FRC 2012 "Best Designs" Log

[MichaelBick]

This is a thread with their 2010 robot and swerve. The swerve is basically the same designs this year as then, except independent.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/35361

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by craigboez

Does anyone have anything tangible on the team 16 and 1717 swerve designs?

We're working on a swerve bot as an offseason project, so if these bots were two of the best it'd be great to have a look at them. I don't need a full CAD model, or blueprints, or anything that detailed. How about a picture or even just a brief description? There doesn't seem to be much info floating around other than a few "they were awesome" comments.

I have a video of 1126's mechanical team taking a look at one of 16's swerve modules (seperate, out of the robot), and talking with one of their students about it. It's really informative. I don't have access to it right now, so I'll upload it when I get home.

Hopefully that will help some people get an insight into 16's swerve design.

[LeelandS]

Hey guys. Sorry for the extreme delay. With the end of school, I've been a little swamped with exams and getting stuff straightened out. Without further adieu, here's the updated design list:


Drives:
Swerve Drive, as seen by 16, 1717, 973 and others
-Omnidirectional drive system allowing teams to move in any direction, anytime.
-The Swerve Drive in 2012 aided teams in a variety of ways. With it, teams were able to drive onto the bridge on either the long or wide orientation. It also gave teams an amazing ball intake ability, allowing them to turn to any direction to acquire a ball. By avoiding defense robots, and traversing the field and acquiring balls quickly, Swerve drives had a huge advantage this year.

Ball Acquiring System:
Multi-Directional Drop Down Intake, as seen by 973,177 and 2415
-A drop-down intake system consisting of a series of rollers and urethane belt that sucked the ball into the robot, no matter what part of the device the ball contacted.
-This system gave the teams using it an amazing intake ability, being able to touch a ball with any part of the system and have it be acquired. This gave teams a lot of leeway when going to acquire balls, having a smaller chance of missing and not acquiring the ball.

Over-the-Bumper Intake, as seen by 469, 2056, , 2826, 341 and others
-The over-the-bumper intake system was a very common design in 2012, with many dominating teams using it. Essentially, it's just a collector system that drops out over the bumpers and lifts the balls up over the bumpers and into the robot. This can turn an entire side of a robot into a collector.
-By using this, teams were able to greatly speed up their collecting of balls. By making them as wide as the side of a robot, teams were essentially able to just drive at a ball and collect it. This proved to be a huge asset for teams who were shooting, and teams who were stealing balls.

Drop-Down Intake, as seen by 1114, 1323, 987 and many others
-The drop down intake is a different variation of the Over-The-Bumper intake. However, instead of lifting the balls into the robot, it sucks the balls in through a break in the bumpers.
-By using this, teams can extend their reach of ball acquisition, as well as widen their range. In addition, many teams used this as a bridge manipulator as well.

Ball Transport System:
Rotating tower, as seen by 33, 973, 177, 78 and others
-Instead of just the shooter rotating, the entire tower/storage system and shooter rotated. In doing so, balls entered the same way every time.
-In doing so, the teams who used this were far less prone to jamming as the balls would enter the tower the same way every time.

Perpendicular Entry” Tower, as seen by 971
-971's tower and intake system put the balls in around a corner, greatly reducing their risk of jamming.
-Like the rotating tower, 971 rarely (if ever) had ball jams, keeping their shooting consistent every match. Combine that with their lightening quick ball elevation, and 971 was a force.

Ball Scoring System:
Arm/Shooter combo, as seen by 548, 330, 1323 and others
-These robots had a shooter attached to an arm, allowing them to get their shooter up to the top basket, and pop the shoots out from a much closer distance.
-Many teams had an issue getting consistent key shooting throughout the season, but by having the shooter on the lift, the teams were able to greatly increase their consistency. Most of these teams also acquired the ability to shooter from distance, allowing them to circumvent defense.

Rotating Wheel Shooter, as seen by 1114, 610, 118, 1717, 399 and many, many others
-The rotating shooter is exactly as it sounds: A spinning wheel acting as a shooter, on a rotating device so it can point in different direction
-By using this design, teams could target a basket and face it with a turret design, and then shoot from a distance. By tracking the target well, teams using this could avoid defense and put in a lot of points.

