Today the team spent time in discussion with our new mentors, discussing the current stage of the robot.

A number of decisions were made, regarding the focus of our resources.

  • We have decided to outsource our major 3D printing operations to commercial companies. This means printing quality and accuracy will be improved. It will also mean less 14-hour long print sessions that may or may not work.
  • We have decided that we will no longer be using the control panel that our predecessors so passionately put together. We will be replacing the control panel with a high end laptop. The primary reason is so we can have a dedicated graphics card for processing the robot’s various data streams mainly the cameras but also the other sensors including the soon-to-be-added audio devices. The control panel case will be repurposed to situate the UPS, the Access Point and other related devices

Our priority at the moment is to make some adjustments to the physical chassis including, screw holes signed to the new board, mounts for speakers etc, and slim the body a bit vertically, if possible.  We may also do some adjustments to the wheel arches. We will also be designed a better wheel system, more details when we finalise the concept.

Our servos arrived, they’re pretty cool. We can’t really try them out because our robot has not been built and somebody glued the old servos permanently to the old robot.

2 Responses
    1. Jack Williams

      Not to mention it was literally Gerry who bought the epoxy 😀
      I think it worked well, a couple of small screws in 3D printed plastic wouldn’t have made it and we wouldn’t be where we are today. I think it’s a good idea to keep the original robot intact anyway.

      I think outsourcing the 3D printing is a good idea though. If the prints don’t have the same issues we had to deal with, it will be a lot easier for you guys and you won’t have to use epoxy.

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