BEST Robotics – Week 3

October 11th – 17th

By now we had spent a fair amount of time thinking through the overall game strategy and we realized that we could benefit from going back and revisiting our initial thoughts and early assumptions.  As our strategy continued to evolve we found ourselves giving some serious thought towards incorporating a pick-up of the mine cart. If we were able to successfully manipulate the mine cart we may be able to have a convenient way top score all of the Iron as well as a possible way to catch the Coal.

With an updated strategy in place, we went back to the literal drawing board to see how to BEST (ha!) make our desired strategy feasible. A crucial challenge that we needed to tackle was the 3/4″ lip present on all of the tunnels between each level.  In order to make our strategy feasible, we would need to design a way to easily transition the mine cart between each level.

Early prototype design by student Richard O.
Early prototype design by student Richard O.

In addition to refining our game strategy, we also continued the progress on our field, and as more components were finished up we could really see the field coming together well.

Week3_5 Week3_4 Week3_3

We also had an addition to our shop this week as we added a ‘new’ bandsaw and a drill press that we purchased at a local salvage sale.  A little TLC is all they needed and we’ve now expanded the machining possibilities of our work space!

Mentor Bart Basile really likes new tools.
Mentor Bart Basile really likes new tools.

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