Welcome to the RoboJackets workspace, the portion of the Student Competition Center where robots are designed, built, programmed, and tested for competition. Today we will give you a brief tour of what the space looks like after being here for 11 years.
When you first enter the shop, you will be greeted by our check-in kiosk. Currently, it’s connected to our People Counter system, which we use to keep track of how many people are in the shop at any given time to ensure occupancy restrictions are being met. This also integrates with MyRoboJackets, which allows us to track meeting attendance. Beyond that is our shelf for deliveries, backpacks, and safety supplies, including our UV cleaner for safety glasses.
Continuing through, you’ll reach our build room. This is the primary place where teams assemble robots or manufacture parts. You’ll find a myriad of hand tools, power tools, stock materials, and general use components amongst the shelves and drawers. Many RJ members have spent a lot of time at this old steel-topped table built by old RJ members for the space. Some tools, like the belt sander, drill press, and red tool box, have been a part of RoboJackets since nearly the beginning, dating back to 2003 and 2004.
The large space is also used to keep the larger robots, like Jessiii and Bigoli, and display our trophies and awards from the years.
Here you can see Varun Madabushi working on Hockii, the meltybrain combat robot.
When you enter the space, if you instead turn to the right, you would be in the electrical room. The electrical room has a long work bench where electrical members can work on their custom PCBs and components. You can find soldering irons, power supplies, an oscilloscope, and anything else useful for working on electronics. You’ll also find a custom built cabinet with dedicated space for each team’s components and drawers for other tools and common components. It also features some art from our members.
Opposite from the electrical room is the office. The office is home to several CAD workstations and our 3D printer. Any team can use this space as needed, but it usually the place for design conversations and team planning.
Beyond the office through the window is the RoboCup field and storage space. The centerpiece of the room is the RoboCup field, which is about a half the size of the Division B field used at RoboCup. In front is the team’s control center, where they get the live camera feed from above and control the robots. Along the left wall, teams have a dedicated shelf or cabinet for stock, parts, and other tools for their robots, with more storage under the field.
We hoped you enjoyed this look into the shop when it isn’t full of RoboJackets, building their robots.
Enjoy some photos of members in the shop from before 2020.
