Today we have transitioned from assembly to programming our machine and also started to design the ball launcher motor! We should be on track to finish by checkoff next week.

Yesterday and today we finished assembling our machine. We secured the motor holders and the sensor base with glue to stop them from breaking apart. We also decided to abandon the main base and wire floor tab slot dividers. They were too prone to fall apart without being glued. This is a great boon to accessibility however, because the two bases are seperated by nuts instead, so the base is still secured by the support rods but easily removable because they don't have to be glued together. This means there is now less space between the two bases, which is desirable because we don't need the space anymore other than for wires to go through.

Today, Luis made significant progress on our FSMs and Edmond finalized the tape sensor module and test harness. Now our robot may find a line, align partially to the line, and then go straight. Now we need to make our robot stay on the line. They should be made easier now that the tape sensor variables have been finalized, and have been commented to help clarify which variable is for which sensor. The test harness now uses LEDs to indicate which tape sensors are over black tape, and we have found it is possible to have all the LEDs light up over the T!

Aaron started to investigate on a ball launcher motor. We already have a funnel and he experimented with a DC motor taken apart from a computer case fan and our spare PVC pipe to launch balls further with. Aaron and Edmond found that powering the motor at 5V when rated at 12V is adequate for launching the ball. A servo may also be used to open or close the funnel to let the balls go through to the launcher.