Day 7: Progress is coming along in almost all our super-special-awesome mini-projects, especially the knitting.
Some people are brainstorming
we have a couple people building a test chassis, for testing our maneuverability on the field.
Our field building is nearing completion! 
Today we got the bridge done
and had a minor debate on whether the note written on them said “No humans on bridge” or “No, humans on bridge”
note: be careful to keep fingers and feet clear of the bridge!
It’s ok ’cause our status as human might be debatable! We worked hard to reinforce the bridge so we can try to put several robots on it in the future.
After the bridge was completed, we got to work cutting wood for the fenders. Thanks Mr. Firth for helping us out in the shop tonight!
For snack today we had delicious cookies!
In the back of our work space, we got to have a little class on the function of sensors…
…which led us to looking at the math associated with sensors.
We had a delicious dinner tonight provided by our very supportive team parents
Tweedle dinner time{but which is which?}
After dinner we made great headway on the CAD for our drive train. We are working as a group, putting the CAD together on the big screen. It is really interesting to see the process unfold, and to understand the logic behind creating the robot design.
While work was taking place, some of us worked on organizing the workroom. We are going to have a renovation soon, and we’d like to start keeping our files organized, both to save time, and to keep things neat.
Throughout the evening, from time to time we were serenaded by violin music.
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At other times, people got a bit silly….
friendly strangulation seems to be the norm around here.
remember last year?
We build Saturday from 10AM-6PM.
The field’s barrier was finished today! The field makers have been making excellent progress so far and we are very eager to see the completed field.
We decided to suspend a weight from a meter above our robot to mimic anything we might build up there, and then give it a try. We installed plywood chain guards to keep us all safe.
Some of us spent a great deal of time doing calculations, doing research and gathering our materials.
Then we use our organizational chart to divide ourselves up into several groups. We have a timeline of season goals, along with weekly goals and daily tasks on our blackboard. Each student and mentor have their name on a magnet, and choose their tasks for the session.
Our field building crew worked really hard to get the backboards complete, including the proper coloured tape. 
Today we completed the middle level backboards. We can’t wait for the hoops to be delivered.
To test some of our ideas, we tried to use our robot from 2010.
We’ll know a lot more about how to approach our design dilemma when we can see a robot moving over a barrier and onto a bridge. Programmers are keen to get their hands on the test chassis too. We like to multitask in a productive way.
K-Bots, beware…..more pop quizzes are in your future. Please learn the 
It’s nice to see things coming together so quickly! We look forward to making more progress on the field pieces tomorrow too.
Today we were very lucky to get a tour of both of 
We saw their machine shop, and also saw one of their automated high speed assembly robots. The robots are really intricate and complicated. They are also top secret, so we couldn’t take pictures of them. We did take a picture of the warehouse. This was where we practiced driving our robot last year.
If you are interested in trying to drive a robot with the Kinect, please come to KCVI room 107 on Saturday. We’re there from noon until 3PM.
Reporting live from KCVI. We are camped out, with 120 other people in the school basement for Relay For Life, a night of activities and fun aimed at raising funds and awareness for cancer research.
Zumba dance lessons….
The luminary ceremony, where the luminaries were lit, and the gym was dark. We sat together and heard from another cancer survivor–a KCVI teacher, then walked another lap around the track.
We had a sing-along in the courtyard, and then we demonstrated our robots for the crowd.
Our robot is doing well, and has scored lots of tubes, even in autonomous mode!
We’re looking forward to seeing Frontenac’s team, the 
…but we’re all keeping busy with lots of little jobs. We’ve been busy finishing up our circuit boards…
…we make use of all little helpers we can find!
Our Queen’s mentors are on their reading week now, and we are glad that they are staying in town to help us out!
We’ve taken a second look at some things….including our minibot design. We’re calling it “Minibot Revisited”.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the warehouse soon! We work from 10AM-10PM today, Sunday and Monday too.
Because of our short ceilings, we cut the pole to fit in our classroom. We have a longer pole that we can use in the hallway or when we get our warehouse/test area set up.
Prototyping continues on minibot and manipulators for our host bot.
We were pleased to have Richard from Transformix helping out today with wiring for our minibot designs. There’s lots of math involved with figuring out proper circuitry.
We tried hooking up our new circuits, which involved a few soldering lessons. Webinar writing continued throughout the day. Over the next few days we will be loading them on Youtube and creating a webinar section on this site.
What would you like to see in a webinar?
Today we were thrilled to have lots of parents visit us to see our progress. Robotics is a family affair: feel free to come and visit any time!
We appreciate all the support, and the cookies and muffins that our families deliver to us! There’s a meal sign up sheet by the lab door, we hope that we’ll get some families signing up to provide evening meals when we stay late. Thanks to those who already have signed up!
