This week, the pavement outside of the Engineering Building was transformed into a course that would be used to examine Capacitops’ abilities to navigate itself towards waypoints.  With Capacitops in tow, Phil and Utayba have been putting their Navigation Challenge code to the test on this course.  Although it appears that their code will need some further adjusting, they definitely look like they are on the right track and will have it ready in time for the competition, which is only one month away (no pressure, guys :P). 

While Phil and Utayba have been taking over the pavement, Kevin and Steven have been putting the volleyball courts outside of Shiple Hall to good use as they have been utilizing it to test Capacitops’ capability to traverse the sandpits.  Currently experiencing some problems with the motors, they would error out which would cause the vehicle’s wheels to skid.  Hopefully, this will also be fixed soon (one month, fellas! :P).

As with any major project that one undertakes, though, difficulties are bound to arise.  Yet, as our faculty advisors (and our parents) would often remind us, we learn a great deal from our mistakes.  So, while setbacks like these are frustrating now, we know that by understanding and resolving them that we will be doing more than benefiting ourselves.  We will be benefiting all the UDM IGVC teams to follow, as well.  And to think, we were only expecting to learn about engineering through our Senior Design project.