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date: 2026-04-16
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# 2026-04-16

### Status updates

**Taxes:** Filed extension — W2 not in online platform, emailed payroll. Follow up in 2 weeks (~April 30) if no response.

**Robot arm:** EEF printed and tested — works well. Double servo joint printed and tested — works well. Next: finish designing and print the full double-servo arm. Great momentum.

**Panda:** Got a master's student to help with Panda experiments. Waiting on his Slack response. Big win — offloads the most frustrating part of the week.

**DMV:** Waiting on dad to send insurance proof. Going to try submitting online rather than going in person.

**Paper:** Figures looking good. Main outstanding/critical piece is real-world experiments.

**Sleep:** Better last night at Izzy's after long volleyball games. Pattern improving.

### Today's plan

- Homework (due tonight)
- Long campus day, leaving at 7:15
- **Gym:** Barbell rows (heavy lift)
- Family dinner
- More work ~9:45-11:30

### Evening — Robot arm sprint plan

Redesigned arm with double-servo link 1 and link 2. Printing overnight tonight.

**Schedule to full arm by Sunday:**
- **Tomorrow (Thu):** Collect overnight prints. Finish designing remaining 3 links. Print next 2 links.
- **Friday:** Continue printing remaining links.
- **Saturday:** All-day volleyball tournament + wedding. No campus time.
- **Sunday:** Back on campus to assemble the full larger double-servo arm.

**Tomorrow's additional tasks:**
- **Gym early (~3pm)** — it gets packed later
- **Set up 3D printer in lab** — parallelize robot printing across two printers
- **Start sim experiments with robot design** — compare reach volume and workspace to other robots (e.g., ARX)
- **Ask agents to analyze robot design** — run experiments on the design in simulation before finishing printing. Catch issues early.
- **Sort out TRI Airbnb housing** — internship is 40 days out. Lock this down.

**Paper status:** Waiting on real robot hardware to be done so we can run real-world experiments. That's the critical blocker.

**Tonight:** Family dinner.

### Reminders to carry forward

- **~April 30:** Follow up with payroll on W2 if no response
- **Dad:** Insurance proof → try DMV online submission
- **Master's student:** Follow up on Slack if no response soon