FIRST Behind the Design Book 3.0 (plan)

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Siri

Current list, for reference:

Archimedes
20......manufacturing (waterjet, CNC & manual lathe, bridgeport, welding, broaching)
78......manufacturing (3D print, waterjet, CNC mill)
1902
2468....manufacturing (HDPE shooter) control (sound-responsive LEDs)
3310....manufacturing (CNC lathe, laser cut, CNC bender, CNC mill, TIG weld) and control (cRio-driven LEDs via Java, PIDs, limit switches & IR sensors)

Curie
359
1816....manufacturing (waterjet, 3D models with moving parts) and control (automated aiming)
2168

Galileo
222.....manufacturing (3D print)
125
842.....manufacturing (3D print, waterjet)
1086....manufacturing (octocanum, four bar, water jet & powder coat sheet metal)
2175....manufacturing (3D print, manual mill & lathe, laser cut, waterjet, CNC plasma cutter)

Newton
1640....manufacturing (polyurethane mold, laser cut, CNC & manual mill, manual lathe, MIG weld) and control (swerve code, prox sensors & limit switches, vision processing, driveable swerve display)
1741....control (shooter angle)
1899....manufacturing (plywood frame)

Not Attending
100?
696

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

That felt very cool to be included in that list...

For those of you that don't know the back story, here's the quick (ish) summary. All season, I and a mentor had been arguing that a robot that could climb and dump for 50 points every match, as well as score a few in autonomous, could win the vast majority of matches. We believed that we didn't need an intake to do well and even win Davis. I could go into what caused this strategy to fail, and why the rest of the team seemed to hate it, but I'll largely skip that part of the story. The essential part is, that after three weeks of fighting, we ran out of time, and shipped a robot that really hadn't been properly tested or iterated. Our robot as shipped looked big and gangely, and was totally designed around a 30 point climb.

Unfortunately, even with all the iterations we added on at Davis, it didn't work. Basically, the travel on the climber was shortened by about two inches because of a last minute gearbox redesign, and we couldn't climb. At Davis, we had a robot that drove around and even shot a few discs, but really wasn't very good. We didn't make eliminations for the first time in maybe six years of competition. It was a big blow to the team.

When I went off to visit schools for spring break, those who had been dissatisfied with the robot we played with at Davis decided to do something about it. They spend their entire winter break designing a short shooter that was to be put on in place of the enormous climber at competition. They built it at our shop and a local hackerspace. In the end, we had a short little bot that could shoot from the front and back of the pyramid, and hang for 10, and it looked awesome because of the black powdercoat.

When we got to SVR, we spent the morning taking off the climber, and putting on this new shooter (which they called Mark II). By the end of the day, it was working pretty well, and we even went out to a few practice matches to actually practice (whaddya know?). It shot extremely straight, almost like a laser, and hung pretty well too. We got our three point autonomous working well too.

Friday and Saturday, we had a blast. We finally had a competitive robot. After not scoring more than one or two frisbees a match at Davis, we were suddenly scoring three or even four rounds a match plus auto. We ended up going 7-3-0 and seeded 12th, and would have gone 8-2-0 and ranked 9th or so if a screw hadn't come loose during one of our first matches. Here's my favorite match by far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAMQ8mJdsLk. We ended up getting picked first by Pink, which was another amazing feeling.

It was a wild ride, and a testament to the powers of iteration. We also did some cool stuff with awesome tools like sheetmetal punches and breaks, waterjet machines, CNC mills, welders, lathes, 3D printers, rivit guns, powdercoating machines, and much much more. Everything but the sheetmetal was designed, made, and assembled by students. I could go into more detail, but it's getting late.

It would be an honor to be included in a 2013 Behind the Design book, and I really think we have an amazing story to tell. Consider it.