Texas Torque: Team 1477

After much anticipation, all sheet metal and powder coated parts arrived courtesy of NEMA Enclosures just in time to begin a hustle towards completion. Testing on the telescoping arm offered a final solution to loss of tension, ultimately leading into the assembly of the final version. Using Bravo, we tested the arm for not only placing cubes but also climbing.

Assembly by assembly Armageddon, our name for the 2018 season’s robot,  began to become a reality. Intakes were made but to our disappointment we faced issues intaking cubes in our first beta tests. Soon after realizing the source of conflict, intake started to work smoothly. Armageddon is complete after long work hours, and we continued to work on programming autonomous modes for the switch and scale.

As we prepare for our first regional, Dallas Regional, we continued to create more spare parts in order to prepare for any breaks or replacements that will be made throughout the regional.

We cannot thank our sponsors, parents, and mentors enough for not only their unconditional support but also for the experience which they have gifted to us.

Thank you for keeping up with us on our 6 week journey, and see you at Dallas Regional, Lone Star Central, and South Florida Regional!

After CAD being finalized last week, the sheet metal for charlie came in.  All members of Texas Torque are hard at work in order to get the robot ready for more drive practice.

The metals that were received have been powder coated for use on the competition robot. Also, all the parts that can be made in-house is nearly completed.

Texas Torque also came up with an operator panel design for the season, with each button assigned to each task.

Chairman’s Team finished and submitted majority of the essays, and have only few more to go until their deadline.

Stay tuned for additional weekly updates!

All prototypes are finalized, along with all designs. The final CAD is likely to be completed this week.

Our bravo robot is near completion, and is going to be completed on the first day of week 5. Parts for charlie has been sent to our sponsor for powder coating, and is coming in by the end of the week.

The driver got more practice with driving, and autonomous programming has been done.

Stay tuned for additional weekly updates!

This week, Texas Torque finalized the prototypes and finished manufacturing and building the alpha drive base for this seasons robot. In addition, the driver was able to successfully practice driving on the alpha drive base.

The CAD team worked diligently the last two weeks to complete the final version of the robot.

The gearboxes and the arm have been manufactured, beginning the assembly of the bravo robot.

The programming sub-team worked with the alpha drive base to program this year’s autonomous mode, and the electrical sub-team collaborated with CAD to determine the layout of the electronics panel.

The majority of the chairman’s essays are now in their final revision stages, and the chairman’s video and banner are currently in the process of production.

The robot teaser video has been uploaded to our youtube channel, so take a look.

Stay tuned for additional weekly updates!

After two weeks of planning and designing robots for 2018’s game, Power Up, we started building the alpha drive base and finalized the process of prototyping. The prototypes are expected to be finished by the third week of our six-week build season.

We have come close to finalizing our robot design, and we have started manufacturing some parts for the robot.

Our electrical subteam worked on CADing the electronics panel for the alpha drive base, while programming worked on basic maneuvers and autonomous.  The media subteam finalized the t-shirt design for this year, and also started working on banners and the chairman’s video.

We organized our lab and storage in preparation for building this year’s robot.  We are close to finishing the alpha drive base, including programming. The alpha drive base is planned to be completed and be ready for the driver to practice on week 3 of the build season.

This week has been very productive as we come closer to finalizing our design.

Stay tuned for additional weekly updates!

With the onset of the build season, the lab is brimming with excitement and activity. Ideas regarding this year’s game, Power Up, have been flowing readily since kickoff. President Eric Roth has been hard at work with other leaders of the team, planning out the agendas for every week while a wide and admirably creative range of prototypes, including mechanisms from past years, are being designed and made. The brainstorming process has continued to yield potential solutions to the necessary functions presented by the game.

Near the beginning of the week, much progress was being made on finalizing designs. This was a formative process where members of the team were still orienting themselves to the mindset of this year’s game. Permutations of events that could occur on the field. It was an amazing process observing disparate groups working toward the same goal, fitting themselves together into a bigger picture.

The pros and cons of various mechanisms that could possibly go into the final product has been discussed by subgroup captains, assessing the benefits and drawbacks in different areas of robot design. By compiling all of this information, the team has finally arrived at a general idea of what the final product will look like. The CAD team has been notified and is currently creating designs of the robot parts.

In summary, this week has been very efficient and productive. We hope to see the same attitudes in the methods our team members attack problems in the weeks to come. It’s difficult to remain apathetic with what the team has achieved so far; the momentum we’ve built up will continue to grow.

Stay tuned for additional weekly updates!