Start of the New Season

Hello, my name is Brad Morris. I am president of FESSTronics Team 1680 and have been the base driver for the past two years.

FESSTronics is a competitive robotics team from Fort Erie Secondary School. Its purpose is to motivate high school students to take an early interest in the fields of robotics and engineering. FESSTronics Team 1680 placed second at the Canadian Nationals and 41^st at the World Championship during 2006 season.

Aside from leading the group and driving the robots, I am involved in all aspects of robot building and problem-solving. Right now we’re getting ready to begin designing the robot using a new design program called IronCAD.

I was introduced to IronCAD last year at a local manufacturing shop, Aero-Safe Technologies, where I started learning about the program. This year, we’ve started to use IronCAD at school with the guidance of Aero-Safe designers. I have started to learn even more about the program and am quickly realizing the many things that can be done using it.

Our first learning seminar was Tuesday of last week. We started with IronCAD design basics and attached 3D geometry to solid blocks. We also experimented placing holes in the object that was being created. I learned the Tri-Ball is a great tool for placing objects and moving them along a surface's face. Also, we learned the use of the SmartSnap function which is easy to use and very helpful in putting holes into the pieces.

Today will be our next training seminar and I'm sure we'll learn many more important parts of using IronCAD and designing pieces for prototyping and making this year's robot.

-Brad