07-02-2017 00:18

AllenGregoryIV

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

Thank you for posting a photo of your robot model.

Have you tested intaking Fuel only through the side of your robot?

Where would the climber be going on this robot?

07-02-2017 02:01

pmattin5459

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

The climber appears to be the spool on the far side of the robot.

07-02-2017 07:38

eedoga

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

The climber is not in the current CADD file.

We had to redraw the robot because the original CADD file was corrupted by too many bad constraints. Basically we sometimes were lazy and just clicked accept when Inventor told us we were doing things wrong, and then of course eventually the drawing won't open without crashing and you can't constrain anything anymore.

So...I didn't have access to the climber. I'll add that today and upload a new drawing. Basically it fits on the opposite side from the intake.

As for intaking from the side, With mechanum drive we can go sideways. The intake is small, but when you are trying to build an all around bot, you have to make some sacrifices. We are hoping to mostly load from the hoppers and only use the side intake if things get desperate. Currently the intake works pretty well, but of course we need a lot more testing and work.

Hope this helps.

Edoga

07-02-2017 08:16

tpvagnini

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

Since your floor intake is on the side with mecanum drive, you will not be able to move very quickly in that direction. Your CAD looks great and it looks like many of your mechanisms will be operational on your final robot.

Be careful spreading yourselves too thin trying to put too many mechanisms onto one robot. Having a gear mechanism, high goal shooter, climber, and floor intake are 4 of the 5 main mechanisms your robot can have.

I'd suggest you put more resources (and robot volume) into your main mechanisms so your robot will be stronger with fuel or gears. From experience, being an "all around bot" isn't the best. It's much better to have a couple of very effective mechanisms on your robot rather than many that may work only okay.

07-02-2017 09:17

eedoga

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

So something a lot of people don't know about our team is that the team does not decide on the final build requirements. The community does. We come up with a few different designs, present them to our local community, and the community decides what we actually end up building. It is not our robot, but instead the robot is commissioned by our local community. We then compete on their behalf.

We (including our local community) considered the idea that we were trying to do too much by being an "all around" robot. and perhaps that is true, but then we began to question what we should give up and what would be gained by doing so...

Gear placing? We are pretty well convinced that no single robot will be capable of placing 12 gears 1 at a time. The cycle times would have to be incredibly short, and the hang up here would be the last 6 gears...

Shooting? Again we thought it through, and yes, if you can carry 40 balls and have a 100% accuracy rate, then sure you can do it by yourself. If you can shoot during autonomous then you might have a cushion for a lower accuracy rate, but even so...

Climbing? That was a non-starter with the community. They want to see the robot hanging from the ceiling.

Now here is the odd point. Our team has usually relied on defense. We have always figured if nothing else works at least you can keep the other team from scoring. By having this option we have sometimes not worked as hard as we could in order to find ways to make things work. We have sometimes relied on lazy solutions and not thoroughly tested our mechanisms...

The community decided very specifically to limit that option. They are in fact pushing us to grow. I believe someone said, "if we don't push them then they will never grow."

Now as to the floor loader, it is in direct response to a team suggesting on chief delphi that in order to limit scoring ability of shooting robots you simply drive around dumping all of the hoppers on the ground...

So, while we can focus on gears if we end up in a situation where gears are being done by our alliance partners and the hoppers are constantly being dumped we will still be able to contribute something through shooting. We understand this may not be a likely situation, but it was in the design requirements so...

A few days ago we made a mock up hopper out of cardboard. It can hold about 40 balls with a perfect pour...SO, maybe 30 balls? We'll have to see how many actually end up making it from the hopper to the boiler. The other side of it is that because we are shooting from a known location we believe that we can expect a higher level of accuracy, even with relatively high cycle times. In the end we may not be able to contribute an entire ranking point on our own, but hopefully we can contribute our share.

We understand that this may not be the most successful design. We may end up being out classed by other robots in every way. We may go to our first district event and place so low that there is no possible hope of moving on. We understand all of these things. We also understand that those things in the end don't matter as much as satisfying the community that gives so graciously so that our team can continue to thrive. This is a growth year for us, and the community understands that we may not do well this season because of our choices, but they don't care so long as we actually grow.

Hope this all makes sense.

Edoga

07-02-2017 09:29

Justin Montois

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

Do you have any video of your singulator?

07-02-2017 09:43

tpvagnini

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

Interesting and creative way to keep the community and sponsors involved. Seems like a good idea since you have set goals and deadlines.

Absolutely, FRC is more than robots and if it's between team growth and winning a competition, my team would choose growth and learning every time.

Good luck this year!

07-02-2017 09:54

iyportne

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

That is kinda Awesome! Can't think of a better way to promote FRC and FIRST. Good luck!

07-02-2017 10:49

eedoga

Re: pic: Team 2980 CADD of Current Design

I was unfamiliar with this term and had to google it. :-) I am pretty sure we have video of most of our subsystems. I will get it and up load it later today.

Edoga