2022-23 Superb Season Summary
To help get acquainted and contextualization with posting on Chief, here's an overview of what we did last season and a few of the issues we faced and design choices!
Build Season
At the end of our 2022 season we purchased swerve modules (sds Mk4i) and used them at offseason competitions. When Charged Up was released, we saw an open field. Thus, we opted to use them for the added mobility and speed across the field. We held design discussions and began prototyping rudimentary intakes and other ideas before we picked a set direction to head forward with on the team.
Design Choices
Our strategic discussions resulted in us wanting to focus on high scoring. Our design team came up with a double jointed arm, but with two versions. V1 was created using MAX Tube (Thx Rev <3) and is what we competed with the whole season. V2 was intended to be a 971 (2018) “Exotica” Arm in which we would compete with at later competitions. This was intended to be implemented later as we wanted to give a robot to our Programming sub-team with enough ample time to get everything working. They worked with a mock-arm (image below) until we got the robot to them.|
Meanwhile we were investigating 2 intake designs: a horizontal intake and an Everybot-style intake. We tested both of the designs, opting for the one we could mount and get tested quicker (horizontal. The Everybot intake was sidelined as we were still figuring out how to package it nicely, but still continued working on it if we did ever decide to swap to it. With the mechanical and electrical work finishing we gave the robot to the programmers and drive team to get us prepared for our first competition (FNC Week 1 UNC Asheville Event).
UNC ASHEVILLE
We came into Asheville with a somewhat working robot. We were happy to seed #2 and make it to the Loser Finals with our partners 5727, Omegabytes, 6639, The Mechanical Minds, and 6729, RobCoBots. We were also thrilled to win the Impact Award and Julian Berla winning the Woodie Flowers Nomination!!! Hype!
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Day 1 Asheville saw us having some good matches, but seeing that our shoulder joint was struggling due to the excessive wear placed on our shoulder sprocket and chain. This led to it eventually stripping the sprocket, leading us to have to replace it on Day 2. Day 2 saw us taking the more conservative approach of doing what we can (which meant not scoring high cones to minimize any stress placed on our arm joints which we eventually saw failure during our second to last match of quals).
Post Asheville Thoughts:
- Need to reinforce shoulder joint (add a second sprocket to reinforce the joint)
- Tune arm further to score high cones better
- Want to ensure we can keep similar performance and final ranking so didn’t want to change too much
Pictures
Wake County
The Wake County event went well. We were consistent enough to go undefeated and rank 2nd after quals. Thanks to our alliance members 587, The Hedgehogs, and 8758, Tar Robo Turtles, we were able to make it to the Finals. We also won the Innovation in Control Award and the Safety All-Star Award for our Safety Captain Siri and all of her work. Hype!
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We were very consistent with minor connection issues caused in the venue as well as connection issues during hard collision. At this competition we implemented a high or low strategy where if our data suggested we would win a match we would focus more on scoring low to get links, however if a match would be close we would do high to try and ensure a win which worked well for us. Our alliance worked extremely well together, scoring over 100 points every match but with a tough match against alliance 3 dropping us into the losers bracket where we trekked our way back to finals. Where we were ultimately beaten by the powerhouse alliance 1.
Post Wake thoughts
- Consistent high scoring would help with our playoff alliances
- Pad the radio, ensure we don’t lose comms on collision
- Change intake???
Pictures
FNC State Championship
States was when we finally implemented the Everybot, 2910, and 7890 inspired intake (there are more, but these were our main references). This intake was implemented two days before states, and was a scramble to get it working. This was our main upgrade all season as we wanted to increase cycles with a more touch-it, own-it intake. This was the only upgrade possible in which we could also deliver it to the program (Exotica arm was too out of the reach).
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We had two matches during this competition where our robot disconnected and then proceeded to turn off. Initially, we thought it was a breaker issue, swapping it, though in the playoffs this problem occurred for the second time. We looked at our battery log and saw that it was the same battery allowing us to assume that it was indeed a battery problem. Though, we were able to sort this out and continue playing.
Also, adding a new intake leads to having tune new set-points in the pit. This is un-ideal and for this upcoming season we will not be changing code in the pit (programmers will talk about the caliber about this eventually).
Post States Changes
- Repair taco’d sprocket
- Investigate adding absolute encoders
- Tune Arm for smoother motion
- Drive practice
Pictures
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
States saw us take a break to give our children a break from the intensize build season. Though we still added absolute encoders onto the joints (instead of limit switches used to zero at the start of the match) to help make our arm positions work smoother.
Worlds was great, though technical problems (induced by attempted improvements on the robot) hindered our ability on multiple occasions. Though, we were happy to have performed the strongest we have at worlds this season. A great end to the season.
More Info
Post World Changes???
- SUPER PIT (post soon™)
- And More…
Pictures
We cant wait to share more! HYPE!!!
- Alexander Trent (Engineering Co-Captain)
Some of these pictures were taken by Danny Levinson, we appreciate the work he does for FNC https://dannylevenson.com/FIRST/
Something Exciting
