Week 6 of the 2016 build season culminated with the Space RAIDers bagging their robot on Tuesday night, but before that could happen, a lot of work had to be done. From Monday (at STEMaction due to snow) through Friday, preparations were being made to assemble the final bot. With fit checks and testing, the robot really started to come together. Saturday began a high-intensity 4-day period of work to get the robot assembled and coded as much as possible before bag Tuesday night. First, the electrical team wired the top and undercarriage of the bot, then shooter and breacher began to mount their mechanisms. Climber still required some testing and coding, but once they prove their reliability in functionality, they may mount to the final bot during the 6 hours. After Sunday had concluded, there was still a lot of work to be done of the Control Systems side, so some team members came in right after school to test the now-mounted mechanisms and polish code. On Monday, the day ended with a brief period of drive practice which focused on intake and exhaling of the ball, as the shooter stayed in the downwards position because of issues with the pivot mechanism. Tuesday began once again at 2:30 and lasted all the way until 9:00. The Space RAIDers got in a good session of drive practice, working to operate the robot and breaching mechanism using solely the camera, as in competition it will be hard to see the bot on the field with all the obstacle obstructions. The day ended with an emotional bagging and tagging of the robot, a bittersweet moment for our seniors indeed. Although this marks the end of the 2016 build-season, the 2016 FIRST Robotics season is far from finished. Next there is a 6 hour period out of bag that we may use in the week leading up to competition. During that time, the Space RAIDers hope to get a lot of drive practice to build comfort in the drivers, and the climber team hopes to mount to the final bot, assuming they get productive work done in the days leading up to that out-of-bag period. As the old Regional format of competitions allowed teams to un-bag on Thursday and resume work before competing Friday and Saturday, FIRST has allotted this 6 hour period to make up for the time lost in the District format, which only includes Friday and Saturday. Team 2537 will this year be competing in the Greater D.C. District Competition from March 12th-13th at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD, and the Northern Maryland District Competition from March 19th-20th at Harford Technical High School in Bel Air, MD. It has truly been an amazing build season, and the Space RAIDers look forwards to an amazing experience at competition this year.
