Foximus Prime Facts

The robotics club established at Yorkville High School is in the middle of their second season. This club has 10 sub-teams including Communication, Analysis, Pit/Field, Build, Safety, Scout, Drive, Fundraising, Technology team (animation, programming, and website), and lastly Party team. Check out the new website at www.yorkvillerobotics.com. There are pictures of the previous year as well as this year. Videos are also on display at the website including prototypes and the base in action. The website is a good source to see the new things going on in addition to this blog, which courtesy of Yorkville.patch.com has made this form of communication possible. 

The kick off was on January 7th, in Chicago and the team walked out with two Rubbermaid tubs containing nuts, bolts, screws, motors, and of course the task for the coming year. The task is called Rebound Rumble, basketball for robots, but more on that in a spot light post. All rules and regulations for the game can be found on www.usfirst.org and the Analysis team pays close attention to every detail.

The robotics club meets every week on Monday at 5 o’clock in the evening. These meetings are to share the struggles and accomplishments of the past week. There is always a safety presentation about common shop materials or practices such as safety glasses, et cetera. The Build team, during build season, meets Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5 o’clock to 9 o’clock. The build team is responsible for all parts of the robot and is broken into even smaller, more specialized teams. The parts include the base, the shooter, the pick-up, and electronics. Without these sub teams, organization would be more difficult and would take more time, which is of the essence in this activity.

The team is always learning and evolving to be better and more efficient, and remembers lessons of past successes and failures. One difficulty the team has overcome is that all the students have ideas and wish them to be heard. This is a challenge because the collaboration can take longer with more ideas. Also putting these ideas into action proves difficult as well. Between the limited materials and capabilities, both mentors and students must work together to make the robot functional and the best it can be. Another lesson learned is the need for the robot, design drawings, to be finished within the first week to begin construction as soon as possible.

As an outlook on blogs to come there will be spotlights on mentors, teams, and upcoming event the club is hosting or advocating. Please continue to follow our progress and exciting moments we face every meeting. As a club “reporter,” I assume the responsibility to maintain interest and keep information flowing to our readers and supporters. If there are ideas or questions readers would like to share, we encourage input from any and all sources.

What time is it?

                Prime Time!