Today, TU hosted the Tulsa-area FRC kickoff. There were 17 teams present, though a few of them had to brave some serious snow and ice to get there. Before the broadcast, Scott Taylor of Team 932 gave some tips on how to get through robot inspection and build a successful robot. Thanks to some FIRST alumni from Teams 1209 and 2004, who are now students at TU, we had a set of practice field elements there for the teams to see and measure.
After the broadcast and after the kits of parts were distributed, Team 1209 had our first team meeting. Several groups of students analyzed the rules and scoring opportunities, and came to the conclusion that the optimal strategy for autonomous was to place a gear and then drive into the neutral zone. During tele-op, the best strategy will be to concentrate on getting gears to the airship, and then climbing the rope. In the event that both of our alliance partners are also good at getting gears to the airship, it would be good to have a secondary ability to take fuel to the boiler.
There was some discussion of drivetrain, and we are leaning toward using mecanum wheels. In addition, there are some ideas for manipulators being developed.
Our next meeting will be Monday; here is what needs to happen:
- Robot materials and tools moved from BTW to TU (everyone)
- Build prototype drivetrain (drivetrain/chassis)
- Install firmware on Robo-RIO, PDP, PCM, and Talons (programming and electronics)
- Update drive station software (programming)
- Add vision targets to practice field elements (field build)
- Start prototyping mechanisms (manipulators)
