FRC971 Spartan Robotics 2016 Release Video

[nuclearnerd]

It looks like you have a 775 pro on the "elbow" gearbox, and maybe the shoulder too? No spring to balance the load either. If so, how are you holding position without burning out the motor? Is there a brake I can't see?

(It's my understanding that the 775 pros will melt in just a few seconds when stalled at more than 6V)

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

It looks like you have a 775 pro on the "elbow" gearbox, and maybe the shoulder too? No spring to balance the load either. If so, how are you holding position without burning out the motor? Is there a brake I can't see?

We did some pretty extensive calculations on heat dissipation. The shoulder is designed to hold the entire weight of the arm for a couple minutes per Vex Pro's charts. We designed for somewhere around 4 volts. We also run a fan on the motor to pull heat away, though that helps with longer runs and only pushes the limit out a little ways.

We don't leave the arm up for long periods, and land it on the bellypan when we are done shooting. This helps keep it cooler.

The rest of the joints run cool and aren't a concern due to the low loads.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

This robot is so fun to watch. Great job!

[philso]

This is one of the most thoroughly engineered robots I have seen yet.

[Jus_McG-3193]

It appears to me every year that I see a new 971 robot it always impresses me tremendously. In particular there always seems to be a mechanism that blows me away. The pivoting of the shooter and arm assembly specifically this year, although I'm positive there's more to amaze.
Congratulations on your impressive win at Sacramento and best of luck to you all at SVR as well as Champs!

[rvgrossman]

Are you guys going to make the CAD available anytime soon? We're dying out here.

[markmcgary]

Originally Posted by rvgrossman

Are you guys going to make the CAD available anytime soon? We're dying out here.

And software would be nice as well. We are very inspired by your 'closed-loop driving' and would love to learn more.

[kevincrispie]

There are a number of resources in the works that the team plans on releasing. We need a bit of time to get everything together. However, we have released pictures from the 2016 build season. This includes competition photos, prototyping/fabrication photos, and close ups of the robot. Hopefully this can provide some guidance while the team works to get our software and mechanical documentation ready for public viewing.

The pictures can be viewed on the team Picasa page, in folders marked "2016".
https://picasaweb.google.com/117769834305511597729/

[Landonh12]

Originally Posted by kevincrispie

There are a number of resources in the works that the team plans on releasing. We need a bit of time to get everything together. However, we have released pictures from the 2016 build season. This includes competition photos, prototyping/fabrication photos, and close ups of the robot. Hopefully this can provide some guidance while the team works to get our software and mechanical documentation ready for public viewing.

The pictures can be viewed on the team Picasa page, in folders marked "2016".
https://picasaweb.google.com/117769834305511597729/

Is there a resource showing how you guys manage your code and how you deploy it to the robot? Also what editor do you use? I've been trying to learn how to code our robot in Java/C++ and don't like using Windows/Eclipse. IIRC I saw a page on your website saying you use Debian and SVN.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Landonh12

Is there a resource showing how you guys manage your code and how you deploy it to the robot? Also what editor do you use? I've been trying to learn how to code our robot in Java/C++ and don't like using Windows/Eclipse. IIRC I saw a page on your website saying you use Debian and SVN.

There's a README in the top level folder of the code we'll release shortly that explains all that. We haven't met since CMP, so we haven't finished reviewing the last couple changes made at CMP yet to get them merged, so we can't release said code...

We use Bazel to build code, Debian Linux as our development platform, Git, and Gerrit. Bazel lets us cross compile easily and provides a hermetic environment so we are very certain that everyone on the team is building the same bits. Officially, we don't take a position in the editor wars, but most of the students use what the mentors use, which is VIM and bash.

[Landonh12]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

Officially, we don't take a position in the editor wars, but most of the students use what the mentors use, which is VIM and bash.

I've been using VIM and bash on my Mac. I like using it, but I usually go between that and making sure that Eclipse likes what I'm writing. Thanks for that bit, I'm looking forward to the full code release!

[Travis Schuh]

Our CAD is now available at http://frc971.org/cad

It takes the server a little over 10 seconds to start the download once you click the link so please be patient and don't hit the link twice.

[frcguy]

Thank you guys for releasing everything! Hopefully we can take a look at all of it and learn from the amazing things you guys do.

Originally Posted by kevincrispie

The pictures can be viewed on the team Picasa page, in folders marked "2016".
https://picasaweb.google.com/117769834305511597729/

Also, happy to see you guys got some photos of when our team visited!

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by markmcgary

And software would be nice as well. We are very inspired by your 'closed-loop driving' and would love to learn more.

Have fun! We are happy to answer questions. We've been going with a larger git repo and keeping old robots alive, so you'll see 2014, 2015 and 2016 code. All 3 should work, though there may be some small bits of code rot in the two older robots.

http://frc971.org/content/2016-software