FRC125 - The NUTRONs - 2014 Reveal - Dark Matter

[Brandon Holley]

The NUTRONs proudly present our 2014 robot for Aerial Assist....

DARK MATTER (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqhpy4DBPnE&feature=youtu.be)

http://i.imgur.com/qqGbuY1.jpg

[Robotmmm]

Really awesome bot and a 2 ball auton! Can't wait until MAR and NE can interplay!

[Adam Freeman]

Sweet machine! Looks very well built and competition ready.

Now we can see which team got the better Schreiber brother. :cool:

[cjl2625]

Ooh, looks nice!
Your harvester/catapult layout is rather similar to our team's. Except yours just looks so much more beautiful :P

See you guys at Groton

[Andrew Schreiber]

Sweet machine! Looks very well built and competition ready.

Now we can see which team got the better Schreiber brother. :cool:

Who do you think lil' Schreiber went to when he needed help on pneumatics? ;)

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Best Nutrons robot yet.. Great job!

See you all in St. Louis!

[Akash Rastogi]

Now we can see which team got the better Schreiber brother. :cool:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burn_centers_in_the_United_States

Brandon (and now Andrew too!),

Thanks for continuing to inspire the next generation of kids on 11 and us alumni! This robot is really nice. The launcher reminds me of a cesta from jai alai.

Hope Ethan isn't causing too much trouble up there :rolleyes:

-Akash

[thedries]

Looking better every year, an inspiration as always.

[BrendanB]

Got to see this machine this past weekend at Scrimmage and it was amazing! Best of luck to the Nutrons this season you guys have really outdone yourself this year!

[Kyler Hagler]

Sweet looking machine. I hope I make it to St. Louis to come look at this thing! Great job guys and good luck!

[JamesCH95]

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/130/b/0/Awesome_Face_Sun_by_phantomphanatic2910.jpg

Awesome robot.

[jwfoss]

Looks like the folks from up in Boston put together another solid machine this year.
I'm looking forward to checking out the details of the design at the Groton District.

[mrnoble]

That is going to be really hard to defend against! Both your drive base and your catapult are powerful enough that most teams will be scared to even be in your path, for fear of fatal damage.

What IS your drive base, by the way? Couldn't see it, but I'm guessing tank?

All in all, I am super impressed. You will certainly steamroll your competition.

[JamesCH95]

I believe they are running a live-axle 6WD with 4in Colsons and 6 CIMs. Not too shabby.

[Andrew Schreiber]

That is going to be really hard to defend against! Both your drive base and your catapult are powerful enough that most teams will be scared to even be in your path, for fear of fatal damage.

What IS your drive base, by the way? Couldn't see it, but I'm guessing tank?

All in all, I am super impressed. You will certainly steamroll your competition.

6 CIM single speed 6wd with 4x2 colsons. We only weigh about 95lbs w/o bumpers and battery though so the acceleration is great.

Closed loop speed control on both sides to ensure we drive straight (wasn't on during the scrimmage thus the arcing in auton).

[Rob Stehlik]

Nice shot trajectory! I'm impressed.

[Cash4587]

6 CIM single speed 6wd with 4x2 colsons. We only weigh about 95lbs w/o bumpers and battery though so the acceleration is great.

Closed loop speed control on both sides to ensure we drive straight (wasn't on during the scrimmage thus the arcing in auton).

How did you guys implement the encoders in the drive to make it go straight? My team wants to do this but we are unsure how to do so.

[Andrew Schreiber]

How did you guys implement the encoders in the drive to make it go straight? My team wants to do this but we are unsure how to do so.

Code is available here

https://github.com/FRC125/NU14/blob/WinchSensor/Nutrons2014/src/com/nutrons/aerialassist/subsystems/DriveTrain.java

Multimotor is a helpful wrapper we created specifically for this:
https://github.com/FRC125/NU14/blob/WinchSensor/Nutrons2014/src/com/nutrons/lib/MultiMotor.java

[Keiko]

Any info on the springs you guys are using?

Thanks

[Brandon Holley]

Brandon (and now Andrew too!),

Thanks for continuing to inspire the next generation of kids on 11 and us alumni! This robot is really nice. The launcher reminds me of a cesta from jai alai.

Hope Ethan isn't causing too much trouble up there :rolleyes:

-Akash

Thanks Akash. I can't take credit for the robot though. We have an insanely dedicated, talented and hard-working group of kids who did almost all of the design work of this robot (and made the awesome release video). I'm just there to guide them and come up with a good idea every now and then.

That is going to be really hard to defend against! Both your drive base and your catapult are powerful enough that most teams will be scared to even be in your path, for fear of fatal damage.

What IS your drive base, by the way? Couldn't see it, but I'm guessing tank?

