Wildstang 2012: After The Game

[apalrd]

Very nice videos.

I really liked how you talked a lot about the failures of the initial designs, and your solutions to all of them. It really shows that you have to continually redesign and fix the weak points of any robot to stay on top in FRC.

(It's interesting that you removed automatic tracking later in the season. We did that too).

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by apalrd

Very
(It's interesting that you removed automatic tracking later in the season. We did that too).

Us three. I suspect this was fairly common. Early game analysis resulted in a desire to be able to shoot from anywhere on the field. However, after playing the game it became clear that in most cases, shooting from a few specific locations like the corners of the key and the fender is a more foolproof approach, and it does not necessarily require automatic tracking.

[Samwaldo]

This was truly inspiring and educational. It really makes you realize that even the "powerhouse" amazing teams arent perfect. They change many things, and are never done, after the 6 weeks. This really taught me that you shouldn't be afraid to completely change a design in the robot, at any moment.

[Billfred]

I forwarded this to the 2815 email list and told them to watch it all. Fantastic work--once again, Wildstang gives us a video we're going to have to work hard to top.

[cadandcookies]

Excellent videos! Very informative, even for those of us who have competed with your team. I wish more teams would do these sort of breakdowns of their robot, as it's always very interesting to see the different solutions groups (especially successful ones) come up with to the same problem. For example, I had never heard of that particular method of tensioning. We may have to prototype it after this coming season!

I just have a small question about those drive modules-- how do you assemble everything within them? Like, do you put all the chains and stuff together and then put it into the frame and the stick the axles through (excuse my rough description)? Or is there some other method that you use?

[SenorZ]

This link is getting sent to my mentors and build team right away. Thanks for the insights!

[ZipTie3182]

Thank you so much for making these! I'm in awe of the though that goes into each component of the design and how elegantly each is implemented. You make me want to make my team better and make it to champs this year.

I urge the community to see powerhouse teams not as teams to hate against for being so good but to look on to as examples of incredible dedication and elegant engineering.

As a few said before, it really is incredible to see how drastically your design changed - especially before champs! Wow!

Totally taking notes on these videos....

[JVN]

These videos are FANTASTIC. It is great that you guys decided to put them together, and even better than you decided to share with the community.

Who is the gentleman doing most of the talking in these clips? I don't think I've met him before.

-John

[Starke]

Thanks to Wildstang for posting these videos! It is great to see teams accepting the challenges put on by JVN and others. The FIRST community will only benefit from learning about how you came up with your designs, what worked, did not work, and would be changed for the future. I will definitely share these videos with my team. Thanks for sharing these wonderful resources!

- Matt

[HD]

Excellent job with the editing Steve! First time I've actually seen most of these since filming.

Originally Posted by sentientfungus

I just have a small question about those drive modules-- how do you assemble everything within them? Like, do you put all the chains and stuff together and then put it into the frame and the stick the axles through (excuse my rough description)? Or is there some other method that you use?

We had to assemble each bearing block around the main extrusion. When all of the mounting hardware is removed, the bearings are actually the only thing holding the carriages onto the extrusions. Then we put in everything else (axles/sprockets, gearbox output shaft), and then put the chain on. Gearbox was last. This is probably not the most efficient way to do it. These were inspired by our 2011 modules, but those were much easier to assemble because those bearing slots in the extrusion were cut out all the way to the ends so we could pre-assemble each bearing block. We changed that on the 2012 iteration to give the frame a bit more of a solid mounting point as the modules were part of the frame this year.

Originally Posted by JVN

Who is the gentleman doing most of the talking in these clips? I don't think I've met him before.

That would be me.