machining

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.

The Machining of the Robot. - Tue, Feb 14, 2012

The machining people are busy for making the parts of the robots. The machining people turn raw metals into parts for the robot. Parts like the brackets and the shaft. They also make the motor mounts. Today they are machining more parts for our robot we are going to use for the compitition at Manchester.

BERT won the 2011 Quality Award sponsored by Motorola at the Granite State Regional Competition! - Sun, Mar 6, 2011

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.

Week 6 is upon us!! - Mon, Feb 14, 2011

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.

Update, Sunday Morning, February 13th - Sun, Feb 13, 2011

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.

Week 4..making progress! - Mon, Feb 7, 2011

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.

Steve Blake - Mon, Jan 31, 2011

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.

Lots of comittee stuff happening! - Mon, Dec 6, 2010

We've been making progress in our comittees! The website has been going though some updates and changes thanks to Eleanor O'Neill and website design folks. They will continue to update student and mentor info, as well as updated sponsor information. We've been slowly progressing with Inventor and 3D Studio Max, we have a few dedicated students learning (and teaching), getting ready for build season. The machining teams have been meeting at Eagle Industries on Sundays, working with Ron Garland and learning how to machine parts, work with the equipment.

Riley Sawyer - Wed, Nov 17, 2010
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John DiRenzo - Sun, Feb 7, 2010

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.

Scott Tracy - Sun, Feb 7, 2010

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!!