Welcome to the Mercenary Robotics 2024 Build Thread! This is our first year as part of openalliance, and we are thrilled to share our experiences throughout the season with the FRC community.
Team Introduction:
Mercenary Robotics, based out of McKinney, is a community-based team whose mission is to ignite a lifelong passion for STEAM fields through robotics education and mentorship. We strive to provide inclusive and accessible opportunities for students of all backgrounds to explore their interests, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and build self-confidence. By promoting STEAM education, we aim to equip the next generation with the skills and knowledge they need to shape a better future for themselves and their communities.
6369 was founded in 2017, and this will be our 7th season competing in FRC. We are so excited to share all our insights throughout the season, and we hope to help as many teams as possible as well as grow ourselves as a team.
We will be participating in the following events:
FiT 2024 Belton District Event
FiT 2024 Amarillo District Event
We also have the possibility to qualify for the FiT District Championships and the First Championship.
Stay tuned for upcoming updates on our off-season undertakings (let’s just say we had an exciting couple of months ).
I couldn’t wait to share the incredible energy and excitement that filled our workshop at McKinney STEAM Academy (MSA) during the kickoff meeting for the new FRC season, Crescendo!
The anticipation was off the charts as our team gathered to embark on this thrilling adventure. From seasoned veterans to fresh faces, everyone was buzzing with excitement about the challenges and innovations that lay ahead.
We held kickoff at MSA, and team members gathered together to watch FIRST unveil their new game in the livestream. Our team had a blast guessing the game beforehand to win lollipops and free t-shirts!
After the game reveal, we spent time reading the game manual and discussing the rules as a whole before breaking into teams to discuss strategy plans. Our goals and requirements that followed that are:
Autonomous:
Requires Vision
3 Piece Autonomous, includes preload, pickup 2 off the ground. Score all 3 in the Speaker.
Leave the Starting zone
Combined for 17 points.
Teleop:
Need to be able to score in Amp
Need to be able to score in Speaker
Heavy Offense Bot
Should score ~12 pieces during TeleOp
Endgame (20 seconds):
Need to Climb (3pts, possibly 4 with Spotlight)
Originally we wanted to be able to score the trap to help guarantee the ranking point, however, after further conversation (ie the trap is a trap), we decided to only do the Trap if it would work with our other mechanisms.
Combined for (8 pts)
After Kickoff, our team broke each requirement into subteams and created a high-level schedule for each week, with the tasks broken down into weeks.
After Kickoff, the Team Split and Brainstormed about the building aspect of the Robot, and the software aspect of the Robot.
Here is what Each Subteam brainstormed and established by the end of Day 1:
Drivebase: Here is a link to a document with detailed information
Requirements:
The size of the Robot was established to be 24in by 24in, then changed to 24in by 20in.
Drivebase CAD almost finished
We need to ask other sub-teams to ask how much space
Cycle Times have to be ~6 seconds
Needs to travel 50 feet to go to the Source and then the Amp
We have to go 19 feet per second, target speed is 20 feet per second
Keep Robot weight under 60lbs
Swerve is 16lbs, battery is 15lbs, bumpers are ~20lbs
Needs Bellypan with allocated space for specific electronics
Bumpers add 6 inches
Needs one-piece bumpers that you have to switch/mount
Swerve types:
Standard Swerve X
Ratio: X1 13:32 X2 22 to 25
Weight: 3.29
Motors: Are on the top leaving more space to drive over notes
Swerve X Flipped
Ratio: X1 Between 19-22
Weight: 3.79
Motors: are on the bottom leaving less space
Wheelstypes:
Tred/ Extra
Pain to put on
Coulson
Less grip
Need to Test each type of Swerve module/Wheels
^Swerve CAD Prototype, along with Swerve Module CAD
Intake:
Discussed Strategy
Agreed on a smaller Robot size with the entire team
Established that the intake would move up and down
GROUND PICKUP SYSTEM STRATEGY
In the pursuit of efficiency, our team has prioritized ground pickup over source pickup. To achieve this, we explored various approaches, focusing on designs that either drop down over the bumpers or intake beneath them, reminiscent of a Roomba. Several concepts were considered, including a claw with rollers flanked by boards for secure containment, a Miata-inspired cone intake, and the implementation of entrapment wheels with a dustpan intake. Each design necessitates a wrist mechanism and a seamless transfer into the outtake.
Inspiration was drawn from the 2020 FTC game, “Ultimate Goal,” where a similar game element was encountered, providing valuable insights for our decision-making process.
CHOSEN DESIGN
After thorough deliberation, our team has opted for a dustpan design utilizing entrapment wheels. This design will be complemented by a “scissor lift” wrist mechanism to facilitate elevation as needed. The next consideration involves smoothly transferring the collected item to the outtake. Options under evaluation include a conveyor belt or a wrist adjustment that allows the item to fall directly into the outtake.