Bridge Manipulator:
The Utility Arm, as seen by 67
-67's Utility Arm allowed them to acquire balls, go over the bump, and manipulate the bridge. This arm would push the bridge down with little effort.
-The utility arm was built to be robust, so 67 would always be capable of manipulating the bridge. It could quickly and easily push the bridge down to allow 67 to drive on smoothly.

Bump Crossing:
Large Pneumatic Wheels, as seen by 1114 and 2056 and many others
-These teams use large pneumatic wheels in their drive systems, which allowed to simply drive over the bump, quick and easy, forward or backward.
-By relying on the type of wheels they used, these teams had a passive device that worked every time, no failure. This gave them more time to work on other robot functions and gave them and even more robust design.

Drop-Down castor wheels, as seen on 254, 971, 111 and others
-This system consists of a caster wheels (or set of wheels) on the bottom of the robot that pop out, lifting the front of the robot high enough for the front wheels to drive on the barrier.
-This system worked well because it allowed teams to just activate the wheels, and then drive their robot right over the bump, quick and smooth.


Bridge Balancing Aid (i.e. Stinger, etc.):
FRC1986, The Teeter-Totter Talons
-1986 had a pair of pneumatically powered 'talons' that would push down and aid in the balancing of the bridge.
-With the aid of the talons, 1986 could not only push up on the bridge to even it out, but they could even brace the bridge from falling. Quick and effective. With the addition of the Twin Tucking Tabs, 1986 was a balancing machine.

Four Bar Linkage, as seen by 33, 469 and others
-The four bar linkage is a simple balancing system, in which a mechanism made up of a series of bars is pushed down, lifting up the bridge.
-This system is slightly more complex than the drop down piston, but is considered more effective because the device can reach outside the robot's frame perimeter.

Drop down Piston, as seen by 148, 2056, 1114, 2337 and others
-The drop down piston is simply an air cylinder with a piston-mounted Caster wheel (or some other type of wheel that can roll in multiple direction) that pushes the robot (and as a result, the bridge) up, and allows the robot using it to continue driving to complete the balance.
-This is a much simpler method than the 4-bar linkage, but not viewed as as effective since the robot is limited to having it within their bumpers, reducing how much they are able to drive onto the bridge with it deployed. Still, this design has proven very effective to many teams, and has resulted in the first ever triple balance (by 148), and many thereafter.

I think this covers many of the updates. As always, if I made a mistake, let me know.

[slijin]

Adding to bridge manipulators:

Passive downwards manipulation. Teams with tusks or wedges (e.g. 233, 1114, to ashamedly toot my own horn, 694) could drive into the bridge while pushing it down, instead of driving up to it, slamming it down, fiddling so that it didn't hit the bumpers or whatnot, and then driving up the bridge.

Passive upwards manipulation. Teams with frames angled upwards (e.g. 3847, 118, and some other team used this during elims somewhere very consistently) could lift the bridge up to allow other teams onto the bridge first. This created two advantages - 1, teams without a manipulator or an effective one could drive up very easily, and 2, teams with low traction could end up on the bridge first, allowing the robot that pushed it up to follow it up.

IMHO, 118's in a category of their own. Their entire frame was built for passive bridge manipulation - both pushing it down and lifting it up - and a good portion of their mechanisms were devoted to balance assists. They had a beautiful system to assist a double balance, complete with lights to indicate an unbalanced v balanced bridge. And that's all before their stinger.

The decision to have the shooter face one side by default, and have the acquirer/bridge manipulator on the other side allowed teams to execute an auton in which they backed up to and scored balls from the coop (or in 254's case, the alliance bridge). Off the top of my head, 341, 233, and 254 pulled this off.

[LeelandS]

Latest updates are up!
Updates are in:
Bridge Balancing Aid (118's Lifting Mechanism)
Bridge Manipulator (Wedges, Angled frame)

Drives:
Swerve Drive, as seen by 16, 1717, 973 and others
-Omnidirectional drive system allowing teams to move in any direction, anytime.
-The Swerve Drive in 2012 aided teams in a variety of ways. With it, teams were able to drive onto the bridge on either the long or wide orientation. It also gave teams an amazing ball intake ability, allowing them to turn to any direction to acquire a ball. By avoiding defense robots, and traversing the field and acquiring balls quickly, Swerve drives had a huge advantage this year.

