Re: Off-Season Projects
 

if u saw duke 461s post out mentor says our off season project is to make jump drive (See dukes post for link) into a lighter more competition ready drive base. also at 461 we are building a robot with a ball shooter for four inch balls that we can demo with at basketball and volleyball games in the future

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

One thing I really want our team to do, is because we didn't win any regionals, to work more on this year's robot for off-season competitions, and to be able to use the robot to teach incoming freshman about the basic skills in robotics. Another thing we need to do is fundraise during the summer when no other school groups are doing anything. We also want to recruit more people, because we were able to rbi g only 8-9 people to each of our competitions.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

Don't be afraid to leave the world of FRC for your offseason projects, you gain a lot of solid learning experiences by branching out. The most robot fun I've ever had was building an underwater robot for NURC. You get to tackle all kinds of new, drastically different problems. (Underwater robots have the benefit of playing next to a pool as you work, too. Great summer project!)

However, if you must stay in the standard FRC-drivetrain-testing envelope, try to come up with something new and groundbreaking to experiment with. Nonadrive? So last year. Octocanum? Seen it. WCD? Borrrring. Put on your thinking caps, folks. Sample attached.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

I agree, but it's not just innovative here, its helpfulness and how much it benefits a team. And with that said, i would say jump drive is by far one of the most beneficial, and still innovative, things you can do.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

Team 2337 usually gears up for the numerous offseason events we attend. Last year, we attended the TARDEC competition, MARC, IRI, and Kettering Kickoff. Then, we do multiple other publicity events with other teams, such as appearing at a local car festival.

However, as far as robot projects go, 2337, in the past, has engineered and finally built our "Dawg" bot. It is merely a small robot designed to retrieve balls autonomously (the programming has not yet started, but the mechanics are there). It used the NI control system in the past with our second cRIO; however, it currently uses the iAMdriver control system from Robolytics and AndyMark, acting as a demo bot for the system (you can see it at the Michigan State Championship this weekend!).

I, personally, want to look into a crab/swerve drive VI for our mechanum-equipped robot after our last official event (when there is more time to work on our competition robot). As well, I know that one other student is looking into a coaxial swerve drive system.

Our team is largely busy with participating in offseason events with other teams, but we usually have time to get one or two things done.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

For our offseason last year, during June and July we took our Breakaway robot and re-did everything except the kicker for IRI. 2 weeks before IRI the entire thing was taken apart. It was a great learning experience and it made us more competitive then we already were. We were doing well at IRI until a shaft shattered and we didn't have a replacement...

Anyway here's the link to the gallery for that project:
http://pwnage.foxvalleyrobotics.com/..._newrobot.html

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

We've decided to build at least one swerve drive module as proof we can do it for next year, with a focus on design and the math relating to it.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

The mechanical design isn't the hardest part. Beware.

We're looking into copying 1726 some more and building a mecanum drive t-shirt shooter.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

Team 228 Gus is building a completely new cart after we get home from St.Louis, one that is powered(by an old wheelchair), have battery holders for changed batteries, LED's for show:p, and possibly a small radio for off-season stuff to get us pumped up. I'll have CAD's up within a month or so. Also I'm planning on creating a small game that is fairly easy to play and see if we can get 4 or 5 teams made up from local boy scout, girl scout, and elementary schools kids to build robots in our shop(out of vex stuff) and have a small competition to introduce them to STEM activities and maybe even create the next generation of Gus team members! :D.

Re: Off-Season Projects
 

We'll largely be working on the business end, but we are planning to build some practice/demonstration drivetrains (to compare a hybrid omni vs a mecanum), but i'm not sure whether we'll use the current FRC control system. We have been strongly considering the IFI control system as well as a simple R/C car/plane-type control system. I may also try to convince the team that we need a new, powered cart.:)