Starting robot building

Today we began designing and programming our robot. There are no pictures because we played more with the programming language (NQC) than with the robot. More to come tomorrow...

NQC + Mindstorms

We got introduced to the Mindstorms legos today. We started getting set up to transfer programs to the robot by connecting the USB tower to the robot over IR. It took a bit of finessing, but we were able to get the brick to connect to the USB tower and transfer the firmware to the brick so we could start transferring programs. We compiled and transferred a simple program that made a few simple things happen on the robot.

Bridge Project - Test Day

The final test day for the bridge project was today. We came in first! Our bridge held a maximum of 721.57 lbs and weighed only 240 grams. The main part that failed first was the supports that the bridge rests on when sitting in the metal test box, as seen in the following picture:

This is our test data. The second peak of the graph is when the bottom part of the bridge hit a small ridge on the box and was re-supported.

This is the aftermath:

Bridge Project - Day 8

We put the finishing touches on our final design today. We shortened the width of the bridge, and reinforced the supports connecting the two outer edgers of the bridge.

Bridge Project - Day 7

Today we continued constructing our final bridge. In addition to building our bridge, we also built an airplane. The airplane is so fast it was difficult to capture, but we managed to get this shot.

Also, here is our final bridge. The design is the same so far, what will change is the supports connecting these pieces.

Bridge Project - Day 6

We reinforced our prototype and conducted more stress tests to see which components would fail first so we could strengthen the weaknesses in our bridge. After, we began constructing the components of our final bridge using wood glue.

Bridge Project - Prototype Testing

We tested our prototype today. The first point of failure for our prototype was the platform at the top of our bridge. It held about 310 lbs before the platform started to buckle.