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Demobots - Semester Recap

Although it seems as though thanksgiving break just ended, Demobots is now packing up for winter. But before we ride our toboggans into the sunset, allow us to recap our semester and highlight our plans for spring.

Couchbot:

This semester Couchbot has pioneered the quest of getting access into the EER Inventionworks space, which has allowed them to do in-person machine work that would be impossible to do virtually. This access will help in the spring as they implement design changes and start working on new additions such as the programable lights that they got working on this fall. Couchbot has also laid a lot of foundation in regards to their crash course events going over topics like app development and programming so that members will be rearing to go when they come back in the spring.

Claw Machine (AKA: Talons of Acquisition):

As you can see, the claw machine finally got a demobots worthy name! As the newest Demobot, this fall, Talons of Acquisition has worked on brainstorming, designing, ordering parts, and prototyping. This past week the mechanical team met up to put together the first parts of the Talons of Acquisition together. This included gluing together the laser-cut frame, assembling the gantry, and putting together the claw itself. During this process, the team made notes of design changes to make over the winter break to implement in the spring. Seen here are some of the assembled parts.

Claw Machine Claw.

Reiko and Kendrick Being Cute.

The Talons’ electrical team has been working on elements such as the stepper motor and programming it to move with keyboard input, which will then be modified to work with buttons, as well as programing light strips that will light up with different patterns when the player has successfully obtained a prize. In the spring, we hope to keep making progress, even with the challenges online learning presents.

If you would like to learn more about demobots or join a team, reach out to me at cmonty@utexas.edu or pop into the Microsoft Teams workspace! See you in the spring!

Author: Caitlin Montgomery