Yesterday was the first trial, and we weren't 100% ready as the robot couldn't turn counter-clockwise. Ethan and I added a bracket that would force the axle & motor into place, and that did the trick. The motor was now forced to turn the robot, so it did. Figuring out the code, and applying that fix took just about all of our time, and in the last 2 minutes of class we were able to do a trial. Picked up one, picked up two, picked up three, and then the string fell off the pulley and got caught. Before the time ran out it could have picked up 2 more, but we are not allowed to interfere with the robot during the trial, and there was no more time, so we took our score of 600 grams. Here's the robot lifting and turning successfully:
Our goal is to do that 5 times in a minute, for a score of 1000 grams. We are in the lead even with 600, the next best was only 200!