Team 3020 - Rookie Year and built in 13 days!!

[BurtGummer]

Update: Here is a video taken by the OC Register (the reporter states 3 weeks but it really was 13 days, we've even considered naming the robot 13 days......) http://www.ocregister.com/video/inde...= 13520246001


Yea, you heard that right, we had 13 days of building. Day 1 on the 4th of February we opened the kit and started assembling the kitbot base. And today (Tuesday) at 3am in the morning we called it finished!

It is by no means like most robots seen here, and we still need to do some stuff with our allowed 40 pounds at the practice day. However, it functions how we want it to, and it isn't the pusher that some people had planned for us.

Honestly, I'm amazed we were able to pull it off. We only had a core of 4-5 students (including myself) who showed up on a regular basis, and from what I've seen here, that is a much lower workforce than most teams.

We'll have a video up soon, but pictures will suffice for now. It is a dumper, although it's hard to tell from the pictures. A pneumatic cylinder pushes the hopper base up and opens a gate from a pivot system to allow the balls to fall out. However, at rest position when collecting balls, the gate it completely closed, so we can stack quite a few in the hopper. We don't know how many, because we only had 1 to work with.

It would have been better if we made the robot width wise and not length wise, but we were building the base from kitbot instructions before we even had a complete design yet, haha.

But again, this is our very first year in FIRST, so I don't think it's too bad of an attempt, haha.

Here are some pictures....

[Uberbots]

is that a super CIM driving the lifter belt? oh boy
the friction you dont have with the wheels you sure made up for with that sandpaper (-;

nice looking bot, im curious to see it in action with the dumper.

[EricH]

I'm impressed. I'll have to stop by Thursday at L.A. and take a closer look. (And help you guys call in help if you need it.)

[mrnoble]

Is that skateboard grip tape?

[Jimmy Cao]

For a robot built in 13 days, all I can say is WOW! After 13 days, my team was still designing.

I just have one question. Have you built bumpers for it yet? I'm sure you're familiar with the bumper rule but it never hurts to hear it again =P

All in all, impressive work for such a short time span from such a young team. I wish you the best of luck, the best of skill, and have fun this season!

[wilsonmw04]

Nice Robot!
I'm going to ask the obvious question: Why did you only have 13 days?

[IKE]

Great work guys. Imagine if you had shifted that 13 days to weeks 3 and 4. Then you could have 2 weeks to parctice or break fix repeat...

Great work with the small work force. Proving once again it doesn't matter the size of the team, but the size of the teams spirit and heart.

I still think the record for fastest build though goes to a team at nationals whose bot got shipped home. When they arrived they had nothing. Several teams pitched in spare parts and by the end of Thursday they had a bot to play with.

Make sure you do a lot of benchmarking this year at competition. Also, don't be too proud to ask for help. If a Beachbot is willing to give you a hand, bring them in just to have a look and a critique.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by IKE

I still think the record for fastest build though goes to a team at nationals whose bot got shipped home. When they arrived they had nothing. Several teams pitched in spare parts and by the end of Thursday they had a bot to play with.

Make sure you do a lot of benchmarking this year at competition. Also, don't be too proud to ask for help. If a Beachbot is willing to give you a hand, bring them in just to have a look and a critique.

I think that fastest build is a tie. There've been 2-3 teams with 6-hour build times...on Thursday...at events...and they made their last practice matches.

I've already clued the current BeachBots in, or some of them, so help won't be lacking.

One question I have, though, is: which way does it dump? Sideways?

Dude, legit! Seriously an awesome bot for 13 days! I'm really looking forward to seeing how your team develops in the future.

[Mr MOE]

Congratulations on your accomplishment and welcome to the FIRST community. You all should be very proud of what you have done over the past few weeks!!!

[Kevin Sevcik]

What IS that motor driving that conveyor? It looks suspiciously larger than a 2.5" CIM. If it's one of the old mini-bike CIMs with an integral pulley, then it's not legal. I only mention this so you can make plans to replace it at the regional.

[Bob Steele]

13 days or longer ... a great robot...We wish you guys the best in the competition!!!

[Uberbots]

i hope on your todo list is more of a shaft for the ball picking up, else you may have problems with the balls falling out the side of the mechanism, which im pretty sure you wouldnt want happening (:

[BurtGummer]

To answer the questions...

1. Yep, it is skateboard grip tape.
2. We do have bumpers, we just didn't have them attached in the pic.
3. It does dump to the side.
4. The CIM on the lift belt is older, I know that. Our sponsor rep had the controller built at beachbots initially, and two older CIMs where on there. Our sponsor lost one of our other new CIMs, so we had to use one of the older ones which came on the controller. It says Fisher Price on it, and it use to have a belt tensioner on it.

If it's illegal, then we can use the CIM that our sponsor found yesterday (the lost one). It was one ordered for this year, so it should be fine if the current one isn't.

We don't have any problems with the balls falling out the sides after we added guards at the bottom which guide the ball to the center of the belts. However, we still have issues of the ball idling at the top, but either a new ball will push it up, or we can turn the lift speed down a little and the zip ties push it into the hopper.

I don't know why we had such limited time, all I know is that we got the kitbot 2 weeks ago Tuesday.

[BurtGummer]

Here's a video to see it in action. It is in fact 13 days, not 3 weeks like the reporter stated. http://www.ocregister.com/video/inde...= 13520246001