This Weekends Efforts

I had big plans for this weekend but the sore throat that's been bothering me for several weeks got in the way of most of activities. Saturday I helped the Huntington-Surrey Robotics Team with their robot. Well, I stood around and gave a few suggestions. There were plenty of adults helping. The official start time was 9 AM, but I arrived about 8:30 AM at Dean Keeton Street and Speedway. Since I was riding my bike I was not sure how much time to allow. I locked up my bike and changed into regular cloths and waited for everyone to arrive. Right at 9 several people arrived and we spotted the UT student that is helping. He then took us to the UT Robotics Lab.

After this we brainstormed about what needed improving on the robot. The first and foremost problem was lifting the bottles and boxes with the robot arm. The motor that was attached to the arm did not have enough power. After much discussion and trials it was agreed that the motor would be attached to the arm though a pulley. This would reduce the speed but increase the ability to lift much heavy objects. Secondly the paddles would be redone to help them grab to bottle and boxes.

For the rest of Saturday we worked on the arms.

After I got home that evening my sore throat turned into a full thrown cold, with coughing, and sneezing. I went to bed early.

Sunday, the next day, I had signed up for a 10 mile run. However, when I woke up at 5 AM to get ready I was not feeling better so I decide to skip the run and went back to bed. Finally about 7 I woke up and started getting ready to go down and help with the Robotics Club. I arrived about 9:30. I hung around for about an hour and a half. There seemed to be plenty of adults present so I took my leave. I was still not feeling all that good and we had a lot of things to do before our departure next weekend to Zurich, Switzerland.