Week 2 Status Update: It's Alive!

Week two is coming to a close, and we have a working drive base!

Our programming team has wired what we have of the robot, and they've written a base program. They've also been working on learning the ins and outs of vision. It's been a goal of the GRUNTS to learn how robot vision works for many years, and Destination: Deep Space is the perfect game to really get down and dirty honing those skills!

The build team has been finishing up the CAD model of the robot. All finishing touches on that are estimated to be done by Monday, January 21st (of course, we'll still be working on one thing or another even though there's no school that day). Nearly every part that needs to be ordered has been, and we are about 25% of the way through machining the other parts in-house.

We're still on track to be done with the entire robot by halfway through week four! As long as we keep you the energy, we’ll be unstoppable!

Week 1 Status Update: Sponsors, Strategies, & Sensors

The Granby GRUNTS always start our build seasons hard at work brainstorming strategies and designs for our new robot in the high school commons. We had a productive kickoff day this year, and had consolidated a cohesive plan for the robot by the day after kickoff.

We also received an impromptu break from the action disguised as a whole-team photo-op. In actuality, one of our fantastic mentors, Don Rethke (AKA Dr. Flush), had brought in representatives from The Exterior Company to bestow a donation unto the team. The men from The Exterior Company, project managers Jon Nalewak and Michael Gottschalk, told the team the story of how they came to meet Dr. Flush. They came to Connecticut from Pennsylvania looking to help fix the many roofs that have collapsed due to hail, and ended up essentially living in Dr. Flush’s driveway. According to them, Dr. Flush always talked about how hard working and motivated the members of the GRUNTS are. After hearing Dr. Flush brag about how much he loves his team time and time again, and seeing the opportunity to give back to the community that had been so welcoming to them, they decided to sponsor us with a $3,000 donation. We rely almost entirely on donations from local and corporate sponsors. In addition to the FIRST Robotics Competition Team at GMHS, there are two FIRST Tech Challenge teams at GMMS, and all three teams share funds. The Exterior Company’s generous donation is likely going to allow the GRUNTS to bring all of their team members to their upcoming competition at Bryant University in Rhode Island, which will take place the weekend of March 22nd.

The Granby GRUNTS are always looking for companies interested in creating a sponsorship relationship with the team. If you are interested, contact us.

In addition to the wonderful donation we received from The Exterior Company, we've had a very productive week of work. Our programmers have been vigilantly testing out a sensor for the robot. This year's game is all about the vision tape, so they’re honing their skills to prepare for what competition has in store.

Our build team has been working equally as hard as our programmers. As of right now, our robot is has been completely designed in Solidworks, save for some final touches. We should be ready to start building components very soon! We're hoping to get our robot fully built around week four of build season, so we'll have plenty of time to test the program and have the drivers practice. So far, we're well on track!

As always, we've been showing some of our new members how to use the machinery in our shop so they can help out when the time to actually build the robot comes.

We've had a good first week. Here's to five more!

Build Season is Coming

Hello, people of the internet! The Granby GRUNTS are trying out something we've never done before this year, and that's posting blog post to our website! Our goal is to post at least six status updates over the course of the 2019 build season. The 2019 build season starts January 5th, and, like every build season before it, lasts six weeks. That's at least one post per week! We hope you'll stick with us and enjoy reading about our progress in the coming season!