The writing for volume 2 has been on the back burner due to my coaching a First Technology Challenge team. The team members are all in middle (7th-8th grade) and have been doing well for their first year. The team managed to place second in their league and second in the Inter-League competition so now they will be competing at the state level in a couple of weeks. Whether or not they will continue to advance is sort of unknown, but it's been quite interesting to see how they evolve as a team and how the robot has evolved.

The first robot was little more than a "rolling pole" as one of the team's classmates called it. It was light, fast, and agile but it didn't have anything to offer in the way of shooting particles (think pickleballs) or lifting the cap ball (all part of the Velocity Vortex challenge). However, after quite a bit of trial and error, they managed to field the robot below:

Fig. 1: Front View

Figure 1: Front View

Fig. 2: Top View

Figure 2: Top View

Fig. 3: Right Side View

Figure 3: Right Side View

Fig. 4: Left Side View

Figure 4: Left Side View

Fig. 5: Back View

Figure 1: Back View

Getting back to writing will depend largely on whether or not the team advances past the state level. My lesson learned from the experience is that coaching a first year FTC team borders on adding another full-time job but it's rewarding to watch the kids learn and grow.

[Originally published on Robotic Ramblings]