** PHRED 847 Kickoff
Every kickoff, PHRED follows a basic formula after watching the reveal. This is not the most structured/official version of the format because I don’t currently have access to it, but I will provide a more thorough end of the week update (including that) later.
- What are the rules?
- Bot sizing
- Bot placement
- Bot scoring
- Bot defending
- Game object interaction
- Does anything jump out (we ask this throughout the first few sections, and rewatch the animation every hour or so)
- In what ways can you score in all three stages of the game
- Autonomous and Tele-op
- Where can you collect game objects?
- Where can you score game objects?
- Are there any other ways of scoring?
- If there are multiple locations to score, do they have different points? If so, what are they?
- Endgame
- Is there a separate task?
- Will it consume the entire endgame period?
- What is a maximum score? (and with the most capable robots that could be expected)
- What is the maximum amount of points possible in a match?
- How many points are needed to get all ranking points? (win not included)
- The robot that is a high scorer (what will the absolute top robots accomplish)
- What strategy(ies) will they use in autonomous?
- Where will they intake game objects?
- Where will they score game objects?
- Will they have a more seamless or quicker way to complete the endgame task?
- Dream team (Which robot are we?) (this is done in groups, we then go over each groups idea)
- Strategize the ideal alliance
- What are the three robots capable of?
- What do they accomplish during a match?
- How many points do they each score?
- Which robot is PHRED?
- What archetypes did we find from “dream team” (back in one group)
- Which archetypes fit together?
- Which archetypes will be reliant on certain strategies from alliance partners?
- Which archetypes are the most versatile.
- Which archetype is PHRED
- Functions we want to perform (priority)
- Based on our archetype choice, what tasks should our robot perform (priority list) (here are some items that might be on it in no particular order)
- Manipulate game object
- Store certain number of game objects at a time
- Complete endgame task
- Score at high pointage location
- Score at low pointage location
- Complete certain auton task
Charged Up Kickoff
Here is a list of some of our results from the above categories:
Maximum score: 193
Interesting items:
Ability to manipulate multiple game objects in community zone and pickup zone
Ability to somewhat shoot cubes as done in 2018
Cubes move around the ground easily and could possibly be blown with air (defense)
Defensive autos might be possible
Dozer is a viable bot
There were very likely more, but I can’t think of them at the moment
Top tier robots:
- We felt that the best robots would tend to collect game pieces from the double substation in quals, but have the ability to collect tipped cones for strategic reasons.
- These bots will score on the top row with the ability to score on the middle as well.
- They will most likely use “sensors” (I’m a mech person, can you tell?) to quickly balance in the endgame. We will probably see some of them with the ability to help others balance as well.
- Our alliances consisted of three general bot ideas
- Defense/low scorer
- Speedy deliverer/mid scorer
- High scorer
(with many new new members (about 5 out of 17ish) not everyone was familiar with just how quick swerve is and so a strategy that was more ideal for 2011 emerged. Using one bot that would grab from the ground in the community and place, with another that quickly shuttles objects to the scorer).
After discussion about these archetypes we combined like-features of each and eliminated options.
We decided not to pursue a dedicated high-scorer that might rely on alliance partners strategies to be effective. We also decided we wanted to attempt more than a low scorer. We settled on a mid scorer that might have the potential to score high. We also decided that we would like to specialize in cube manipulation. This decision was made to prevent building a robot that was inconsistent at manipulating both game elements. We intend to pick up both cubes and cones but cones are our priority.
Below are white board photos from our dream team section.
Possible Mechs
For the first two days, we make a point of focusing on things we want to do, and not how we want to do them. However, as a senior and design lead, I couldn’t help myself thinking of different ways to score.
Vertical elevator with horizontally extending arm:
My original thought was to have a vertical elevator. Attached would be a pneumatic-cylinder-powered slider that would hold the intake and would be able to reach at least the mid level.
Diagonal elevator:
This idea was primarily inspired by the folks on the Unofficial FRC discord server, and the elevator of FTC team 17595’s power play bot. This strategy seems quicker, but will make collecting items at the high double substation more difficult.
I also devised a strategy in which we could place both cones and cubes on the mid level, while being able to launch cubes onto the high level. This would be accomplished with an intake flipping mechanism similar to 254’s or 2471’s in 2018.
This elevator was originally planned to be 2 stages. I then did some geometry testing in onshape to see if placing cones and cubes through the elevator onto level 2 would work (with the intake facing away from the alliance wall, my original plan).
This seems exceedingly difficult. Even with many adjustments to angle, the end of the elevator would barely reach horizontally past the 2nd level node.
It seems that (if you’re going the angled elevator route and intend to score both on high and mid levels) either have a separate intake and manipulator, make a 3 staged elevator, or possibly avoid cones for L2 and L3? You could also change the way your elevator manipulator works, I was just trying to make the most simple possible.
Might be missing something here…
Anyway, I’ll probably have another post by weeks end to describe what’s happened. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them below, and I’ll try to get back asap.
(the 2nd to last photo is a concept just to be able to visualize the flipping intake, (not to scale).
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