Constructor Facilities

We will have access to metal and woodshop fabrication facilities, in the Rettner building. Every student will hopefully take the shop safety course offered by Jim Alkins. We have a small budget for materials and components (upper bound $1000/project, but aiming for less). Computational resources will be begged, borrowed, or stolen from the CS department as required.

There are also resources in a "robot lab" on the 2nd floor of the Wegmans building. It includes the following:

• A physical assembly and work area and limited storage space for projects and components.
• A variety of hand tools.
• A few small (bench-top) power tools, including a drill press, band saw, and milling machine.
• Soldering and electronic assembly and test stations with an assortment of common electronic components.
• A Makerbot 3D printer for ABS fabrication.
• A collection of components and materials possibly useful for robot construction (bolts, nuts, screws, glues, miscellaneous/leftover pieces of wood, metal, and plastic stock, and other stuff...)

This space is quite limited, and is shared with the UG robot club, which has several projects ongoing. Because of the number of teams using the space, we need to follow a few rules. The most important are listed below.

• Label everything with project name, contact person, and date. Keep small parts together in the plastic boxes supplied, and projects components in larger boxes as much as possible.
• Leave nothing in the public work-spaces (soldering, electronics, central assembly tables, etc.) When you leave, even if only for an hour, pack up your project and place it on the shelves in labeled boxes. Clean up any mess and replace all tools and materials you have used. This is the only way multiple teams will be able to successfully share the workspace.
• Tools never leave the lab area. Don't "borrow" them even for an hour. There is nothing more frustrating than coming in to work on a project only to discover that a tool you planned to use has gone missing. If you break or damage a tool, send me email immediately so I can replace or repair it.

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