What's done so far.

      The dune research vehicle is 75% done.  So far it moves well with four wheel drive and tank treads.  Testing of the motors has gone very well.  We tested the vehicle on steep inclines and it did pretty well just moving around and such.  The claw is mounted and works.  It is able to grab objects and drop them easily.  The camera is now able to swivel up and down as well as left to right.  Since the camera has a full range of motion it can now look at where it is going, at the claw, at the sky, left, and right.  Everything is electrically wired and tied down as well.  The wires are tied down to the sides in order for them to not get snagged in the moving components of the vehicle. 
     There are still a few things that are on our list of things to do.  The first thing is the plant cutting system.  We were stuck on whether or not we should just attach the blades to the claw so that when the claw closes it cuts the plant stem like a pair of scissors.  Also there are some kinks that we have to work out with the camera motors.  The camera moves to fast up and down and its hard for the camera to stay in one place. 
     On Friday, we will hopefully have worked out the problems with the camera motors moving to fast and throwing the camera off the vehicle.  My partner and I probably won't have worked out the cutting system by then, but we will probably have it all designed and such.