Hi, I’m an FRC alumnus from teams 900, 9000, and 1225. I thought this year’s game was really exciting, so I decided to speedrun a CAD design to challenge myself and get some practice. Nothing has been tested, so I’m not sure if it would actually work, but I think it looks pretty cool. The climber depends on a strong clamp-like hold to function properly, so adding some rubber padding would be essential. The design uses 20 motors and, in theory, can perform any action in the game that contributes to scoring points. I might have overlooked something in the rulebook that could make the design invalid, but with proper software limits, it should comply with the 18-inch extension rule. I’m happy about how it turned out, and I hope it sparks inspiration for some students. Here’s the Onshape link to the document: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2cfcc6f57f3bff7f9a237123/w/57f5af07dd1853c59e34f6c0/e/397b8eefeb16a08d1a128e09?renderMode=0&uiState=677caf4f12cf5366b2c30ef2
Edit (Because this has gotten more attention than expected):
Algae
Ground pickup uses a bucket-like mechanism that can pivot to either store away, shoot into the net, or eject into the processor.
To remove algae from the reef, this could potentially be achieved using a telescoping arm. This arm could either push the algae from below or use side rollers to rotate it out from the reef.
Coral
Designed to pick up from both the ground (though this will be challenging) and the human player station – part of why the pickup mechanism is on the side of the robot.
Capable of collecting coral against a wall if it drops near the reef base.
Theoretically able to score on all levels, depending on the telescoping arm’s physical limits. Flex when fully extended is a concern that needs testing.
I am curious if the rollers could help straighten the coral in the arm while running, but this requires further experimentation.
Climb
The climbing mechanism remains stored until the endgame.
At deployment, it grasps the metal tubes approximately 4-5 inches from the top. The motor helps align the cage for clamping.
Once securely clamped, the I-bolt of the cage is positioned above the robot’s center of gravity, allowing it to hang.
A high gear ratio amplifies the small resistance provided by the motor, theoretically allowing the clamp to hold for at least 3 seconds.
I have also elaborated on the climbing process in response to another question.
Final Notes
I used NEO motors for all mechanisms initially because I was initially assisting my brother’s team (1225) and teaching him CAD. However, these can be replaced with any compatible motor.
Best of luck to everyone this season! I’ll try to answer questions between classes.
Will browse this more later, but this is pretty much my initial thoughts. Teams that spend too much robot real estate on their coral will not be able to do algae.
Based on the CAD, I believe the coral can score on both sides, although there may be an easier side to score from.
I love the climbing mechanism. Stowed out of sight until needed, and super compact, which is probably what most winning robots need to be for this season.
If you have any design questions if you end up building it, just let me know. Also, FYI I designed this in 25 hours over 3 days, so nothing is standardized (aluminum plate thickness or number of overlapping wholes for rivets) or calculated in terms of necessary gear rations (I just went over kill).
Also, if you end up building it, I would love to see the robot in action.
So stowed that I didn’t even see it when I opened this up last night!
I really like the climber as an option to package a shallow climb too (and just skip the shoulder pivot to fold the robot up). Filing this one away for future reference. As it is now, are you worried about driving the carriage NEO down into the bottom of the cage?
My idea was that it would clamp to the top of the deep cage (without touching the anchor) like in the image below. It relies on a string routing shown in blue to pivot the hooks and clamp onto the tubes. This would have to be tested heavy. but this would not be anywhere near the bottom of the tube. Once you are clamped you are able to pull the I-Bolt on the cage to above the center of mass of the robot. (without any testing done this is all theory).
Any worries about this just pushing the cage around instead of latching? I assume these are sprung in the closed direction and you push them into the bars sort of like 2022 hooks, but I could be missing something.
I was trying to package a similar sort of arm into a 26" x 26", but couldn’t get it low enough to work!
Do you think it would be able to do L4? It looks like at the top of the elevator it is about 1 inch above, but with the manipulator I’m not sure it will. I didn’t find a check drawing though.
I was thinking having them lightly sprung open and then using a motor with an absurd gear ratio to pull the clamp closed and uses the rear ratio as resistance to it opening. The blue is rope and yellow is spring. But I could see it modified to be the other way:
This screen shot shows the bottom of the coral being a bit over 5 ft off the ground, though I might not be able to go this far without testing because of the lever force that come with telescoping arms:
(edit: I just realized this, you could also tilt the coral back farther to extend the reach by a little more)
