The Girls of Steel FTC 2019-2020 Season SKYSTONE has begun! Here is our first blog post discussing the progress we’ve had so far this season! 

We meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at CMU.  We have the same meeting schedule as the Girls of Steel preseason, except that our events and competitions are in November, December, and January.  If you’re curious about who we are, check out the members’ page on the Girls of Steel website.

We first met each other on Sunday, September 15th at the annual FTC Bootcamp.  That’s where we were introduced to each other and our mentors, Michelle and Austin.  We divided into 3 random groups and each built and operated a push-bot.

On our first regular meeting on September 17th, we participated in New Girl Orientation meeting. New FTC and FRC girls met at 5:30 and took a tour led by older girls on the team that showed us where all of the utilities and rooms we can access and use during our time with Girls of Steel. After touring the “campsite”, we met outside in the back parking lot and participated in an Ice Breaker Activity.  We also met Aditi, the FRC girl who is the FTC liaison.  She recruits volunteers for our events and makes sure we know our slides and blog post deadlines, etc.

Back at the build meeting, we separated into three teams, Hopper, Hypatia, and Lovelace. During the meeting we rewatched the Skystone challenge video and discussed how the game worked, identified the points that we are able to earn during the game, and brainstormed the design of our robots. 

The second meeting, September 24th, 2019, we had another Ice Breaker during the All Hands Meeting. FRC leads were put in charge of 18 groups with around 5-6 girls. We were given a list of important places – a “scavenger hunt” – around the campus which we had to find and then our group needed to take selfies. The goal was to collect all of the selfies as soon as possible. Once all of the groups made it to a grass platform, we took a group picture.

After the group pictures, FTC and FRC girls split into their respective groups. 17 of us divided up into 3 teams: Lovelace, Hopper, and Hypatia.   We received our CMU IDs and learned how to set up a GoS gmail and our Andrew Accounts. Austin and Michelle then went over the basics of the FTC kit of materials and learned about the different components. We learned how to put them together and familiarize ourselves with the pieces that we will be working with.

The third meeting, on September 26th, 2019, Hypatia went over different chassis and wheels, and learned about an H frame, U frame, O frame, and different orientations, which was the starting base for the beginning of our robots. We were told about outreach, which is we have to volunteer at different events offered by Girls of Steel, such as FIRST LEGO League, and that by the end of the season, we have a 5 hour requirement. We were informed more about Slack, and how to use it. We also learned that each FTC team is required to present a team update slide at the weekly all hands meetings.

On October 1st, our fourth meeting teams took apart our push-bots that we built during bootcamp. Taking apart push-bots helps us gain knowledge and familiarize ourselves with how the chassis are constructed and the how the pieces need to be put together in the most efficient way. After taking apart robots, teams had time to brainstorm ideas and attachments for the game. 

Lovelace focused on designs for a chassis and wheel choices. After not coming to a conclusion and running into an idea block, Lovelace decided to move on from chassis design to attachment and mechanisms. They specifically brainstormed claw mechanisms and how certain claws would react and work with the current intake system planned.

Hypatia accomplished a lot for their chassis design and decided on using mecanum wheels based on videos other teams have posted about their progress on their robot. This helped them collect ideas and more perspectives on how people view the game board and its challenges.

Hopper disassembled their push-bot that they built during boot camp and familiarized themselves with the pieces and parts of their kits. Attachment-wise, they decided on an arm with two spinning wheels to pull in the stones and a separate claw that would grab the stone and put it onto the building foundation.

Our fifth meeting on October 3rd, 2019 was a big day for planning and finalizing chassis and attachment designs. Lovelace troubleshooted and discussed which direction they wanted the wheel intake to store the stone. They also spent a large majority of the meeting separating the different point systems into two different categories for autonomous mode. Hopper team made adjustments to their chassis that included the chassis shape resembling an octagonal shape with an intake opening.

On the sixth meeting on October 8th, 2019, most teams began assembling their chassis. We were able to overcome and troubleshoot problems that we hadn’t originally suspected until we were building the robot. Lovelace faced problems that arose when discussing the appropriate length and width of the chassis. 

On our seventh meeting on October 10th, 2019, we remade our chassis and redrew our design. Because we messed up the on the first design, we worked on completing this notebook and slides. 

On our eighth meeting on October 15th, 2019, we finished the chassis by adding wheels, motors, and the expansion hub. And we finished the slides and the engineering notebook.

Overall, the past few weeks have been really interesting and productive. We have been going through many brainstorming, building, and problem-solving processes. We are super excited to keep working and create our amazing robots!  Our first competition is coming up on November 23rd!