The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Singapore American School FRC Team 4817 is the first FRC team in Singapore, and while this season has posed some interesting difficulties (There's no such thing as Home Depot in Singapore) we are proud to present the Orchid One, a robot, that, while a bit rough around the edges, represents 5 weeks (Our KOP was late) of hard work, creativity, and lots of learning.

I apologize for the poor picture staging. Other angles are available if requested.



Specs

Height: 54"
Weight: 77 lbs

Hopper

• 4-disc capacity bucket hopper
• Elevator lift driven by window motor
• Ejector driven by window motor
• Two levels to output at low and medium feeder heights
• Accepts discs at medium level

Drivetrain

• Standard 2-CIM Narrowbody configuration
• KOP HiGrip Wheels

For our design, we saw the effort it would take to build a dependable climber or shooter, and were cognizant of the fact that were we to try to do either of those, we would likely lack the infrastructure and expertise to do them well. In addition, we had no ability to build the field elements that those objectives would require (the kit of parts' meager selection, and the fact that FIRST choice shipping is a heck of a lot of money to Singapore, didn't help) and would not be able to test. So, we went with a design that did not attempt to be a protagonist, but rather a supporting role. Orchid One can act as a helper to a shooter without a pickup, and so can effectively expand the capacity of a robot to 8 discs rather than four. The two feeding positions mean that we can be flexible, and accommodate the needs of our alliance partners. We can also act as a feeder to teams that want to climb the tower and dump but don't want to take time going to get discs from the feeder station, or are unable to.

Team 4817 will be attending the GTW Regional.

Website

Comments and Questions are welcome!

Note: This picture was taken as we readied it for shipping; thus, the cables are slack and the hopper is tilted because we zip-tied it to frame points. That is also why the intake chute plates do not line up.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

It looks good! Keeping a simple plan of attack is always a great strategy!

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

A question: if we were to develop something for our withholding allowance, which would be more valuable: a floor pickup or a 10-point hang? I can see us completing one or the other, but not both, unless we integrated them.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I would say the 10 point hang.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I'd agree - a ten point hang would be good.

With your height you may also be able to play some decent defense against far scoring teams. Good job!

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Yeah. We will be packing a few sheets of lexan into our crate when we ship. We will both shield our robot, replace our acrylic sheet chutes, and put in some frisbee deflectors.

As for the hang, we still have The jag left, along with the PG 71. I guess we'll see what we can whip up. The kit of parts is meager when FIRST Choice is less of an option. We managed to get a few parts ferried to us through some coworkers of parents, but not much. The KOP only came with 2 victors, one jag, and 2 spikes. We didn't have enough motor controllers so our window motors are driven by spikes. It has been a trying season.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I know it may be a little to late but did you use your IFI PDV to get more jags or victors. You can get up to 2 extra Victors or Jags. if you need details you can pm me.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

We did, but we didn't have enough money to ship direct, so we mailed them to a team in the states. However, they did not get them in time to get them to a person coming over for work, and so we do not have them. We are working on getting them soonish.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

looks good, don't forget your team number on the bumpers. I'll be inspecting and refereeing at GTR W

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I would do a 10 point ramp hang. That is what we are adding.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Yeah, we'll be painting them on there.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Another thing you could easily do is cover one or both of the sides of your robot with disk deflecting body panels. Right now, if you were to block a fast shot it looks like it could potentially mess up your robot. My team uses polycarbonate as body panels but mostly anything will do. As a bonus it provides a place where you can put your team name, school, or sponsors for all to see.

Good Luck this season!
Regards, Bryan

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I would also go with the ten point hang, simply because I think it would be very difficult, almost impossible to create a functioning retrieval system without being able to actually work on your robot. a ten point hang can be done VERY easily.
Here's the simplest design I've seen so far, that will be easy to build, and very consistent if it's strong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRCi...ature=youtu.be
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/38346
Good luck! :]

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Yeah, we'll be doing that. Lexan is favorite because it shatters less

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I'd go with the ten point hang as well, simply because it is easier to build without actually having your robot to build on. Here is an easy design to build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRCi...ature=youtu.be
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/38346
Good luck! :]

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Also, I am thinking of adding a 84" deflector to our lift mechanism. We could extend it when necessary to block shots.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

You should look into one of these for a quick 10 point hang.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...=10+point+hang

-Mihir Iyer

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

It depends. Can you dump in the 1 point goal with your design? If so then I would advise building a pickup. If not then I would say build a hanging mechanism.

