Hello,
Team E.L.I.T.E.'s resident CAD guy here to drop a link to our 2022 FIRST Rapid React robot Xtrēmachēn 25 .
This is our 25th season of Encouraging Learning In Technology and Engineering and while we came up short in some aspects of the competition I and all of my fellow mentors are proud of the efforts our students put forth this season. We got XM25 off to a sluggish start in Rochester and without the ability to traverse were easily taken out in the quarterfinals. We don’t talk about Buckeye, but the greatest joy was found in the weeks leading up to Midwest. Coming off a dismal on-field performance full of mechanical gremlins we knew we had a lot of work to do to get better for Midwest. In the ten days we had to work before leaving for Chicago we reworked the shooter to eliminate backspin, cut new plates and shafts, and assembled it, implemented distance-based shooter code, and got our traversal climb steady enough that our drivers had full faith to go full send both in practice at home and all weekend at Midwest. Seeing that much effort and camaraderie amongst students and mentors, all of us busting our butts for one last shot on the season was definitely the highlight and a very strong reason I come back to this program every year.
At Midwest our shot accuracy was up, we had far fewer bounce-outs, and our overall throughput was up. We traversed as much as we could with only minor tweaks being made throughout the weekend to make the climbing process that much more stable including the addition of grip tape to get rid of a wicked shimmy when transitioning to our secondary hooks. Unfortunately, we had one last mechanical gremlin bite us at the worst possible time, cutting our season shorter than we would have liked and sending our senior driver off short of qualifying for Houston. We had gotten to a rubber match in the semifinals and with about 45 seconds left we lost half of our drivetrain, we used flush mount nuts to mount our quick change gearboxes and the fatigue caught up to them and ripped the flanges clean off of the threaded barrel of the nut. We have since reworked this design to make it more robust in anticipation of a waitlist spot but alas that never came and our official season is complete.
Our students did present well at all of our events and were able to secure a General Motors Industrial Design Award at Midwest. I believe this is the first season we’ve taken the time to do this but the following is the flyer we compiled to hand to the judges to truly feature this year’s machine.
We feel we have more in the tank, especially after coming off a pandemic shortened season and an ‘at home’ season. We are looking forward to signing up for, traveling to, and competing in as many off-season competitions as we can muster this summer and into the fall. Look forward to seeing y’all there!!
A note on the CAD: We work in SolidWorks so I have taken a pack 'n go of our work, as well as an included .step export of the overall assembly. I’d be happy to answer any questions about the mechanical aspects of our robot. Thanks and have a nice off-season.