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ROBOTS FIGHT!

March 26th, 2013 | Posted by admin in Ann Arbor | automation | Automation Alley | demo | Education | FIRST | Fun! | robots - (Comments Off on ROBOTS FIGHT!)

FRC830 has our second competition of the season in Livonia this weekend. We had the competition bot unbagged for a few hours today and decided to give our drivers some time to practice.

SightMachine write up in O’Reilly Radar

February 28th, 2013 | Posted by admin in Ann Arbor | automation | Automation Alley | computer vision | Detroit | entrepreneurship | In the news | industrial computing | Industrial Internet | Internet of Things | Maker Works | manufacturing | Michigan | SightMachine - (Comments Off on SightMachine write up in O’Reilly Radar)

Sight-Machine-staff-car-620x413

Last week the SightMachine crew had the pleasure of meeting with a reporter from O’Reilly media. They just released a really nice write up about how we are helping to build the industrial internet right here in Michigan. This is a follow on to the really excellent piece about SightMachine in the Atlantic a few months back.

Crawl, Walk, Drive

February 14th, 2013 | Posted by admin in Ann Arbor | automation | Automation Alley | C++ | code | demo | FIRST | Maker Works | pics or it didn't happen | robots - (Comments Off on Crawl, Walk, Drive)

We finally got the FIRST Team 830 drive train up an running. We still have a lot of hardware to attach, but this is a good start. currently the control system and battery are just loosely attached with cable ties. This will change once we get the final build-out of the pickup and firing mechanism. We have yet to test the pneumatic gear shifters or a PID controller so in these videos the robot is in low gear and capped at seventy percent power.

This is the first run of the robot.

Once we got used to the control I slipped my cell-phone in a spare cRIO slot and got some video.

I have a few screen captures of our current design that gives the programming team a better idea of what other subsystems we need to code and design controls for. Unfortunately I don’t have a nice overview image of the final cad design.

Slight Overview

Disc Shooter

Pickup

Drive Train

Elevator

I have a few screen captures of our current design that gives the programming team a better idea of what other subsystems we need to code and design controls for. Unfortunately I don’t have a nice overview image of the final cad design.

We are down to the final week before bag and tag. Hopefully I will have more cool videos soon.

FRC 830 Drive Train First Run

February 10th, 2013 | Posted by admin in Ann Arbor | automation | Automation Alley | code | demo | FIRST | Maker Works | Michigan | pics or it didn't happen | robots - (Comments Off on FRC 830 Drive Train First Run)

It took a lot of work, but we finally have a working drive train and shooter. Now we just need to put the two together, add the pickup mechanism, and we are ready for competition.