We've begun something of a preseason for robotics. We're still not quite sure what we'll be going over within these next couple of months before the competition season begins, but we hope to focus most on the basics. By reintroducing the most simple of principles, we can eventually learn the more complex of conceptions.

Something we realized last year was the importance of designation. Too often would we modify the robot without much thought, be it through adding an oddly designed piece or by removing an important component, ending up with a mess of pieces held together by our frustration alone. We discussed and decided that nothing can or will be added or removed to our robot without initially designing it within LegoDD, our chosen application for designation.

We introduced LegoDD to the team and taught them how to use it. Each member of the team had their own workcomp for messing around with the application. We challenged them to rebuild an already built robot within the application. The robot was nothing more than a nxtbrick and a couple of servomotors held together by a couple of beams and pegs, but it was still somewhat difficult to transcribe into LegoDD.

I would have been quite proud if even one of the members had finished rebuilding the robot within LegoDD, but for all five of them to finish the robot within the fortyfive minutes we had given them was incredibly impressive. The toughest aspect of the challenge was attempting to rebuild the robot in the appropriate steps; some of the team tried to rebuild it without any sort of prompt, but they soon realized they would have to build from the bottom and up, maintaining a base of sorts.

All in all, I think we made a lot of progress, and I hope we can manage the same throughout our preseason. We still have a lot to learn about designation, let alone programming and construction, but I think we'll be able to work our way through it..!!