Ball Acquiring System:
Multi-Directional Drop Down Intake, as seen by 973,177 and 2415
-A drop-down intake system consisting of a series of rollers and urethane belt that sucked the ball into the robot, no matter what part of the device the ball contacted.
-This system gave the teams using it an amazing intake ability, being able to touch a ball with any part of the system and have it be acquired. This gave teams a lot of leeway when going to acquire balls, having a smaller chance of missing and not acquiring the ball.

Over-the-Bumper Intake, as seen by 469, 2056, , 2826, 341 and others
-The over-the-bumper intake system was a very common design in 2012, with many dominating teams using it. Essentially, it's just a collector system that drops out over the bumpers and lifts the balls up over the bumpers and into the robot. This can turn an entire side of a robot into a collector.
-By using this, teams were able to greatly speed up their collecting of balls. By making them as wide as the side of a robot, teams were essentially able to just drive at a ball and collect it. This proved to be a huge asset for teams who were shooting, and teams who were stealing balls.

Drop-Down Intake, as seen by 1114, 1323, 987 and many others
-The drop down intake is a different variation of the Over-The-Bumper intake. However, instead of lifting the balls into the robot, it sucks the balls in through a break in the bumpers.
-By using this, teams can extend their reach of ball acquisition, as well as widen their range. In addition, many teams used this as a bridge manipulator as well.

Ball Transport System:
Rotating tower, as seen by 33, 973, 177, 78 and others
-Instead of just the shooter rotating, the entire tower/storage system and shooter rotated. In doing so, balls entered the shooter the same way every time.
-In doing so, the teams using this design ensured balls entered the shooter the same way every time. This resulted in more consistency as far as shooting was concerned.

Perpendicular Entry” Tower, as seen by 971
-971's tower and intake system put the balls in around a corner, greatly reducing their risk of jamming.
-Like the rotating tower, 971 rarely (if ever) had ball jams, keeping their shooting consistent every match. Combine that with their lightening quick ball elevation, and 971 was a force.

Ball Scoring System:
Arm/Shooter combo, as seen by 548, 330, 1323 and others
-These robots had a shooter attached to an arm, allowing them to get their shooter up to the top basket, and pop the shoots out from a much closer distance.
-Many teams had an issue getting consistent key shooting throughout the season, but by having the shooter on the lift, the teams were able to greatly increase their consistency. Most of these teams also acquired the ability to shooter from distance, allowing them to circumvent defense.

Rotating Wheel Shooter, as seen by 1114, 610, 118, 1717, 399 and many, many others
-The rotating shooter is exactly as it sounds: A spinning wheel acting as a shooter, on a rotating device so it can point in different direction
-By using this design, teams could target a basket and face it with a turret design, and then shoot from a distance. By tracking the target well, teams using this could avoid defense and put in a lot of points.

Bridge Manipulator:
The Utility Arm, as seen by 67
-67's Utility Arm allowed them to acquire balls, go over the bump, and manipulate the bridge. This arm would push the bridge down with little effort.
-The utility arm was built to be robust, so 67 would always be capable of manipulating the bridge. It could quickly and easily push the bridge down to allow 67 to drive on smoothly.

Wedges, as seen by 1114, 233, 118 and many others
-A very simple concept, this design includes a mechanism that lowers down and drops the bridge, allowing the using robot to just drive into the bridge. No strings attached.
-The benefit of this design is that the utilizing robot does not need to take much time to lower the bridge. Where an arm pushing down the bridge has to stop and push down (careful not to get their bumpers caught on it), a robot with a wedge simply has to drive into the bridge. Smooth and easy.

Passive frame angle, as seen by 11 and others
-Another simple concept. The robot's frame is set at an angle that allows them to tilt the bridge (usually upwards) by just driving into it. This generally allowed a team to help another team with no bridge lowering device get on the bridge.
-The beauty of this design is that it is passive. It will "deploy" every time, since it is a built-in robot feature. As long as the robot is built robust enough, a team using this will always be able to manipulate the bridge.

Bump Crossing:
Large Pneumatic Wheels, as seen by 1114 and 2056 and many others
-These teams use large pneumatic wheels in their drive systems, which allowed to simply drive over the bump, quick and easy, forward or backward.
-By relying on the type of wheels they used, these teams had a passive device that worked every time, no failure. This gave them more time to work on other robot functions and gave them and even more robust design.

