The Need for Speed on Robotics

      This week in STEM I've been working on making my robot faster. I've made my motors high speed by switching out the gears inside them. I'm having trouble scoring enough points during my one minute period that will be against a fellow STEM intern Lily. I have not been able to score on the high goal consistently and I struggle driving the robot and picking up the balls. The robot drives more towards one side when driving straight which makes driving take more time than it should and with only a minute to score as many points I need all the time I can get. This can be due to having different type of motors on each side or it can be the programming that was already on it. This project will not use any programming since the robots have to be controlled manually for the test. I have changed the flappers that pick up the balls to smaller ones hoping they don't cause as much friction on the ball when I shoot them out. I'll be working more on my robot this week and the competition is next week. Also everyone who got accepted to the Estrella Community College Student Conference good job and good luck! Here's a picture of the high speed gears that go in the motors and a picture of the bottom of my robot where these motors are located.