The Real 217 Robot for 2010

[GUI]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Awesome, of course!

Some questions that came to mind while watching your video:

How are your motors allocated? It looks like 3 CIMs and 2 FPs for drive, 1 CIM for kicker, most likely CIM for arm... is the ball magnet run with a window motor? I never would have thought to see FP motors in the drivetrain after your drive sizing thread.

Also, how did you get the magnet to work with the varying height of the chassis (when switching from agile to tractiony drive)? Seems like it would be a pesky problem to work around.

As with 148's bot, I really wish I could see this thing in person!




Heh, I was going to mention the same thing.

I see 5 cims in the nonadrive, FP for lifter and kicker, and window motor for ball grabber. It looks like 148 switched the FP's into the drivetrain and used cims for kicker and lifter.

[Nevets Amstier]

Very nice!

Looking forward to competing with and against the chickens at FLR!!


PS: Division by Chicken!!! (cough *2005* cough)

[Karibou]

Great job 217, and 148! This thing is a beast. I can't wait to see it at States! I'm kind of speechless right now, actually...

I almost expected the music for this video to be "Mama Mia," but I guess that would be a little too cheery for those of us who are already going into robot withdrawal.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by GUI

I see 5 cims in the nonadrive, FP for lifter and kicker, and window motor for ball grabber. It looks like 148 switched the FP's into the drivetrain and used cims for kicker and lifter.

We are using 5 cims for the Nano drive. Two Fisher Price, one for the kicker and one for the "Taco"(liter). A window motor is used for the grabber. I do not know if 148 has moved around the cims. As far as I know they have not. Encoders are used to track position and heading. CAN is used to control the motors via the 2CAN. We limit the current in the ball grabber to prevent over heating the window motor. A hall effect sensor is used to set the kicker cam timing.

[Taylor]

How many different teams' shirts can you find in this video?

[O'Sancheski]

very nice robot... it must of taken you guys along time to CAD it up

[Alex Cormier]

I am excited to see and compete with (hopefully not against) this robot!

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

Our students participate in an event called "Give Kids a Smile" The team assists dental professionals who donate their services to help kids to not be afraid of the dentist.

Boy, could I use some help in that area. There are adults *cough* who are not crazy about going to the dentist, even though they should know better.

Thank you for the awesome slideshow. It looks like the team had a great build season.

Jane

[Racer26]

I'm still trying to figure out how the nanodrive works... I see 4x IFI traction wheels, and 4 duallie omnis, but they're all inline. I can see something shifting down in the drivetrain when strafing but cant quite make out what it is or how it works... Guess I'll have to wait to see it in person on 217 and 148 come championship.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

I'm still trying to figure out how the nanodrive works... I see 4x IFI traction wheels, and 4 duallie omnis, but they're all inline. I can see something shifting down in the drivetrain when strafing but cant quite make out what it is or how it works... Guess I'll have to wait to see it in person on 217 and 148 come championship.

Look at the 148 video. There's another duallie omni at right angles that drops down; they show it clearly near the end while their robot is elevated.

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

I'm still trying to figure out how the nanodrive works... I see 4x IFI traction wheels, and 4 duallie omnis, but they're all inline. I can see something shifting down in the drivetrain when strafing but cant quite make out what it is or how it works... Guess I'll have to wait to see it in person on 217 and 148 come championship.

The traction wheels are each paired with an omni-wheel that is packaged into a module. The Omni wheel axle acts as the axis for selecting between traction or Omni (Omni wheel is fixed, traction wheel travels up and down). The pneumatic cylinders are extended to apply force between the traction wheels and the carpet when additional traction is needed. The center Strafe wheel is also on an actuator to either extend or retract. The strafe wheel is retracted while traction is applied and extended when traction is retracted.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Mike Copioli

The traction wheels are each paired with an omni-wheel that is packaged into a module. The Omni wheel axle acts as the axis for selecting between traction or Omni (Omni wheel is fixed, traction wheel travels up and down). The pneumatic cylinders are extended to apply force between the traction wheels and the carpet when additional traction is needed. The center Strafe wheel is also on an actuator to either extend or retract. The strafe wheel is retracted while traction is applied and extended when traction is retracted.