EDIT: When I consider your somewhat limited resources and time I would probably have to lean towards the passive hanging mechanism.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

That's a very good idea. I think I will be trying to source some good plywood in the next few days.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Wow I can't imagine what it would be like to work without being able to order any parts I want and have them shipped to me for almost nothing within the end of the work.......... Big props to you guys!

Firstly definitely build the hanger, the passive hang is pretty easy to do and 10pts will make a different.

As a future suggestion, maybe you guys can source some local motor controllers, to test with and then when you fly in for comp switch them out for FRC legal ones when you get to your comp. But I guess you can load up on goodies for next year when you are state side for regional.

Just wondering how hard is it to get materials in Singapore? I have spent a good chuck of time in China and was able to get almost anything I wanted from the street vendors/flea markets in terms of metal/wood/motors/electronics (abit not FRC legal ones).

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

In Singapore, everything is somewhere, but there is no easy way to find it. I could probably find motor controllers and the like, but it is a lot more work than in the states. In addition, Singapore might be small, but it can still be a pain to get around, and there aren't many centralized markets for that sort of thing. There's a few, but most of the team doesn't know what to look for. In addition, the mentor situation is different than on a lot of teams, so we don't have consistent access to expertise, and they don't really know where to buy stuff either. Let me put it this way: Singapore does a lot of contracting, less in-house stuff than in the States.

Yeah. I was thinking of ways to implement a pickup, and the only practical thing would be some sort of spatula system. We can dump in the low goal, but I doubt we could score enough to make more than 10 pts. If we can implement it, we will, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm more confident in a passive hang as well as a blocking mechanism actuated by our elevator.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Yeah my team has many resources and we're still finding that picking up frisbees is a difficult challenge.
Something I like about your robot is that you receive discs from the feeder station in the back of the robot and then push them out the front (as far as I can tell from the picture). This will allow you to move back and forth across the field without turning. This is a feature that I feel like a lot of teams have missed this year, you'd be really surprised how much time it wastes to turn around every time you want to cross the field (especially if you don't have a second robot to practice with). If you guys can use a nice smooth path across the field and just go back and forth as fast as possible I think you could make two or three trips of four discs to the 1 point goal (when you're not acting as a mobile feeding station) which equates to 8-12 points along with a passive 10 point hanging mechanism will make you score a decent amount of points (enough to win most qualification matches).

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Another thing you could do is hold 2-3 discs in autonomous and drive up to the 1 point goal and dump them in. It shouldn't be to hard to program and you can tune it at the competition on practice day.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

They'd do better to try and feed another team during auto mode so they can score them preferably in the top goal

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

I suppose. It really depends on the design of the shooter robot. We would be better off picking up off the floor than trying to line up to a mobile feeder station. Another thing is that you would have to drive up to the shooting bot (you can't just position the robots end to end like you could last year).

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Yes you can, it just depends which "ends" your trying to line up. Our hopper can accept discs from all 4 sides a robot like the one shown in this thread could easily feed us from the side.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Just a question. How should the sides be shielded? They're pretty vulnerable at the moment, and I'd like to shield the tower somewhat. Is polycarbonate the best option?

Also, we will be changing out the chutes from acrylic to polycarbonate. Is this necessary? Also, what should the hanger be made out of? Will plywood work?

Thanks!

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

Polycarb is a pretty good all around choice - typically 1/16" will do the job for most applications like this.

I've certainly seen some hangers made out of plywood like this one, so if it works for you it might not be a bad option.

Re: The Inaugural Year: Team 4817 Presents Orchid One
 

At the competition we striped all functionality and made a pretty simple but effective defence bot.