The Space RAIDers kicked-off the 2016 season with excitement and enthusiasm. Everyone was eager to get working on a robot to compete in FRC's newest interesting and complex game, FIRST Stronghold. But before metal hit the saw, the team broke up into sub-teams to determine strategies that would best serve the team in competition. Team members participated in a game simulation to help get an idea of how Stronghold might play out on the field at a competition. After the sub-teams had determined what they thought the most successful strategy would be, they each presented their findings, and the team leadership under the direction of the Game Captain condensed the sub-team's thoughts into a single strategy for the Space RAIDers to follow going forwards in producing robot designs. The sub-teams once again met to create designs for robots that would fulfill the strategy requirements set forth by the team leadership. Each group then presented their designs at PDR, Preliminary Design Review. From PDR, the leadership met once again to take elements of each design and use them to create a plan for a single robot design that the team would create over the course of the build-season. The sub-teams, Mechanism Teams, will each focus on a different aspect of the robot going forwards, drivetrain, shooter, climber, etc.They will work with the Hardware Captain to determine space allocation on the bot, as well as with the Integration Captain to discuss feasibility of sensors and code required for their mechanisms. Once they have refined their designs for their specified mechanism, the teams will present at Critical Design Review, CDR, to begin Week 2. Things are moving fast, and the Space RAIDers is as enthusiastic as ever to begin another challenging FRC season!
