Yesterdays final decision on design began our first sprint.

The electrical sub-team began to inventory the new parts that we got during Kickoff from the Kit of Parts, documenting the new control system introduced in 2015, updated the firmware and imaging of the RoboRIO, and making the test bed layout. Our systems subteam figured out the speed of a robot with mecanum wheels and planetary gear boxes. Mechanical sub-team started making the prototypes for the hook arms and stabilizers for the robot.

Teams continued to brainstorm ideas so we could complement our alliance members by being a “tote bot”. After presenting our general ideas, additional actions came up that we all had forgotten so brainstorming continued as groups tried to figure out ways of manipulating totes in all orientations. After a final presentations of all three of the groups methods to stack, pick up and move totes the mentors decided on a hook design.

To begin, the groups finished making their infographics focused on the robot rules, scoring, and ranking system of the 2015 FRC game. Then we had a gallery walk to look at them. Afterwards, Mr. Kikugawa, our team advisor, gave us an open quiz on the game rules. Following, we broke up into our three groups again to brainstorm different actions the robots could do and shared the lists of actions with the rest of the team. During the sharings, each group added the actions they didn’t have to their own lists. We then used our group lists to rank the actions by difficulty and then by scoring potential and chose a strategy to present. As a team we chose to build a “tote bot”. Afterwards we got back into our three groups and began brainstorming robot designs.

Today, our groups worked on the planned thinking maps and infographics to better our understanding of the Recycle Rush Game Rules. We created our presentations based on the breakdown of the rules. Later in the day, we did a gallery walk to leave constructive and critisisive comments for the other groups on what they could have done better in their thinking maps. Our groups then fixed the presentations, and we started to brainstorm possible strategies based on the rules.

Students, mentors, and advisors of Mililani High School’s FIRST Robotics team met at Mililani High School at 4am to carpool to the 2015 FRC Kickoff at McKinley High School. At Kickoff the team found out that this year’s game was Recycle Rush.

After attending Kickoff, the TroboBots went to Airgas to read, dissect, and talk about the game manual. Team members were put into 3 groups and given the task of reading and visually organizing and summarizing the game rules. They also prepared to make an infographic of the rules the next day.