FRC40 presents Mini FRC:Aim High!

[gren737]

This year FRC team 40 (intelitek and Trinity HS) took on a new approach to the brainstorming and prototyping process for the game. The students at Trinity HS used a beta version of intelitek's new robotics curriculum called REC (Robotics Engineering Curriculum) to learn about Vex and easyC before the FRC season began. This allowed them to build sophisticated robots and write autonomous programs very quickly for prototyping this year's Aim High game.

On day one we held the typical team meeting/brainstorming session. However this year we decided to try to build 1/3 vex models of our ideas. We came up with 6 unique robot designs, and broke our team into groups to build these robots. Some of the ideas were low goal scorer with ground pickup, high goal scorer human loader, etc. We had swerve drives, holonomic drives, tank drives, everything.

Each team was given a couple of days to build and program their 'bots and then we competed.

We didn't know it at the time, but the mini competitions we had in that first week of build season replicated actual "real" gameplay almost identically. It showed how much defense would be played against the shooters, the importance of autonomous, etc.

The other great aspect was the EVERY student on the team was involved, EVERY student learned the rules and got to build something. When it came time to start designing and building the big robot a unique thing happened. Some of the older students broke off to work on the big robot while the other, less experienced students continued to develop their vexbots because we could not get them to stop.

The vex motors weren't capable of firing the balls, so they figured out how to wire in a victor speed controller to the vex controller and ran fisher price motors for the ball shooters. One team had such a complex robot that they had to run a second vex controller as a slave because they used more than 8 PWMs.

We worked with the organizers of the Hartford regional to put on a demo to share our idea and experiences with the rest of the FIRST community. It was a great hit and we're currently working with FIRST to try and bring it to nationals. If anyone would like more information on how to build a 1/3 scale mini FRC Vex bot, please contact us. The more the merrier. :D

Below are some pictures from back at the shop and Hartford:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23765?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23766?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23767?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23768?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23769?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23770?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23771?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23772?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23773?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23774?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23775?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23776?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23777?

[Greg Marra]

I saw your guys demo for a little bit, although I didn't get to check it out in detail. I think it's a pretty cool idea, kind of like how Art made all those mini tetras and goals last year.

Wouldn't it be a great way to transition kids between VEX and FRC? Have them play a scaled down version of the game for a while. That's pretty neat.

Did you need an auxillary power source to power the Fisher Price motors?

[gren737]

Yes, the fisher price motors were run off of speed controllers that were powered by a second vex battery.

[irishninja]

I'm so sad I didn't see it. I was at hartford (Team 694 YAY) but I cmpletely missed it.

We did somethin like tat last year where we just built a miniature scale model of last years robot Yvette. It was Yvette-ette and she did everyhting her larger counterpart could do. We brought it to the NYC regional and let peeople drive it around, it was pretty cool and popular.

VEX is definatley a good way to teach people about FIRST and robotics.

[David55]

That is pretty cool and a great idea.
Do you have any more pictures or video?

Thanks
David

[gren737]

We do have more pictures and an awesome video, which is currently huge. We can definately post more pics, probably this weekend because one of the students has most of them.
The video we'll have to work on, I heard it's around 1GB :ahh:
So I'll try to get them to cut it down into smaller segments and then compress it some to make it more manageable.

We are competing in Boston next weekend and will have all of the mini FRC bots with us as well as video playing in our pits.

[artdutra04]

This all seems very familiar... It's kind of creepy. :p
I saw your guys demo for a little bit, although I didn't get to check it out in detail. I think it's a pretty cool idea, kind of like how Art made all those mini tetras and goals last year.Cost Effective Robotics - Using VEX in FRC: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1716

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/img/f22/f2243a339bf60225d5b2dd06c447cc14_m.jpg (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/22132)

http://img287.imageshack.us/img287/8525/s43000210ff.jpg (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40388)

[artdutra04]

This year FRC team 40 (intelitek and Trinity HS) took on a new approach to the brainstorming and prototyping process for the game. The students at Trinity HS used a beta version of intelitek's new robotics curriculum called REC (Robotics Engineering Curriculum) to learn about Vex and easyC before the FRC season began. This allowed them to build sophisticated robots and write autonomous programs very quickly for prototyping this year's Aim High game.I'm impressed at the Vex robots that your team dreamed up this year. I saw a bunch of them at UTC, but sadly I never actually got to see one of the matches in action. I've had plans to build a Mini Aim High robot since the Kickoff; but so far I haven't really had any time to build much. The day after the Kickoff I tried building a bunch of different shooters that would shoot raquetballs. Unfortunately, raquetballs are too heavy to be used for shooting in Vex.

