Subgroup Summary - Manufacturing
Throughout high school, my favorite classes have always been the Project Lead the Way courses, so when I heard that Catholic Memorial created the CyberSaders, I was ready to roll up my sleeves and begin building. Unfortunately, I had to wait four months before the Stronghold challenge was announced.
I kept myself very busy while I anxiously awaited the details of the challenge. First, I began diversifying my shop knowledge even further. I wanted to be ready to lead and ready to take on any adversity that we might face throughout the build season.
I got into contact with the Waukesha South C.O.R.E. 2062 team, and they were so kind as to bring their robot to Catholic Memorial, share their knowledge with me, and even let me drive their robot! When we came to the build season, C.O.R.E. 2062 became an invaluable resource to my team as they shared their high quality manufacturing equipment with us.
When the date of the kickoff finally arrived and I heard the challenge, countless ideas filled my head. I was so excited about building every wild invention that I imagined, but I knew that ultimately I needed to chose a focus. My manufacturing team and I decided that the best strategy for our rookie team, considering the task of our programmers, would be to build a defensive robot.
We began our building plan by assembling the kit of parts chassis and attaching a snow shovel to the front of it to push balls out of the way. My experience in Project Lead the Way classes helped me immensely through this process, but I also realized that there is so much I did not know before. From there, our design matured from this passive snow shovel into an active intake system. The new design involves a belt system driven by rotating shafts that pull boulders into our possession. This new design gave us the ability to score points by bringing boulders to the low goal.
Throughout this build season, the manufacturing team strictly adhered to the safety guidelines put forth by FIRST, and I discovered that one of the best parts of manufacturing is staying safe! I cannot wait to pursue my passion for engineering in college.
-- Erik, Manufacturing Captain
I kept myself very busy while I anxiously awaited the details of the challenge. First, I began diversifying my shop knowledge even further. I wanted to be ready to lead and ready to take on any adversity that we might face throughout the build season.
I got into contact with the Waukesha South C.O.R.E. 2062 team, and they were so kind as to bring their robot to Catholic Memorial, share their knowledge with me, and even let me drive their robot! When we came to the build season, C.O.R.E. 2062 became an invaluable resource to my team as they shared their high quality manufacturing equipment with us.
When the date of the kickoff finally arrived and I heard the challenge, countless ideas filled my head. I was so excited about building every wild invention that I imagined, but I knew that ultimately I needed to chose a focus. My manufacturing team and I decided that the best strategy for our rookie team, considering the task of our programmers, would be to build a defensive robot.
We began our building plan by assembling the kit of parts chassis and attaching a snow shovel to the front of it to push balls out of the way. My experience in Project Lead the Way classes helped me immensely through this process, but I also realized that there is so much I did not know before. From there, our design matured from this passive snow shovel into an active intake system. The new design involves a belt system driven by rotating shafts that pull boulders into our possession. This new design gave us the ability to score points by bringing boulders to the low goal.
Throughout this build season, the manufacturing team strictly adhered to the safety guidelines put forth by FIRST, and I discovered that one of the best parts of manufacturing is staying safe! I cannot wait to pursue my passion for engineering in college.
-- Erik, Manufacturing Captain