Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Vince/Stephanie -- what balance of price point and quantity of information are you guys aiming for? Also, will there be a software-specific section, or will it be limited to strictly mechanical items?

We don't have anything special w.r.t. hardware -- but we're doing some pretty cool things with software. We will be at Champs (Newton) if you'd like to see.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

100% in for buying a book.

You should have a pre-order signup at champs - as a minimum get people to sign up on a list but better yet get a square and collect pre-orders! I for one will put my $ where my :D is!

Best of luck.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Feel free to stop by our pit. We can gladly answer your questions, and would love to be in this book.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

The previous two books are inspiring... beautifully photographed, written, and made. They were very helpful to me when I first started FRC to understand the capabilities and level of sophistication of the robots/teams. We constantly turn to them for ideas.

We would love for you to stop by our pit in Archimedes. Here are a few stats on our 2013 robot/process.

- Resurrected an old CNC lathe and Bridgeport mill in the offseason: 44 unique (214 in total) student made parts in a mentor's garage.

- Laser cut and CNC bent sponsor made parts: 78 unique parts (512 in total)

- CNC milled sponsor made shooter/flywheels (4 parts)

- TIG welded chassis with large climb V groove down the center

- Addressable LED lights driven from the cRIO using Java SPI

- PID control using encoders, potentiometers, and gyro for shooter RPM, distance, turning, shooter angle, and blocker height.

- Limit switches and IR sensors for game piece counting

- 100% CAD modeled

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

No specific quantity of information yet. Right now we are looking for some insight on which teams we should visit while at the Championship. We don't need a complete write-up, just some highlights. As we proceed with our plans, more information will become available on submitting material for review.

The specific sections of the book haven't been defined yet. We will let everyone know as we work out more of the details. Any innovative use of software is definitely worth mentioning. We are still in the planning phase, and any novel uses of manufacturing techniquest could help to shape the chapters in the book.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Here is the response from my programming mentor Joe H:


The implementation in San Antonio (Alamo) was using the cRIO's FPGA and RT processor to implement the Bling.

The FPGA was responsible for reading back buffers of timed audio data
using DMA from the analog input channel that had a microphone
connected.

The RT processor then performed DSP on the audio to identify the power of the Bass portion of the signal (128 Hz - 32 Hz). It also used some sinusoids to slowly sweep between target colors.

Once the color was chosen for that time, the FPGA was told to change
the 3 (red, green, and blue) DIO PWM signals that were driving the 3
channels of the LED panels. The FPGA continues to generate this duty
cycle until the next color is chosen by RT.

The digital outputs have FET buffers on them to allow the PWM signal
to control the relatively high current LEDs.

Hope this helps,
-Joe

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

FIRST Team 1086: Blue Cheese would love to show you what our students have designed and built this year. You can find us in the Galileo Division.


A quick list of features:

-- Light weight "Legendairy" octocanum drive train. This earned us the Engineering Excellence Award at the Chesapeake Regional.

-- Innovative use of a double rocker arm four bar linkage.

-- Lightweight and durable sheet metal frame cut on water jet and powder coated.

-- Full student designed and created CAD model.

A quick animation that points out a few of the features.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

2046 Galileo

In house

CNC milling

3D printed parts (though not as many as intially planned to to design changes)

Done by a student at his employer/our sponsor

Water jetted polycarbonate

CNC milling

CNC lathe

We also have a laser cutter but no robot parts were made with it this year though we did use it to make buttons.

I'll second the sentiment that you must check out 1899's laser cut plywood robot, it's a thing of beauty.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Current list, for reference:


Looks like I need to schedule myself more time off to look around! ;)

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Thanks for the great suggestions and summary.

We are also be looking for control/sensor applications, as well as detailed CAD work (as well as any simulation, say for climbing or shooting mechanisms), so more leads in those areas will help as well.

We appreciate everyone's assistance finding case study leads.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

For 2468, I would add the string Potentiometer. It is probably better than the other items you list for us although the LEDs are a favorite of the students. We use the POT to adjust the angle of shooter deck as well as PID control on the shooter wheel using an optical sensor.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

I think this is a simple and effective sensor for arm and elevator applications. I know that we and 1718 have installed string pots as well, and this is 2337's second year doing so.

As for other interesting software features prevalent in FRC, the rise of using the cRIO's FTP server to send autonomous scripts that are read by the robot to quickly tune autos and then switch between them is a useful feature.

Plus, I know teams that are also using configuration files of robot constants (such as PID constants) that allow quick constants changing and, thus, tuning. It trumps having to rebuild and redeploy code every time something needs to be changed. We are utilizing both of these this year - I'd love to talk about these, or the string pot, at Championship this week.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Team 696 did some mathematical modeling of frisbee flight using Matlab if you're looking for something of the sort.

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

Team 207 prides itself on it's manufacturing. We're an official chapter of SME (society of manufacturing engineers) and thanks to that and some serious hard work, we've been doing some really cool stuff. Every part on the robot that's not from the KOP is either machined or 3D printed in house by the kids. design work is pretty insane too. These kids use Solidoworks to high-end industry levels. We were a part of the first book and would love to be a part of the next. There is a whole team component dealing with documentation of our design process as well so we have some great stuff for you to see!

Keep the Hawthorne High School of Manufacturing and Engineering in mind! We won't be at nationals this year, but we are easy to reach...

Re: FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)
 

1983 will be bringing pamphlets and paperwork in collaboration with our Water-jet sponsor OMAX.

Please stop by and grab the paperwork.

Talk to myself, or preferably ask for Liam in our pit.