The Cleveland competition didn't go as everyone had hoped it would. In the begining we were able to shed enough wieght for regulation but we had a problem with the drive train. There was not enough power to run the robot with the amount of tension we had. So during the practice rounds on Thursday we tested all of our other mechanisms and perfected them. Matt White and Kevin Niebel were able to diagnose the cause of the tension problems and make the necessary adjustments so that Snarf was ready for competition on Friday morning. A big thanks to Matt and Kevin. We were unable to do much in the first couple matchs because we didnt have the drive train completely assembled yet. Once we did get it all together we ran into another problem- Our motors were locking up and not working. After much searching we finally found out that there was a wiring problem and one motor was working against another. Which was in turn destroying the motors and making them lock up. Well soon after we got that fixed we ran into yet ANOTHER problem. Our treds on the drive train kept sliding off when we turned the robot. We were not able to fully fix this by the end of the competition so our robot did not move until the last two matches. Our second to last match we were able to grab the goal, bring it to our side, and fill it with balls, but then on the way back to our scoring zone the goal became caught on the side wall and we were unable to move it. So we let go and went back to the starting area to get an additional ten points. In our last match we charged the goals along with the other team and had a small collision. When we tried to get out of it our treds came off our drive train and we couldn't move. That is how the competiton went in Cleveland. Our finally standing was 56 out of 57. But we all did have a lot of fun and we learned some stuff too. We are definetly going to do good in the Yipsilanti competition now that all the bugs are worked out . . . . . . . . .or are they?
Operations Crew
Driver: Terrence Keegan
Controls: Aaron Huttner
Thrower: Brad Sova |
