Changes Made to the Robot During Summer 2016

Coming back to STEM means continuing my build on my robot that will be competing with a couple others from our club this November 5th at a competition at Embry-Riddle. Until the start of the new STEM semester there was a fellow intern working on my robot that had joined the robotics club recently his name is Brian. He made some very nice changes to the robot one of the major ones by changing out the wheels to some very larger ones making the robot able to strafe (the ability to make the robot move side to side without moving up or down). This new addition to the robot will help us very much in the competition by saving us time. Instead of having to adjust the robot to knock over the stars on the wall in the center of the field, we can simply move the robot horizontally to be in the same distance away every time making the robot knock down these stars faster than our opponent giving us the upper hand in the beginning of the competition. I was working with the robot this past week and it seems the front two wheels are powered by a stronger motor/ high speed motor making the strafing uneven. This was a simple fix by making all the motors high speed making it a nice straight horizontal move. Brian is working on the second part of the competition which is being able to pick up and launch the stars over the bar which is a very difficult task but he will make it work. Below is how our wheels are set up to make the robot able to strafe. We make each wheel on both sides go opposite directions.

New Semester at S-STEM Fall 2016 VEX STARSTRUCK

This is the first week back at STEM Fall 2016 and I've heard there's a lot of new people in the internship. I was unfortunately unable to attend the first mandatory meeting due to some car issues but hopefully I'm able to meet everyone or at least chat with them through our blogs and discussion boards.This internship is a great place to connect with students and faculty that are in similar fields as you are and really grow your circle that will aid you further in your career. This is going to be my third semester here at the STEM program and I'm thrilled to still be in this program. I've been working with Josh in robotics building robots and competing them in competitions throughout the year. I started working with robotics last semester and I'm hooked on them. I've heard there's a lot of new people in robotics as well, which is a whole separate club on its own, and I'm hoping to meet them soon. I was also here during the summer working on a new robot for a new VEX competition called STARSTRUCK if anyone is interested you should definitely look it up, it's like a giant game of jacks but with robots. The robot I'm working on will have to pick up giant stars and throw them over a wall to the opponents side which is pretty much the concept of the game. This all sounds very easy in words but having to plan and actually build a robot from scratch can be very tedious. Building robots takes a lot of patience because you have to keep adjusting the robot until it does its function every time flawlessly. Not only that but you the builder have to be confident in controlling the robot and knowing everything that it will do. This semester is going to be great I hope to meet all the STEM interns in the near future I wish you all the best of luck. Below is a picture of the playing field for VEX Starstruck.