Christine

Designed and built over a six-week period for the 2016 FIRST Robotics Competitions, Christine is easily the most complex robot I’ve ever worked on. She was controllable over WiFi, used continuously variable drive transmissions, and included systems for collecting and launching dodgeballs (including automatic aiming) as well as a system for lifting gates. She competed in competitions for team 5687 (the Outliers – Baxter Academy for Technology and Science).

My specific role on the Outliers was as the head of their pit crew, keeping all of their materials and tools organized and accounted for. While mine was not the strongest hand in developing any of Christine’s robotic systems, I can certainly claim to have become intimately familiar with each of them on a mechanical level.

There were two major flaws which limited Christine’s competitive ability. The first was the tendency for the transmission belts to slip if not regularly cleaned in between matches. This was usually not a tremendous issue, but was time consuming and especially detrimental in back-to-back matches. The second was the stress in the wheel drive shafts, which failed by shearing at least twice that I can remember over the course of the season.

Skills developed: Teamwork, Organization, Task Management, Hands-on Fabrication, Robot Design