China Robotics Challenge 2016

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by ajlapp

Attached!

Interesting...

Also... what's covering those bumpers and why?

[ollien]

Originally Posted by ajlapp

Attached!

Was there eventually a catapult attached?

[ajlapp]

Not sure.

I did see an image of the "hand." The component that cradles the boulder. They milled one from aluminum. We 3D printed ours.

Don't know if it made it on the bot.

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by ajlapp

Attached!

Are those Vex EDR mecanums with a special hub? That's a pretty good idea to save $10 per wheel.

[Tom Ore]

Here's a pic with the bot under construction. (Had to greatly reduce the image resolution to get it to upload.)

[bkahl]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

Are those Vex EDR mecanums with a special hub? That's a pretty good idea to save $10 per wheel.

They're likely just EDR wheels drilled out and hex broached.

125 and others have done this with good results.

[Tom Ore]

We'll be leaving the hotel in a couple of hours to start the journey back to Cedar Falls. Our flight leaves Beijing at around 10:00 am and we arrive in Chicago at around 10:00 am. (13 hour flight, 13 hour time difference.) Get through the airport and a 5 hour drive to Cedar Falls - should be back home around 5:00 pm or so.

It's been another fantastic trip to China - I always enjoy these trips. They've been very well organized, they plan a good mix of workshop time, sightseeing and competition. It's a great chance to make friends we wouldn't meet and spend time with in a traditional FRC event.

It's back to work tomorrow and back to the daily routine - the last two weeks have been an awesome vacation. I'm already looking forward to the next chance we have to come over.

[Meredith Novak]

FRC Team 16 made it home at 11:00 pm Central last night after about a 30 hour trip. We had an unbelievable time in China and at the workshops and China Robotics Challenge. Here is a photo gallery if anyone is interested: https://meredith.smugmug.com/FIRST-R...on/2016-China-

Please consider attending the 2017 China Regional. Let me know if you have any questions.


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[bdaroz]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

Please consider attending the 2017 China Regional. Let me know if you have any questions.

Not that I think it's in the cards for us yet but... Just wondering out loud - what's it like getting your robot to/from? Any delays or hiccups?

[TheBoulderite]

Originally Posted by RUKidding

are you kidding me

Floodie Wowerz wannabe?

[Meredith Novak]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

Not that I think it's in the cards for us yet but... Just wondering out loud - what's it like getting your robot to/from? Any delays or hiccups?

No idea how they will handle regular season robot shipping. Months of turn around for the CRC. Obviously regional robots from other countries would need to be handled differently.

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

Not that I think it's in the cards for us yet but... Just wondering out loud - what's it like getting your robot to/from? Any delays or hiccups?

First of all FedEx can cover the cost of shipping a robot crate to one regional/in-season event via the Transport Exemption system( thanks FedEx it’s really helpful). This system works for shipping a crate to North American events and back again for us takes a long time on the return trip.

It says on the robot transportation part of the FIRST website that:

Your team may request a Robot Transport Exemption to the Regional in Australia, however your team will not be able to participate in Regional events on the following weeks: 1, 2, 4, or 5.

I suspect it would be similar to that, so teams would most likely have to organise (and also pay for) the shipping of their robot to the regional in China if they have other Regionals (which probably all attending International teams would have).

For CRC this year we removed the shooting mechanism and intake from our robot, bubble wrapped it and simply checked it in at the Airport as excess baggage. Team 3132 also did this for their robot during the official season. Obviously this system wouldn’t be very effective in seasons with tall robots like 2015 unless the robot was designed to be disassembled into small pieces. In 2015 we had to cut about a foot off the top of our robot after we qualified for CMP, in order to be able to utilise the FedEx transport exemption system( ie fit it in the crate).

We designed a lightweight folding pit structure in the 2015 off-season, and have got quite good at competing at events with a minimum amount of tools in order to minimise transport costs. We put the large bulky items in the crate, and bring tools and spares as check in luggage.

The bringing of robot batteries to the regional would most likely be a no go, international teams get two provided at events normally (which isn’t usually enough depending on the game), but International teams were lent 3 each at CRC this year. Shipping blocks of lead across the Pacific isn’t exactly very efficient either. I think the Regional Organiser would most likely organise for more batteries than usually given to International Teams. Typically at the Australia Regional, teams with large stockpiles of batteries (through KOP or purchase) lend more batteries to International teams otherwise it would be very difficult to compete especially during Eliminations (especially as sometimes the batteries provided by FIRST aren’t in the best shape). There probably aren’t very many Chinese teams with big stockpiles of batteries to lend out either.

[Howard C]

Originally Posted by Meredith Novak

No idea how they will handle regular season robot shipping. Months of turn around for the CRC. Obviously regional robots from other countries would need to be handled differently.

For international teams FIRST will contact you asking to fill out some preliminary information such as your crate size and weight as well as a shipping address. Later, we were contacted to fill out a customs declaration and a Shippers Letter of Instruction. While it may sound complicated the people I worked with at United Pacific and Patent International Logistics last year were very helpful.

There is information in the Admin Manual about shipping such as max size and weight. When I was contacted I also got a notice to international teams that robots will be held in the US in case a team is qualified for the World Championship. You can still request to have your robot shipped back earlier by contacting FIRST and forgo championship. With 2 Champs coming along they may do it differently, but it has worked pretty well so far.

[MissDaisyGirl]

Originally Posted by frcguy

Interesting...

Also... what's covering those bumpers and why?

It was packing tape. I tried to advise them that this was not legal but they said that their fabric kept tearing so they had to tape all of them.

[OZ_341]

Team 341 is safely home in Ambler, PA.

Our team would like to thank Min Zhang, Katie Yang, Kenton Swartley as well as the incredible mentors and students of Team 525. Thank you also to CUYRA, CRC, and all of the event volunteers. It was great working with the international teams and getting to know them a little better. Working with old friends like 987, 1538, 694, and 359, as well as making new friends like 2468 was so rewarding.

But most importantly we had the chance to work with so many wonderful Chinese students and their mentors. We hope our team aided the growth of the Chinese FRC program in some small way this summer and that the Chinese pre-rookies feel encouraged to press on with forming a team for 2017.

We also wanted to thank Team 2468 for selecting us in the draft and 9043 for being a great partner.
What a great experience this has been for all of the students and mentors involved in CRC 2016.
Good Luck with the Regional in 2017!