Was this a result of further testing of the IFI Vex robots form last year? I would love to learn more about this drive setup at FLR.

[Paul Copioli]

I apologize in advance for the long post ...

So I wanted to explain this year's collaboration between 217 and 148 a little bit further. But first, some statistics:


1. Drive base - 9 wheels (5 omni + 4 VEXPro Traction Wheels). 5 CIM motors (both 217 & 148). Traction wheels and 5th wheel drop down using pneumatics.

2. Kicker - FP with AM Planetary geared so the output speed is approximately 38 RPM.

3. Arm (we call it TACO) - FP with AM Planetary (same gearbox as kicker but with a larger chain reduction)

4. Ball magnet - Window motor


Now, on to the collaboration ...

First off, for those contemplating collaboration know this: true collaboration is hard, especially when the two teams are over 1,000 miles apart.

Prototyping & Design

Both teams are relatively large with 148 having around 30 students and 217 with almost 50. We performed design and prototyping at the same time.

Both teams prototyped all sorts of kicker designs, ball intake designs, hanging arm designs for a better part of three weeks.

At the same time, two different design teams (one at FANUC Robotics in Michigan and one at IFI in Texas) broke up the design into chunks.

I was in Michigan the entire first week leading the design efforts for the ThunderChickens and we did a lot of the concept work for the kicker & arm that both 148 & 217 prototyped. At the same time, John led the concept team at 148 and the team did a lot of the concept work for the drive train geometry (primarily to get over the hump).

When I returned to Texas; Don Bartlett, Mike Beem, and Andy Hatzillas from FANUC RObotics and Ed Debler continued to lead the 217 design team (consisting of approximately 10 students) through detailed design of the Arm, kicker cam, and kicker.

In Texas, John led the 148 design team (consisting of 2 students) with the detailed design of the drive base and arm tower.

I was the conduit between the two teams, constantly on the phone with ThunderChicken prototypers and designers when in Texas and constantly on the phone with John when in Michigan. We uploaded SolidWorks models nightly so both teams had the latest files each work day ... it was exhausting.


We decided to leave a big "hole" in the front for where the intake system would reside.

Both the 217 and 148 prototype teams spent countless hours validating the arm & kicker designs and trying to figure out the intake design. The intake design had one requirement (besides following all the game rules): be able to control the ball during full reverse and the "death spin". A simple request, but a difficult challenge which took both teams 3 weeks.

At this point the lines of responsibility are very gray. I can honestly say that we discussed all of the designs and ideas so much between the two teams that every design is a 100% shared responsibility between the two teams.

Sure there were specific designs that made it to the final robots, but the final end product is a 50-50 collaborative design between 217 and 148.


Manufacturing


The manufacturing division of responsibility was very clear: 148 manufactures all sheet metal and 217 manufactures all turned (aka using a lathe) and milled parts. Sure, there were some exceptions to this, but 95% of the parts followed this rule.

In total, the ThunderChickens and their sponsors manufactured over 60 unique parts (multiply that by 5 or 6 for total parts manufactured) and the Robowranglers and their sponsor manufactured over 70 unique parts (again, multiply that by 5 or 6 for total parts manufactured).

I personally want to thank all of the outstanding students and mentors on both teams: The ThunderChicken mentors whom I have grown very close to over the last 10 years and the Robowrangler mentors whom I am just getting to know.

One last thing: great things can come from FRC for mentors. My participation in FRC has brought me much closer to my brother, Mike Copioli, and allowed me to meet someone who is like another brother to me; JVN.

This has been a very emotional year for me, personally, and I look forward to the competition season.

[hayleybayley217]

Mr. President,
Shouldn't you get back to work!
Love,
Your ThunderChicken Pit Crew(Kayla, Jenna, Kate, Missy, and Hayley)

[Don Wright]

You make me lol!

Now...when can I get my riveter back (at least I can dream that maybe I sorta kinda might have had a small part in assembling this awesome monster)...