FRC 3061 Huskie Robotics - 2024 Preseason Build Thread (Latest topic: FLL initiatives and new robots)

FIRST Open Alliance
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Hi CD,

I’m Lotem Harnik, the Robot Captain of Huskie Robotics, Team 3061.

About Huskie Robotics 3061

Last year was our first year as part of the Open Alliance, and we loved it so much that we’re back for this preseason. Huskie Robotics is a high school team from Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois. Founded in 2009, we’ve been building robots, cultivating passions for STEAM, and impacting our community for over 15 years.

Our team is composed of over 100 members and 17 mentors, including students from two different schools within our district. We strive to demonstrate inclusion and foster a close-knit Huskie family.

Preseason Activities

We will meet every Wednesday from 3:30 PM to 9:00 PM during the preseason. Our plans include exploring new projects, training new members, and deepening our knowledge as we prepare for the build season.

This preseason, we’re also busy with the 43 FLL teams we started and mentor in our district, as well as running two FLL competitions. We’re excited to share our progress, discoveries, failures, and successes with the FIRST community along the way.

Goals for Open Alliance

As an Open Alliance team, we hope to share resources with the FIRST community that go beyond just the robot aspects of our team. We plan to cover our training plans, leadership workshops, various outreach events, and more!

Our hope is that this thread becomes a valuable resource for everyone in the FIRST community and provides a beneficial learning opportunity for us as a team. And we hope you ask questions and give feedback.

Team Links

More to come!

Thanks,
Lotem :slight_smile:

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Welcome to the first big post of Team 3061’s 2024 Preseason Open Alliance thread! I’m Franklin, Systems Integration Specialist Captain, and would like to start off the year by sharing about our FLL initiatives in the school district.

FLL Teams

Using a $447,000 5-year grant from the NEF (Naperville Education Foundation), we run 42 teams across all schools in the district, 33 at elementary schools and 9 at Jr. Highs. Each team is mentored by our members, with one FRC student per FLL team. We run a scrimmage tournament for elementary teams in November, as well as one of the largest double qualifiers in the state in December, in which our Jr. High and community teams compete.

Professional Development Conference

We also run our district’s FLL Professional Development training program each year, which just concluded a few weeks ago. A panel of high school students from our FRC team take the day to educate new and returning FLL coaches (teachers in the district) about all aspects of FLL. You can access our resources below:

24-25 slides:

24-25 FLL Professional Development Core Values/Project

24-25 FLL Professional Development - Robot Game

22-23 videos: FLL Coaches Clinic | Huskie Robotics

FLL Bootcamp

During the preseason, we run a FLL Bootcamp to train our members who mentor our FLL teams. While we haven’t yet made our 24-25 slides, you can take a look at our 23-24 slides to get a general idea of how this activity works.2023-24 Bootcamp Slides - CD post

FLL Summer Science Camp

Over the summer, we partner with our district to run a FLL Summer Science Camp. The camp runs for 4 weeks, each session is a week long with 21-24 students. Kids partner up and build, code, and run missions from the 2023 FLL game, though the rules are modified slightly to integrate better with a one-week-long course. Our team supplies volunteers to assist the teachers, and teaching assistants who run coding lessons, and help guide students through any roadblock that they may encounter.

HuskieSPIKE

In addition, we would like to officially release the plans for HuskieSPIKE. One of our members, @alex_wang_6061, spent his summer working on this robot and integrated it into the last two weeks of the FLL Summer Science Camp. It is similar to SpaceSPIKE but with a couple advantages:

Arm

  • Higher torque
    • makes programming easier
  • Lower backlash
    • makes programming easier

Drivetrain

  • Smaller wheel base
    • faster turning
  • Smaller robot footprint
    • tighter maneuvers
    • less likely to accidentally bump into missions

Packaging

  • Large motor lower to the ground
    • Closer to the center of gravity
      • Reduces chance of robot tipping up when decelerating and reduces inertia when rotating
  • Cable Management
    • Can be oriented so they are extremely close to the robot body
      • still allows easy access to the ports

Attachments

  • Holes next to horizontal axle
    • makes creating attachments easier
  • Extra pins
    • makes attaching easier
  • Directly driving attachments with the motor is easy
  • 32t gear on bottom of motor
    • another way to transmit power
    • acts like a knob to allow for easy and accurate manual arm adjustment
  • Adjustable front assembly
    • can be removed to allow advanced students to create their own front end while keeping the motor securely mounted

Color Sensor

  • more shielding to prevent interference

While these instructions are designed for the LEGO Spike Prime Kit, the instructions includes one 12 tooth bevel gear (# 6589) that is not part of the kit. This part along with the round 2x2 plate with axle hole can be replaced with a 12 tooth double bevel gear (#32270) at the cost of slightly more arm backlash.

If you’re looking for a better SPIKE Prime base robot, HuskieSPIKE might be for you. Check out the plans here! The wiring is designed in a way to be compact and so the wires can’t get snagged. We’ve made a video on how to wire the robot here which goes over steps 36, 40, and the wiring guide. We’re always looking for feedback so leave any questions or comments you have in this thread.

Hopefully this post is a helpful resource if you or your team is trying to start or expand your reach in FLL. If you’ve got any questions feel free to reach out!

Until next time,

Franklin

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