I always find it very educational to visit the factories in which my team’s designs are produced. I gain a great appreciation for the time and hence cost involved with various design choices. Pictured here are one component of the wheels used on our PackBots (primarily used for ordinance disposal by bomb squads). They are machined out of slabs of exotic plastic, deburred, and dyed black. You would have to work hard to design a more expensive wheel for a robot without using precious metals.I plan to challenge my team with identifying a much more cost effective alternative when I return to Boston. On the home front, Nicolai and Jeanine worked with our college advisers to narrow the half dozen schools where he has been accepted down to a short list including only Carleton and the University of Miami. Nicolai will visit both, Carleton for the second time, over the next two weeks before making his final selection. Regardless of the choice, Nico seems settled on deferring admission and taking a gap year before entering college, a choice which we support.