I did have one of those deja vu moments when I saw the TechnoKats robot this year, as I built almost that exact same design out of Vex parts the day after the Kickoff. :eek:

[Matt Krass]

How many robots did you run at once? I seem to remember something about control system limits keeping you at 4 or less, did you find a solution to this or did you just make it 4 robots at a time only?

[mrmummert]

Hey folks...
This is way cool...kinda creepy for our team though...Look at this picture of the mini bot...http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/23769?

And here's ours

http://www.virginiafirst.org/2006/gallery/day1_practice/target76.html

then again...we did win Nasa/VCU....hmmmm bet your not the only ones who do this next year....lol

[Francis-134]

How many robots did you run at once? I seem to remember something about control system limits keeping you at 4 or less, did you find a solution to this or did you just make it 4 robots at a time only?
We had six going at once. There is no limit to the number of robots that can go at once as long as you have the appropriate number of crystals for each robot (a total of six sets). We have no sort of "central controller" that we plug into, if that was what you were referencing. We simply use a timer and someone yelling "STOP!" and "GO!" between periods. Since it's just amongst friends (for now), we all just stop moving the robots at specific times.

Hopefully, I should have some video of this up soon.

[Matt Krass]

Did they release more crystals? I seem to remember only four unique sets. It's been a while though.

[Donut]

They have 2 sets of crystals, each with four crystals. If you include the starter one in addition to that, you can run up to 9 robots simultaneously.

This is definetly something I'm looking into for prototyping for the team now. It would greatly assist us in doing something productive in the fall too; we've had problems trying other small robots the past few years.

[Mark McLeod]

Did they release more crystals? I seem to remember only four unique sets. It's been a while though.
I own 9 unique sets of crystals. Four are only available online.

[Dan Larochelle]

There are 10 crystals frequency available to the public.
61 - starter kit
89 - Additional Transmitter/Receiver kit
65,69,81 and 85 - Crystal kit A
63,67,83 and 87 - Crystal kit B

FIRST has additional Frequencies that used only for competitions.

[Greg Marra]

If a robot has two controllers, then you need two crystals, right? So the maximum number of two-controller robots you could have active at once is 5?

[gren737]

you got it!

Although, out of all the robots we had only 1 was complex enough to require 2 controllers, the rest were all programmed to run off 1.

[MarsBOtkid]

Im hoping that you all are going to be able to bring your field to nationals our team has three robots VEX's ready to go.

You actually can make a "good" shooter with only vex parts we did it.
Make a Transmition
large gear in motor then to small gear on the same shaft large gear then to small gear that is attatched to the wheel it whips the balls! :D

[rufu5]

Im hoping that you all are going to be able to bring your field to nationals our team has three robots VEX's ready to go.

You actually can make a "good" shooter with only vex parts we did it.
Make a Transmition
large gear in motor then to small gear on the same shaft large gear then to small gear that is attatched to the wheel it whips the balls! :D

I second that, if you guys have your field and bots there, we would love to throw down too :D

[Francis-134]

I second that, if you guys have your field and bots there, we would love to throw down too :D

Oooh, looks like we're going to have some fixing to do :). We're not quite sure if the field is going to make it down to Atlanta, but I do have a video of the robots in action here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8078364906389058129). It's a compilation of video and pictures of the robots, and shows how the designs progressed over time. Maybe one of these days I'll get a "best of" video together. :)

[MarsBOtkid]

THE FIELD IS GOING TO BE AT NATIONALS!!!! YIPPIII

[mrmummert]

Hi..

Um where is the field going to be set up at, at the GWCC?
I'd like to come by and take a look.

[mrmummert]

Oooh, looks like we're going to have some fixing to do :). We're not quite sure if the field is going to make it down to Atlanta, but I do have a video of the robots in action here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8078364906389058129). It's a compilation of video and pictures of the robots, and shows how the designs progressed over time. Maybe one of these days I'll get a "best of" video together. :)


Ok in the Vex area...got it

[Dan Larochelle]

The field will be set up outside the Vex pit area, next to the FVC practice fields. If you got a robot, bring it. It should be a lot of fun. We will have our MiniFRC robots there too, if any wants to play with them. See you in Atlanta! :)