Bad weather = slow progress

I can't believe how much time we've worked the robot this past week . It's now Sunday night and I'm trying to remember what all happened this past week. I know we had at least 1 snow day, and the days all kinda blur together. The way the weather looks right now, tomorrow may be another snow day.

Yesterday we met up with our friends at their test track for a full day of testing, driving, programming and a little bit of tearing out the hairs on our heads.

This year our robot is going to be entirely software driven. This means that we will have buttons for the drivers to use, rather than having them make decisions if the elevator (lift mechanism) is high enough or if our gripper is open far enough. We have a plethora of photo-electric sensors on the robot and the software is using these sensors to "know" the current state of the robot. We still use an interactive joystick for steering the robot, but all actions of the manipulator are automated.

So far, we've been doing a pretty good job, but we have to ship the robot in 9 days. This doesn't give us a lot of time to test and drive the robot. This is the way FIRST is though... It puts it's participants in real-life situations where you never have enough of everything you need. Unfortunately, we are working at the school, and if the school is closed due to weather, we cannot meet.

Fortunately I have found a school that appreciates what FIRST is trying to do and has graciously welcomed my family and me. We just can't afford to have any more snow days!