Drop-Down castor wheels, as seen on 254, 971, 111 and others
-This system consists of a caster wheels (or set of wheels) on the bottom of the robot that pop out, lifting the front of the robot high enough for the front wheels to drive on the barrier.
-This system worked well because it allowed teams to just activate the wheels, and then drive their robot right over the bump, quick and smooth.


Bridge Balancing Aid (i.e. Stinger, etc.):
FRC1986, The Teeter-Totter Talons
-1986 had a pair of pneumatically powered 'talons' that would push down and aid in the balancing of the bridge.
-With the aid of the talons, 1986 could not only push up on the bridge to even it out, but they could even brace the bridge from falling. Quick and effective. With the addition of the Twin Tucking Tabs, 1986 was a balancing machine.

Four Bar Linkage, as seen by 33, 469 and others
-The four bar linkage is a simple balancing system, in which a mechanism made up of a series of bars is pushed down, lifting up the bridge.
-This system is slightly more complex than the drop down piston, but is considered more effective because the device can reach outside the robot's frame perimeter.

Drop down Piston, as seen by 148, 2056, 1114, 2337 and others
-The drop down piston is simply an air cylinder with a piston-mounted Caster wheel (or some other type of wheel that can roll in multiple direction) that pushes the robot (and as a result, the bridge) up, and allows the robot using it to continue driving to complete the balance.
-This is a much simpler method than the 4-bar linkage, but not viewed as as effective since the robot is limited to having it within their bumpers, reducing how much they are able to drive onto the bridge with it deployed. Still, this design has proven very effective to many teams, and has resulted in the first ever triple balance (by 148), and many thereafter.

Drive brakes, as seen by 1507, 1718 and others (videos not available)
-Many variations of the drive brakes mad an appearance in Rebound Rumble. The basic principle is that some sort of mechanism would engage and prevent the robot's wheels from moving. Doing so prevented the robot from rolling as the bridge tipped. Some variations include: 1507, who had a motor/winch-driven caliper that stopped their wheels from turning. And 1718, who shot a block up against their center wheel.
-The drive brakes were a useful balancing mechanism because they aided in balancing no matter where on the bridge the robot was. A "stinger" was only really useful if the robot was on the outer side of the balance. The drive brakes allowed a robot in the middle or the other side of a triple balance to aid in balancing.

The Man on a Ledge device, by 118(Picture)
-The Robonauts really thought outside the box this year, with a risky design that was really stretching the definition of the rules. The Man on a Ledge design, as it has been termed, was a device that attached to the side of the bridge, and in an amazing chin-up like motion, lifted the entire 118 robot off the ground and into legal bridge balance position. Although the device was ruled illegal for grappling with the bridge (violation of G10), it was an amazing bit of ingenuity by The Robonauts, and though it's loss didn't seem to hurt their season finish too much (Newton Champions), it could have certainly changed many things in the course of its use.
-This design would have been so effective because Endeavor (118's robot) was supported solely by the bridge (required to earn balance points), while taking up absolutely no space on the bridge. So essentially, a triple balance would be as simply as a double, a double as a single, and a single as... well, nothing.
Thread about the device

[JesseK]

67's utility arm is significantly overlooked in this thread.

It was their intake.
It was their ball delivery system.
It was their bridge lowering device.
It was their bridge stabilization device.
And due to 67's gas shock implementation, it was guaranteed to lift itself off of the floor while performing bridge stabilization after the buzzer sounded.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by JesseK

67's utility arm is significantly overlooked in this thread.

And due to 67's gas shock implementation, it was guaranteed to lift itself off of the floor while performing bridge stabilization after the buzzer sounded.

I agree. I think that, since 67's arm did so much, I might take it out of any of the set categories and just give it a "Special Design" section.

I never got the chance to examine 67's arm. Could you explain this gas shock thing to me? It obviously worked well for them, but I wasn't aware of anything like that.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

I agree. I think that, since 67's arm did so much, I might take it out of any of the set categories and just give it a "Special Design" section.

I never got the chance to examine 67's arm. Could you explain this gas shock thing to me? It obviously worked well for them, but I wasn't aware of anything like that.

