The Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET) got the 2015 First Robotics Competition (FRC) challenge, Recycle Rush, on Jan. 6. With six weeks to build a functioning robot, M-SET is geared up to meet the challenge.

Five weeks into their six allotted weeks of build, the team is pushing forward with manufacturing their robot.

“The first three weeks [were] all modeling and testings, but now it has switched over to manufacturing and assembling the robot,” sophomore officer Samay Garg said.

However, the team has had numerous difficulties thus far into their build. One is that the team realized that one of its motors is illegal, despite being legal the previous year. 

“The motor we were using was so close to the legal motor that we didn’t realize it was illegal at first,” president Naveed Riaziat said. “Since it is not, we have to figure out what we can substitute in its place to make that component work.”

The team also received the wrong parts from its pneumatic sponsor, Festo. According to Riaziat, the company accidently sent the team some wrong component.

Due to missing components and design changes, the team is facing some challenges to get the robot built in the time frame they allotted for themselves.

They are confident, however, that by designing their robot in computer aided design (CAD) software called Solidworks everything will works seamlessly when it gets built.

“CADing is a powerful tool for the team because it allows us to manufacture the robot with some level of confidence that it will be built,” Garg said.

Although there have been slight hiccups this season, the outlook is looking bright.

“This season we are expecting to finish before the six week end date,” Garg said. “Although it is a smaller time frame  and we will have to rush to finish the robot to meet it, it is still nice to have time to test the robot.”