2582 will continue to be a part of the open alliance for the 2025 season.
We plan on providing updates multiple times a week during build season and we will share our code, CAD, and are happy to answer any questions.
See our links to our content below.
Website: http://lufkinpantherbots.com/
GitHub: LHS Pantherbots (github.com)
OnShape: Onshape
Instagram: The LHS Pantherbots (@lhspantherbots2582) • Instagram photos and videos
Facebook: Facebook
We met as a team and documented our pre-season goals. I have also tried to add how we would try to measure how if we achieved our goal if it is not obvious.
Alot of our subjective goals will be measured off of an internal team end of year survey
And now a word from our Sponsors…
I want to thank our gracious sponsors who make our team possible.
Lufkin ISD CTE has invested a ton in the team over the years and is our most significant funding source. They have continuously provided coaches, mentors, tools, workspaces, practice areas, and support.
Boeing has provided us with funding, mentor technical support, and provided volunteers for our events.
Lockheed Martin has provided our team funding and mentor technical support for 10+ years.
Optimum has provided us funding and had representatives visit our team in the pits at various competitions to encourage us and give us hand-outs and tool kits
Abelt’s Gaslight Pharmacy is a local community pharmacy that has provided funding and support to our team.
Mastercam has provided us with CAM software that we utilize in our manufacturing process. This software helps us take our CAD model and create tool paths to turn it into a real part.
Drip Drop has donated electrolyte drink mixes to our team over the past few years. We utilize these at competitions to help keep everyone adequately hydrated.
Thank you so much for everything you do to help our team.
Day 1 Recap:
Game field:
Lots of work on game elements.
Coral Station
Processor
Reef
3D-printed reef - tees and elbows that work on PVC. I think these should be sufficient for us to start prototyping. They might not be strong enough to hold up to practice and abuse.
Note - Initial Pictures the elbows were the wrong size used a 4" Diameter bend rather than a 4" radius bend (Onshape CAD should be correct now)
We read through the rules as a team and are working on what our robot must do.
I will let Mr. Cage himself share my initial thoughts on the Cage.
All kidding aside it looks to be a fun game.
Our Robot Must:
Our Robot Wishes:
Our Robot Will Not Be Specifically Designed to:
Autonomous Must:
Autonomous Wishes:
Field progress:
Game Field
One cage is complete. We didn’t have red or blue and but we wanted it powder coated so it would act a little more like the real field. Our purple has a little texture, but we had some bright pink left over from a different project.
@LadyCans-FRC2881 what do you think?
One reef segment completed, no picture. 
One mini barge minus net completed.
Prototyping:
Algae Intake:
These seem pretty forgiving with 4" compression wheels we have some pretty good success from 14" distance axle to axle to 14" axle to axle. The sweet spot is likely in the middle somewhere.
More details of today to come later, but I wanted to share a video our PR crew edited of our deep climb prototype.
We affectionally know it as RA ̶M̶P̶ ̶C̶A̶GE or RAGE climber. It was inspired by the Rust Hounds. We did not have the drive train set up, but think it will not take too long to line up.
Fail
Full speed:
Hook used:
Well that looks easy. Thanks PantherBots
Amazing stuff!
How well does this handle a swinging/aligning to the cage? Is that something you are planning on testing?
I’ve been wondering if a wedge of some sort would be needed (top down view):
Defiantly need to test further, but before we added the hook we swung the cage and pushed the vertical ramp into it and it quickly stopped the swinging nicely and placed the cage flat against it.
I think it will likely take some toying with the hook geometry to make sure it goes flat against it every time, but think there is likely a good solution.
When we meet on Monday I will see if we can get this all wired in and coded to see if we can align quickly with the current hook design. Then we will do some iteration. I do think it will likely end up several thin hooks kind of like you have sketched.
This is an awesome idea. Looks like it can align well with a simple wedge, as well as stop swinging quickly. And it saves a lot of bellypan space compared to Penn State without being as quirky as Rusthounds - great work!
I made a layout sketch of this climb to figure out the critical dimensions. Some tips for people aiming to make this climb work:
The two grey driven dimensions should be approximately equal to make the climb work. In the image above, the driven 12" dimension is the horizontal distance from the CoM (the center of mass, the point in the middle of the robot 12" from the floor) to the pivot point of the climber. You can adjust the height of the pivot point (12" in this sketch) or the length of the arm (6") or the fixed angle that the arm makes with the side of the cage (90deg) to make the grey numbers equal. The 11.921" driven dimension is the distance from the pivot point to where the hook grabs the cage (or simply the distance from the cage corner to the pivot.
The 3" dimension between the vertical rectangle (elevator) and the CoM is approximately how far you want the chain to be from the elevator and the cage at the end of the climb. 3" might even be cutting it too close. You should place your CoM with sufficient distance away from your manipulators that the chain does not touch the elevator while climbed.
I’m not sure what critical dimensions exactly drive the final climb height, but it seems pretty easy to get 2-4" of height on this climb. It’s driven by the sum of the pivot point height and the pivot length, but many variables work together to drive the final climb height. I would consider final climb height a “driven” dimension and muck around with the other dimensions to get a good value for your robot.
The winch is only really lifting the weight of the robot once the cage has been tilted to a steep angle. So you should plan on making your winch fairly powerful, as you’ll want the speed to quickly deploy and wind it back, keeping in mind that you are lifting a load about equal to the robot weight only for the last few inches of travel.
Note: The referenced CoM here is the CoM of the robot + the cage! The cage weighs 20lbs, so this will shift the CoM to the right as shown in the sketch. Pre-climb, the CoM will probably be an inch or two farther to the left. Make sure to account for that when sketching.
Be careful there… Penn State University and The University of Pennsylvania are two different schools, both of which are regularly offended by this misnaming. 
The RI3D team is Penn State University.
No no, it’s nice for people to think we actually have a good football team 
Thanks for letting everyone who wasn’t following know @AllenGregoryIV, now Watching this thread!
Because this climb uses the far edge of the board to force the cage to its final angle, would it be beneficial to make that portion static? ie a static reaction bar against the cage with the grabber mechanism on a winch arm
I think the concept would work with a static far edge.
We were trying to integrate this with a human feeder ramp. It does not look like the geometry will actually end up lending well to that, but we shall see. I do think the whole “shield” or ramp swinging out may be beneficial to help align the cage and stop swinging, but we will have to keep trying things.
The physics is great here! I am wondering on the actual “human error” in the heat of competition on getting “hooked” up for end game. To be able to hook 2 static “hooks” to the lip of the cage (top one) would require some finesse. IF it tilted forward…just a bit to play with the geometry of it that would work.
Of course I am going under the impression that it stops at 90*.
Hey Chad!
Was wondering if you could share any details on your belt tensioner showcased in your elevator testing video. We’ve been hoping to do belt instead of bulky chain, but belt tensioning has been the one thing holding us back. This looks very compact and promising!
There is a pretty good image in our 2023 build blog of that tensioner.
It was pretty simple to make. It was a thin 3d printed negative of a gear profile sandwiched between two aluminum tubes. With some 1/4" bolts that pull it together. We used it for 80 ish matches and a lot of practice and did not have any failures with those. We had to be careful not to tension the belts to tight or it started to bend the axles.
That being said as a member of Team Anvil I know they have a few new products that might be worth looking into.
Compact Open-Loop Belt Tensioner – Last Anvil Innovations
Reinforced Compact Open-Loop Belt Tensioner – Last Anvil Innovations
We have not had a chance to battle test these yet, but they look like they would do something similar.
Thanks Chad! Appreciate the extra details!
