FRC Team 1241, THEORY6, is proud to release the CAD for our 2016 robot, The Black Mamba, along with the prototype CAD and videos.
The final robot CAD, prototype CAD and prototype video links can be found below.
The final robot CAD is the exact model of the robot we used at the 2016 World Championship.
Along with the final CAD, we have decided to release the prototype CAD and videos to demonstrate our prototyping process. The prototyping this year was integral to our most successful season thus far. The prototype CAD was finished day 4 of build season leading to the completion of the fully integrated prototype robot on day 8. This meant a fully automated prototype with the ability to intake and shoot.
Your prototype looks better than our finished product. You were a great team to play against in north bay and super friendly for a good team. Really excited to see what makes your robot ticks, thanks for the upload!
Thanks to 1241 for putting these resources out there for the entire community. You had one of the best robots in the world this year; it’ll be great for everyone to see how it all came together.
I loved your robot this year. I have to say it was one of my favorite tall shooters this year and an elegant intake to boot.
Thanks for these resources and I look forward to seeing you in the future.
I’ll be rifling through the CAD later, but for now:
What changes were made between the wooden prototype and the real bot? Specifically, did anything perform significantly better or worse on one version? Was the wooden prototype better in any areas?
Will you be bringing the prototype bot to any offseason events?
How were you able to construct the prototype so quickly!?
Can I ask how you decided what locations on the field to shoot from? While most teams selected either the batter or the Outer Works as their primary shooting location for protection, you tended to set from a variety of unorthodox locations in addition to some of the more common ones.
I’d love to hear the thought process that went into deciding those, or did those come after the robot was already functioning?
I’m counting 15 medium sized BB wheels for each roller
At $2 each for bulk purchasing that’s only really $30 with probably $5-10 worth of spacers if using VEXpro ones
If you look at a decent alternative such as 1.5” OD Latex tubing stretched over an aluminium tube, you are probably going to be looking at $20-30( depending on what length you purchase) just for the Latex tubing, and $5 for the Al tube so there isn’t much of a price difference.
Plus a ½ hex shaft is much easier to interface with other COTS parts
After analyzing the game during the first weekend of build, we realized that there was only one protected zone - the outerworks. We also realized that shooting from the outerworks would be tough to do if we wanted to maintain a 95%+ accuracy rate which we set as one of our criteria. Therefore, we ensured that we had a multitude of locations to shoot from regardless of any defence being played.
Our primary shot requirement was the batter shot and the just off batter shot, where we would sit off the batter and shoot. We felt that this shot should be our primary shot because we would be closer to the goal, thus also increasing the accuracy of the shot.
Our secondary requirement was to ensure we could shoot from where we liked to call the “spy” box. It was in the far left corner of the courtyard where we could press up against both the side rail and opponent wall to shoot from. We did not use this shot come competition much but we felt like this shot would be slightly more accurate than the outerworks shot because we could not be moved once in that location and it was slightly closer than the outerworks.
Finally, our third requirement was to shoot from the outerworks. This was the last requirement because its distance to the goal was the farthest (and subsequently the hardest to nail).
Combining these shot ranges, we realized this allowed us to shoot from nearly anywhere on the field after doing some calculations and building the prototype. To ensure a higher degree of accuracy we designed a fixed shooter angle with only speed as the varying quantity. Our “diamond plate” shot became our most effective, but in reality it was the same as the just off batter shot. The turret just helped adjust for the angle difference.
TLDR: Shot locations were decided based on accuracy (the farther the shot location, the less accurate the shot would be). In addition, the turret helped increase our shot range.
That is an excellent prototype! I can see how you had one of the best robots in the world this time around. Out of curiosity, which week did you have that prototype completed?
Very nice! You were fun to compete against in North Bay - tough competition, but if we had to get knocked out of the semifinals, at least it was by the best ones there!
Would you be able to explain the timeline you guys went through to produce your prototype robot so quickly? How many people were involved with prototype CAD? 8 days seems incredibly quick to turn out a fully working prototype (none the less a fully competitive one). Great work, one of my favorite robots this year!
Outline clear needs, wants and wishes for what the overall robot should include.
Day 2:
Determined detail requirements for each sub assembly of the robot
Broke off into groups and brainstormed various ideas for each sub assembly
These ideas were presented and voted for. Ideas with the most votes are prototyped
Parametric analysis is conducted
Day 3-4:
CAD prototype - About 10 students were involved in this, 2 students per subgroup (drive, intake, conveyor, popper, shooter).
Day 5-7:
Build prototype
Day 7-8:
Test Prototype
In order to survive the first week, we included things to look forward to such as a mentor vs student dodgeball game at the end of the first week. We also ensured the students had different food to eat every day when they came in (aka, not just pizza) - they were quite happy about this.