Another amazing thing about 67's arm that no one really knows about: It has driven wheels on the end. That is why their triple balance is usually so lightning fast: not only does it act like a typical triple balance "stinger", but once the bridge starts coming up, the end of that arm acts as part of their drive train to push the three robots those last few inches to get them balanced.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

I never got the chance to examine 67's arm. Could you explain this gas shock thing to me? It obviously worked well for them, but I wasn't aware of anything like that.

The utility arm, when resting on the ground, also rested on perfectly-positioned gas shocks. This meant that if the utility arm was down and the robot was picked up off the floor, the arm would rest on the gas shocks. The motors on the arm could overpower these shocks, taking the wheels to the floor (see Chris's note) to act as a 'stinger' when the bot was on the bridge. Yet once power was cut to the motors (at the end of the match) the gas shocks had enough force to backdrive the motors to the ground pickup position, ergo off the floor if the bot was on the bridge.

Originally Posted by Chris Hibner

Another amazing thing about 67's arm that no one really knows about: It has driven wheels on the end. That is why their triple balance is usually so lightning fast: not only does it act like a typical triple balance "stinger", but once the bridge starts coming up, the end of that arm acts as part of their drive train to push the three robots those last few inches to get them balanced.

Forgot about that part... I didn't notice it while talking to them, but I definitely noticed it when I watched them triple balance on the Archimedes practice field before elims.

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by JesseK

67's utility arm is significantly overlooked in this thread.

It was their intake.
It was their ball delivery system.
It was their bridge lowering device.
It was their bridge stabilization device.
And due to 67's gas shock implementation, it was guaranteed to lift itself off of the floor while performing bridge stabilization after the buzzer sounded.

1986's utility arm was also much more than just a balancing device,

It was their ball intake
It could lift the bridge for an opposite robot
It could lower the bridge
It could reach balls under the bridge
It was a "push up" stabilizer to balance as the last robot on
It was a shock absorber to stabilize the balance as the first robot on
It would automatically lift after the buzzer

[smistthegreat]

Thanks for putting this together, it's a pretty sweet thread. Just to clear something up: 1507's brakes did not drive a pin into the gearboxes. Our brakes were literally caliper bicycle breaks purchased from amazon and mounted so that the pads apply pressure to the sprockets on our central wheels. I'll see if i can dig up some pictures or video.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by smistthegreat

Thanks for putting this together, it's a pretty sweet thread. Just to clear something up: 1507's brakes did not drive a pin into the gearboxes. Our brakes were literally caliper bicycle breaks purchased from amazon and mounted so that the pads apply pressure to the sprockets on our central wheels. I'll see if i can dig up some pictures or video.

Thanks for the clarification Brian. The whole pin thing was something I was told by one of the 1126 kids. I guess there must have been some miscommunication from A to B

Some pictures would be great. Obviously there won't be much in terms of match video of drive brakes, so I'd really appreciate a visual of your brake system!

On another note, as far as 67's Utility Arm and 1986's Talons go, I'll give them their own special category that can properly display their awesome! If anyone has any up-close picture or video of The Utility Arm and The Talons, I think it would make the special category that much more useful, since my intended purpose for that category would be to show devices that don't fit into any one and single category, but are great pieces of ingenuity that teams in the future could really learn something from studying.

[smistthegreat]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

Thanks for the clarification Brian. The whole pin thing was something I was told by one of the 1126 kids. I guess there must have been some miscommunication from A to B

Some pictures would be great. Obviously there won't be much in terms of match video of drive brakes, so I'd really appreciate a visual of your brake system!

Best I can find is this: http://www.warlocks1507.com/gallery3...eason/100_0072

You can see the calipers pretty clearly above the center wheel. What isn't visible is the window motor that's driving a winch that pulls the cables.

Edit: I just took a few pictures since I'm at school where the robot is. I'll upload them when I get home.

[smistthegreat]

As requested, pictures of the 1507 braking system:

Calipers shown on center wheel:


Window motor mounted with wires coming in:


View from other side of motor with spool for wire:


Any questions, feel free to PM me or just reply to the thread!

[LeelandS]

Thanks a lot Bryan!!

These pictures will make a great addition to the design log! Your contribution is very much appreciated

Really nice design, by the way. 1507's entire robot is great!