[Paul Copioli]

I apologize in advance for the long post ...

So I wanted to explain this year's collaboration between 217 and 148 a little bit further. But first, some statistics:


1. Drive base - 9 wheels (5 omni + 4 VEXPro Traction Wheels). 5 CIM motors (both 217 & 148). Traction wheels and 5th wheel drop down using pneumatics.

2. Kicker - FP with AM Planetary geared so the output speed is approximately 38 RPM.

3. Arm (we call it TACO) - FP with AM Planetary (same gearbox as kicker but with a larger chain reduction)

4. Ball magnet - Window motor


Now, on to the collaboration ...

First off, for those contemplating collaboration know this: true collaboration is hard, especially when the two teams are over 1,000 miles apart.

Prototyping & Design

Both teams are relatively large with 148 having around 30 students and 217 with almost 50. We performed design and prototyping at the same time.

Both teams prototyped all sorts of kicker designs, ball intake designs, hanging arm designs for a better part of three weeks.

At the same time, two different design teams (one at FANUC Robotics in Michigan and one at IFI in Texas) broke up the design into chunks.

I was in Michigan the entire first week leading the design efforts for the ThunderChickens and we did a lot of the concept work for the kicker & arm that both 148 & 217 prototyped. At the same time, John led the concept team at 148 and the team did a lot of the concept work for the drive train geometry (primarily to get over the hump).

When I returned to Texas; Don Bartlett, Mike Beem, and Andy Hatzillas from FANUC RObotics and Ed Debler continued to lead the 217 design team (consisting of approximately 10 students) through detailed design of the Arm, kicker cam, and kicker.

In Texas, John led the 148 design team (consisting of 2 students) with the detailed design of the drive base and arm tower.

I was the conduit between the two teams, constantly on the phone with ThunderChicken prototypers and designers when in Texas and constantly on the phone with John when in Michigan. We uploaded SolidWorks models nightly so both teams had the latest files each work day ... it was exhausting.


We decided to leave a big "hole" in the front for where the intake system would reside.

Both the 217 and 148 prototype teams spent countless hours validating the arm & kicker designs and trying to figure out the intake design. The intake design had one requirement (besides following all the game rules): be able to control the ball during full reverse and the "death spin". A simple request, but a difficult challenge which took both teams 3 weeks.

At this point the lines of responsibility are very gray. I can honestly say that we discussed all of the designs and ideas so much between the two teams that every design is a 100% shared responsibility between the two teams.

Sure there were specific designs that made it to the final robots, but the final end product is a 50-50 collaborative design between 217 and 148.


Manufacturing


The manufacturing division of responsibility was very clear: 148 manufactures all sheet metal and 217 manufactures all turned (aka using a lathe) and milled parts. Sure, there were some exceptions to this, but 95% of the parts followed this rule.

In total, the ThunderChickens and their sponsors manufactured over 60 unique parts (multiply that by 5 or 6 for total parts manufactured) and the Robowranglers and their sponsor manufactured over 70 unique parts (again, multiply that by 5 or 6 for total parts manufactured).

I personally want to thank all of the outstanding students and mentors on both teams: The ThunderChicken mentors whom I have grown very close to over the last 10 years and the Robowrangler mentors whom I am just getting to know.

One last thing: great things can come from FRC for mentors. My participation in FRC has brought me much closer to my brother, Mike Copioli, and allowed me to meet someone who is like another brother to me; JVN.

This has been a very emotional year for me, personally, and I look forward to the competition season.