Controls of the Future

William Bell

The control board is one of the most important parts of the robot, acting as the “brain” of the machine. The control board has many buttons and switches which, when activated, send signals to the robot to perform various functions such as climbing, spinning, and shooting balls. Without the control board, the robot would not be able to perform these actions. 

The control board was made in a much shorter amount of time than last year, as Jonathan Grattenger said, “It used to take us the whole build season to make the Control Board, and this year we had it done on time.”

This year, the control board was made as a team effort; as several of the various subteams participated in its creation. The members of the media subteam collaborated with the programming subteam to create the graphics that appear on the control board’s top panel, which shows labels for the buttons and other designs. Jonathan Grattenger of the electrical subteam did all of the wiring and much of the work on the brackets for the Control Board which holds the frame of the control board together, with the help of the fabrication subteam.

In addition to the work the team members did, several companies had an impact on the final control board. Peter Basso Associates, an engineering firm, gave the Foley Freeze the laptops that the control board’s CAD design, the digital “blueprint” used to demonstrate the design of a robot or other items. The Schaller Group, a metal forming and assembly company, laser printed the metal outline; the front of which has the team’s name, number, and official logo.