The Machining Committee does the actual machining of the robot's parts, striving to demonstrate creativity and ingenuity. They learn to use equipment such as Bridgeports, welding rigs, lathes, and more.
Submitted by andrewszatkowski on Sun, 2010-02-07 14:46
This is my second year with the team. My son joined BERT as a freshman in 2009 and I hung around and helped out where ever I could. The opportunity came up at the end of the 2009-2010 season for some new folks to run the team. Although I hadn't even entertained the thought of taking it over, I was strongly convinced to do this by the former leadership. So now I am an advisor along with Scott Tracy. It is very rewarding helping out the students. It's great to see them come up with ideas when given a task and I'm looking forward to see what we come up with for the 2010-2011 competiton.
Submitted by andrewszatkowski on Sun, 2010-02-07 14:44
This is my second year with the program. The previous mentors retired from the program at the end of last season, and I decided, along with Ted Goulet, to take over as mentors for this season. I'm excited about the challenges of mentoring BERT! We have a terriffic team this year and it's going to be fun to work with them on this year's Game!!
Submitted by andrewszatkowski on Sun, 2010-02-07 14:12
It's exciting to bring a "hands-on" educational experience to our students. They also educate us in many ways. The USFIRST robotics program fortifies the values of science and technology in every participant whether a student or mentor.
Submitted by TedG on Sun, 2011-03-06 08:26
Congratulations to everyone on the team for winning the Quality Award sponsored by Motorola. This award celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication. At the FIRST Granite State Regional it was announced that "This team and machine displayed a high degree of excellence and set a high standard for themselves and stood out as an example to other teams. We are proud to recognize this winning team and machine as a quality standard for FIRST. This robot is built for the battlefield. It has an arm strong enough to double as a floor jack for Dean's Hummer.
Submitted by TedG on Mon, 2011-02-14 14:05
We are continuing to make slow and steady progress. This week's agenda: Finish installing and wiring the motors that drive the arm and claw. We have one installed and checked, and two others will be on real soon (operational by Tuesday or Wednesday we hope). We're finding we need to adjust or add to the brackets that connect the motors to the frame, to add to the stability of the motors while operating the arm and claw.
The mini-bot works awesome and we have a deployment design ready to go when the arm motors are fully installed.
Submitted by robotics_admin on Mon, 2011-02-14 14:02
Submitted by TedG on Sun, 2011-02-13 09:59
We have the mini-bot pretty much done. We're working on the switching method, but it climbs the pole great. We need to finish up the mini-bot deployment method which will happen when the arm is up and running. The drive system is all mounted and wired in it's final configuration. Programming updates are being done. The grabbing arm and claw is installed and the motors are being mounted this morning. We still have allot of little things to finish up to make the arm and claw work, but expect that to be done today.
Submitted by TedG on Mon, 2011-02-07 13:28
Week 4 has come to a close, we're making steady progress. The bumpers have been completely done since last week, both sets, complete with mounting hardware and painted numbers. We've been test-driving the robot and making adjustments to the drive system. We have all the arm pieces fabricated and have been putting on the sprokets, chains and other hardware. We're machining motor/gearbox mounts and other hardware and should have the lower arm running early this week, and the whole arm and claw running by the end of the week.
Submitted by Ironboundscroll on Mon, 2011-01-31 19:38
Steve works for Lanco Assembly Systems as a designer, trainer, and often on the mechanical assembly floor. He has worked for several years helping robotics programs at various schools. This is his first year "officially" helping the BERT team, although he has known many of the participants for years. He is very happy to be part of BERT's 2011 endeavor.
