In week three, the Warlocks finalized our 2018 robot design!
Working together, the build team learned how to use a CNC machine that cuts the parts that form our robot base.
The final parts were then sent to MAHLE where they were professionally powder coated our school colors: blue and yellow. Some students on the build team took the opportunity to learn from senior Warlock, Nate and Mr. Paul Dannebrock, of Ingersoll-Rand, how to airplane rivet the robot base. Then our build team students along with Mr. Mike Stutz, of GMCH, put together the lightweight and superior base yet again this year.
In week two, the Warlocks moved closer to finalizing our 2018 robot design. Together we had several great student and mentor driven discussions that turned into producing and testing some impressive prototypes! Students explained how they calculated the total possible points to score in a match and gave pros and cons to their perspective group. Our family had many questions and ‘what if’s?’ this week. In the typical Warlocks fashion, questions were answered and agreed on which way to proceed. In the end, we believe that we have come up with an exceptional concept to face and defeat the boss.
As always, FIRST has created a challenging game called FIRST POWER UP! We suggest that you check out our web page to learn more about the game and watch a short video on how the game is played! Go to www.warlocks1507.com, under the pull down menu, ‘About FIRST’ click on ‘About the game’. After a short video, you will gain a better understanding of the task at hand!
This week we are highlighting the CAD (computer aided drawing) team. Throughout the week, Katie, head of the CAD team, has begun designing the robot along side Mr. Rogowski, Mr. Alex Kapaan– Superior Design, Mr. Bob Vasko– Mahle and Mr. Steve Barnes, a dedicated mentor who is a retired machinist of GM. She completed the base design; as well as the two stage elevator and the cube collector. The entire team is proud of her dedication and success! We are looking forward to the upcoming week!
The build season has begun once again! The Warlocks kicked o
ff 2018 with a brand new FIRST Challenge, called FIRST Power Up.
On Saturday, January 6th, 125+ community leaders, business sponsors, mentors, students, parents, and teachers along with Mrs. Bradley, our superintendent, witnessed as we started our FIRST 6 week journey. Mr. Bob Vasko, chief engineer at MAHLE, opened the morning up bright and early with a page from Robotics 101 designed by MAHLE. This Robotics 101 activity was to start turning students creative minds to understanding the four types of creators: Ideators, Clarifiers, Developers, and Implementers. After this we began our creative process. We ran matches using humans instead of robots, in order 
to fully understand the challenge. The day after kickoff we went to the YMCA to brainstorm further how we want our robot to look and what we want the robot to do.
Later in the week we began developing prototypes. We are looking forward to the next 5 weeks and what the Warlocks have next in store for them at our competitions!
Good Luck to all the teams this season and we’ll see you at the competitions!
Ri3D came up briefly during the meeting Wednesday. For those new to the term, here’s a video to get you started. It is really fun to watch the several Ri3D projects take place. Just be sure to keep an open mind and still work on your own ideas!