All in all, I am super impressed. You will certainly steamroll your competition.

Thanks! The drive as James and Andrew alluded to is a 6CIM, single speed, FLAT 6WD, using 4" Colsons. Geared to just under 14 ft/s.

Nice shot trajectory! I'm impressed.

Thanks Rob. I wish I could count the number of iterations of spring force, hook geometry, release angle, pivot height, spring mount to get to that trajectory....it was a lot.

The robot was designed around the 'sweet spot' concept of the higher you release and the harder you throw the wider zone on the field you can score from, a concept I'm sure MANY teams tried to exploit. We originally pursued the linear puncher concept and had pretty remarkable success. What we found was the secondary systems required to get a linear puncher system elevated (to exploit the 'sweet spot') were too complicated/unnecessary. Thats how we ended up with the high-pivot catapult. We think we found a good one, but only time will tell!

-Brando

[JamesCH95]

Flat 6wd... interesting. What prompted that decision?

[BrendanB]

So Brandon you guys have no drop and are technically in the long configuration?

Our team is weighted to wide (26 x 29.75) 6wd, no drop, 4"x 1 1/2" colsons, direct drive off of 3 CIM Ballshifters 6/13FPS and after this weekend we determined we need to put a drop in by shaving down a Colson wheel. Don't know if you realized us having to cool our CIMs down in the finals but after some investigating we realized we went from pulling 30 AMPs driving straight to pulling 106 AMPs (sensor maxes at 100 so we could be pulling more) while turning. Turning the robot by hand is almost impossible but powered on it powers through them but it hasn't been good on our CIMs.

[Nathan Streeter]

Looks great, guys! Hope you guys have a strong season this year!

It was great playing with you guys at Week Zero... sorry we couldn't keep the defense off you better. :-) In hind-sight I think a triple-assist strategy may've been more effective for our alliance... Those extra 20 points for the third assist are awful enticing!

Look forward to competing with you guys down in RI!

[Brandon Holley]

The decision was based around 2 key things:

1. Eliminating rock for shooting purposes (would help w/ shot to shot consistency)
2. Keeping a defender from being able to easily turn us off course. We never have an end of the robot not in contact w/ the carpet so we eliminate that giant lever arm someone can use to spin us.

The entire robot is 27" long, which boils down to a 22.5" long wheelbase with a ~28" wide wheelbase 'stance'. To answer your question Brendan, I'd say we're comfortably a 'wide' configuration when looking at where the wheels physically touch the ground ('square' when you look at the frame perimeter).

You can easily turn the robot by hand on the ground. We were extremely happy with how it performed at the scrimmage.

-Brando

[mplanchard]

Well done Brandon and the nutrons. Plus you are hosting a New England event. You've been busy. Marie

[Trey178]

The Nutrons are competing in Groton? I'll see you guys on the field ;)

Your catapult is powerful to give your shots such good distance. But it might be a challenge for Field Volunteers to retrieve your scored balls. Nevertheless, it's an excellent design overall.

I plan to be field-side for the 10th Beantown Blitz, my fellow nuts and bolts.

[Brandon Holley]

Any info on the springs you guys are using?

Thanks

We used these springs found at Home Depot. We've also found them at Lowe's: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-in-x-8-1-2-in-Zinc-Plated-Extension-Spring-15618/202045482

We worked exceptionally hard in 2008 to find the right springs to use that give you the right spring force in the right amount of travel. We used our 2008 springs in some prototypes in our shop and found they again worked very well and went out and bought a new stock for this years robot.

Your catapult is powerful to give your shots such good distance. But it might be a challenge for Field Volunteers to retrieve your scored balls. Nevertheless, it's an excellent design overall.

While this statement may be truthful, its not a criteria we would ever design around. With the multiple field reset personnel and multiple balls available per alliance (post-autonomous) I don't foresee it being an issue for us.

-Brando

[Trey178]

You guys performed well in Groton. As a member of the Field Repair/Reset crew I noticed that one of the wheels inside your ball intake broke off. Do you plan to install a new one or will you leave those side wheels off entirely?

[Andrew Schreiber]

You guys performed well in Groton. As a member of the Field Repair/Reset crew I noticed that one of the wheels inside your ball intake broke off. Do you plan to install a new one or will you leave those side wheels off entirely?

That system has been upgraded to improve our performance.

[Mr. B]

Where can 4" Colsons be purchased?
Thanks

[Andrew Schreiber]

http://www.robotmarketplace.com/products/colson_wheels.html

[Robotmmm]

Can't wait to see Dark Matter tear up the field this weekend in Rhode Island! Such an awesome robot and with the improvements I am hearing about, they should have a great competition!