the robotics team who were all excitingly getting ready to watch the drag race in the assembly hall between PRACTICE BOT, with a brand new 6 wheel drive train, and WATTY, last years robot that won in the Las Vegas regional. The countdown started….. 3…2….1…GO!!! PRACTICE BOT shot off and was going at high speed towards the other end of the field. WATTY however had a different idea. The robot zoomed backwards towards the stage and the drivers. It was a scary sight seeing WATTY driving towards us at full speed. But don’t worry, because of the hanger mounted on the robot, WATTY hung on the table placed in front of the drivers and started swinging, wheels fully off the ground. So no one got run over by a robot.

Overall it was an action packed week for the robotics team. This week has been full of hard work, laughs, bad drawings, prototyping, British comedies, and staying up until midnight discussing drivetrains and shooters.