Blog Posts - Q Branch Robotics FIRST Team 4327

Wednesday Build Session

1/29/2020

Week four has been very busy with the near completion of the final robot. Thanks to our sponsors at Bowers Aluminium Anodizing, the metal on the robot is now matte black. The matte black metal with the power pink looks amazing. The programming team is assembling the electronics board to fit on the robot. CAD has finished the 3-D design for the robot and has migrated over to the mechanics team to assist with the final build of the robot. Chairman’s is hard at work with the video and the presentation. The team is working well together by intermixing sub teams to help out others. The picture below shows a preview of the robot.

Wednesday Build Session

1/22/2020

It’s the middle of week three and the Chairman’s subteam is working on completing the essay and video submission. CAD team is completing the 3-D design of the robot. The Mechanics team is working on the final build of the elevator and intake system. While the elevator is being completed, our task for today is to secure the rope and mount it to our robot. Programming team is testing new things with the color sensors that will eventually work with autonomous. The various parts of the robot are being put together, and soon the final robot will be ready for competition season.

Saturday Build Session

1/18/2020

Week two has ended and week three is underway with much progress. CAD team is almost complete with full CADed Robot, Mechanics is beginning to starting to piece together parts of the robot, programming is prepping autonomous and teleop, and Chairman’s is close to being completed with the essay. The Red Rolling Cart of all of our supplies was well organized today.

Wednesday Build Season

1/15/2020

Another building week has begun! The prototypes are close to being finished and the real deal of building the final robot is close approaching. The CAD Team is relentlessly working on 3-D modeling the drivetrain, intake, shooter, conveyor, wheel spinner, elevator, and the skywalker for the first draft of the final robot. The Mechanics team is excited to install our New Falcon 500 motors into the gearboxes, Controls begin to layout the autonomous modes, and Chairmans is documenting all prototypes and the Chairmans Essay.

Saturday Build Session

1/11/2020

The first week of build season is almost complete. Throughout the week, the team has been hard at work on their prototypes for the future robot. The prototypes are being tested on the wonderfully built remakes of the trench wheel and the power port. The trench wheel and power port are being built by our gracious mentors, wonderful parents, and our fantastic coach. The days have been filled with lots of failures, success, tweaks and relentlessness.

Wednesday Build Session

1/8/2020

Today we are on day two of prototyping different types of intake systems. Our team split up into 5 groups to make prototype visuals of what our robot could look like in the future. We had an intake group, conveyor belt group, wheel spinner group, climber group, and elevation group. Today also consisted of Chairman’s organizing files to prepare for writing our essay and begin filming the video portion.

2020 FRC Kick-Off

1/4/2020

Today was our annual celebration of kick-off! After reading the game manual, we got into our sub-teams and made QFD (Quality Function Deployment) charts worth of prototypes to put all of our ideas for what would make a great robot for this competition season. With our new sponsorship from Bowers Aluminum Anodizing, we will now have a robot that will really pop out from the stands. We would like to thank our parents, sponsors, and mentors for helping us make 2020 a great start to the season.

CPR Training/Skills Camp #2

12/7/2019

Today was the second Skills Camp of the season. Recommended by our Safety Captain, Kevin Grady, 10 members, and 2 mentors spent the first half of the morning exploring and learning the ways of CPR. While they were becoming certified, the rest of the team was organizing and preparing for the build season. As the mechanics broke down the 2019 competition robot and organized all the small parts and equipment, we began testing a potential intake wheel makes the whole team (including Coach Burdette) ready for competition season.

FLL Jr. Expo

11/23/2019

Today at Lakeview High School, we were proud to host the FLL Jr. Expo. 80 elementary schoolers woke up bright and early to set up their presentations in the hallways of Lakeview, for everyone to see. There were different rotations for the kids to go to. Different teams from all over Michigan arrived at each station ready to be apart of the amazing experiences ahead. One of the stations showed off the 2019 FRC competition robot and the 2019 FTC competition robot who up until now was named the Nindroids, as of this year it is now named Q2. Q2 is named for being the 2nd branch of Q Branch. After watching the two robots in awe, they moved on to building or drawing. The kids were given gumdrops and toothpicks to build whatever structure they wanted. One of the adults decided to join in and see if his structure could hold a large bottle of hand sanitizer, (it worked!). The kids created some amazing structures and were very proud of themselves! The kids also got to color a beautiful poster, showing off their creativity and their journey of discovery. The attending teams were greeted by our guest author, Simon Thalmann, and the Bruin Bear both of who are from Kellogg Community College at one of the stations. The Bruin Bear was moved and played by our Chairman’s captain, Alayna Robinson. They also got to see Heavy Metal 2.0 shoot shirts. The turnout was fantastic and lots of kids had a great time!

Skills Camp #1

11/2/2019

Today was the first Skills Camp of the season. We are preparing for the upcoming season by introducing the incoming members to each of the subteams. All members are getting to work hands-on to make a positive impact for the upcoming season. As well as getting the newcomers ready to be a part of the season, but we are also sparking their interests for STEM and showing them a whole world of opportunities to pursue it as a career. This year we have 10 newcomers, that makes up about a third of the team, with all of these new members makes up the relentless group of people who come from different backgrounds After today, every member will be divided into a subteam for the year. The different sub-teams will make their own significant advances in creating this season’s robot. The rookie members are finding their individual jobs in their subteam, their captains are guiding them to find a new perspective on STEM.