11 February

It has been a while since we have updated and we have gotten a considerable amount accomplished. We have the basic frame of the robot assembled and the electronics are mounted on the frame and working. As of now, we have the forklift assembled but it is not yet mounted. 50% of deployment system is done. We are currently putting the motor mount for that on. As for the minibot, it is done and is awaiting programming. on a management note, we are still trying to be consistent with updating this blog. Our website is running smoothly thanks to our Organizational manager and soon we are going to upload an animation of the forklift made on AutoCad thanks to one of our senior members, Eric.
With a more substantial robot at this point, we can see clearly now where we are and where we need to go. We are more productive, now that people are excited to see a working robot.

Tuesday 25th Minutes

Today, we wanted to accomplish:
Measure and cut the chain
In the wood shop, create the battery box
Discuss the forklift motors
Work on electronics
Before work started, we had a discussion of the movie night. We made sure we had all things in place. We are planning to cook the desserts before the movie.
On the day of the movie night, we have also decided to have team building activities. We think this will be a good way to improve gracious professionalism within our team. We want to create bonds of resect between the team members so we can work together more effectively.
We accomplished:
Pieces cut for the frame
We got the chain cut however it was the wrong size. At least we know what size we need next time.
We know what we need to buy for the extruded aluminum
We experimented with the second level frame size
Filed down the pieces of the frame we needed
Minibot design finalized on Google sketch up
Our storage closet was cleaned and organized

Update

Yesterday, 24 January, we decided that we will now be taking minutes each day. We decided to set some goals to accomplish in the next couple of weeks:

By Wednesday: have chain cut to appropriate length

By Friday: Basic frame done, minibot done

By Monday: Wiring done, robot together, programming started (updating CRIO)

That day we wanted to accomplish:

Take a new quiz on the manual

Discuss gracious professionalism

Think of essay ideas for Anadia

Finalize forklift design

What pieces do we need?

Cutting pieces for frame

Wheels and Spacers on robot

Forklift Motor discussion

Take apart top frame

Basic Electronics

In the end, we accomplished:

The quiz

Discussion of gracious professionalism- we came up with the following ideas to improve Gracious professionalism within our team:

One person should talk at a time during our meetings

Everyone is accountable for their actions

Communication needs to be improved between groups

No horseplay during meetings

We also discussed the essay ideas for the Chairman's Award “why are we awesome?, What makes us stand out?”

The small size of the team

What we have been able to achieve with our limited amount of supplies

The impact of creativity on our team

How much everyone is involved such as music, drama and knowledge bowl

Figured out spacers for all wheels, one wheel still needs the smaller wheels on it

Took the top of the frame off

Electronics: basics are done

What we did not accomplish on our list:

Discussion about forklift motors

Finalization of forklift design

Design Process

This is week two and we are coming to a close on the design process, however, as we progress changes and updates will be continue. So far, we know what designs we are going to employ on the minibot and the host bot. "We know conceptionally how the minibot deployment will work as well as the logistics on the forklift mechanism" says team captain Jake Wood. In the first week we decided on the forklift mechanism after eliminating 3 other ideas. Describing the Forklift, Jake says "a square tower will support a gear box and two vertical channels similar to a guillotine. A chain goes over the gear and pulls the channel up the slot." Attached to that will be one possible two pegs in order to pick up the inner tubes. We plan to add mechanism to the forklift towards the end if we have time.

2011 UPDATE

As you can tell by the other entries, we have not spent very much time updating this blog. Hopefully, we will now be updating this blog regularly. As of now we are two weeks into the build season. So far things are running smoothly, due to the effort we have put into organization. We have four heads of the team: Captain Jake Wood, Co-Captain Zeb Farmer, Secretary Elisabeth Harmor and Treasurer Sami Starkey. In addition we have Awards and Organization Management thanks to Anadia Rockey. Each person has done an efficient job. Now we are in the build season, we have broken our now much larger group (22 people!) into separate groups to increase efficiency. We have a group working on the Minibot design, group working on the Hostbot and a group working on Programming.

Name Change!

We have changed our name. Now instead of N.A.B.G., we are B.A.N.G.(Bolts and Nuts Gang) We just switched the words around because it sounded a lot more interesting.

Update

In the past couple of days we have:
created an official team name: Nuts and Bolts Gang (N.A.B.G.)
gotten our robot to drive around
and we have brainstormed ideas as to how we are going to transport the 'moon rocks'.

We are currently working on shipping and designing a "ball lifter" for our robot

Thank you for your time and concern with N.A.B.G.
Sincerely,
Our Crew