This decision is informed by a balance of effectiveness, reliability, and adaptability, ensuring our robot’s ground pickup system aligns seamlessly with our overall strategy for the competition.
Note: Ongoing testing and refinement may influence the final implementation.
Climber:
Criteria and Requirements:
Height Restriction: The climber must fit under 2ft 4 1/4 inches to enhance cycle times by moving below the stage.
Hanging Capability: The climber should effectively support the robot’s weight.
Stable Hanging Position: The climber must secure the robot at a specific point without sliding, and be able to accommodate multiple robots on the chain.
Minimal Movement: The climber should remain fixed, avoiding swaying or movement.
Post-Disable Hang Time: Ability to keep the robot hanging for 5 seconds after being disabled, adhering to game rules.
Subsystem Accommodation: The climber should allow space for other robot subsystems.
Maximum Height: The climber should reach a maximum height of 4ft, corresponding to the highest point of the chain.
Buddy Climb Capability: Consideration for a buddy climb to achieve the ranking point for two hanging robots on one chain, earning 10 points.
Climber Concepts:
Lead Screw: Effective for stability but slow and limited in height due to lead-screw length.
Hook and Winch: Utilizes a tube-in-tube system with a hook and winch mechanism, offering versatility and adaptability to different climbing heights.
Elevator: Quick with linear slides but may consume considerable space and pose reliability issues post-disable.
Flip-Up Arm: Limited by robot dimensions, stage limit, and maximum chain length, reducing reliability.
Tube-in-Tube: Unreliable and prone to breakage, occupies significant space.
Hook Designs:
Carabiner-Type: Modeled after a carabiner, providing stability and suitability for trap scoring. Requires precision or a funnel.
Clamp: Mimics a human hand, featuring a gripping mechanism around the chain to prevent robot movement.
Extra Mechanisms:
Consideration for two rods with rubber to contact the polycarbonate panel, moving the robot to the other side of the chain for enhanced stability. This would require an off-centered placement of the climber.
After careful evaluation, the team has selected a “Hook and Winch” climber design with a “Carabiner-Type” hook for its effectiveness in achieving various climbing heights. The inclusion of rods extending outwards is under consideration for added stability.
Note: The final decision is subject to further evaluation and testing.
Scoring Mechanism (Speaker, Amp, Trap):
CADded a prototype
Rough idea in mind for mechanisms
Worked out how to reduce excess angles and FIT UNDER STAGE
CADded basic geometry of the shooter and created a space
Decided to create a handoff
Vision: Here is a link with all of the Software requirements
The team is so excited to embark on this season’s engineering challenge, and we can’t wait to tell you more about everything that is going on during the Build Season.
Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to share your own kickoff experiences and strategies below!
These past weeks have been intense at the McKinney Steam Academy, and we’re excited to share our latest updates. We finished building half a field and have a Speaker, Amp, and Half of the Stage set up!
This week included heavy prototyping and CAD design iterations. Let’s dive into the detailed updates from each of our subteams!
Shooter+Amp+Trap:
Our goals for this week were to prototype various scoring mechanisms, select and design the lift, select a shooter feeder (handoff from Intake to scoring mechanism), and complete the CAD for PrototypeV2.
The subteam was able to successfully prototype a shooter, select a lift mechanism, finish the design was finished, and select a shooter feeder.
The side-by-side shooter was very easy to make and easy to control. However, even with lots of compression, the flywheels slipped on the note a lot, limiting how much energy could be transferred. Increasing the speed of the flywheels had very little impact, as it only led to more slipping. What’s needed is more contact time between the note and the wheel and the ability to control compression.
Unfortunately, with a side-by-side roller, the note is so spongy that it would simply collapse into an oval, limiting effective compression. Adding a second set of wheels helped since it accelerated the note from a standstill before it contacted the next set of wheels, increasing the contact time with the note. Also, the note had virtually 0 spin while in motion and was almost still during its trajectory.
Here is a material list for the Side-By-Side shooter:
two NEO Vortexes, running at 20-80% power, shooting from the Podium. Angles were recorded in the spreadsheet.
two sets of 4in. Thrifty flywheels 8.5in. compression (suboptimal)
1 set of 4in. Thrifty flywheels 8.5in. compression (optimal)
3in. Green Flex Wheels 7.5in. compression (suboptimal)
Harder to implement; could flip the note forward or backward if not done right
We ran into a problem with the shooter becoming very large, around 18in. long, 20in. wide, so the drive base had to be changed to 25inĂ—25in to keep space for the climber and intake.
The Semi-Final/Final iteration of our scoring mechanism looks like this:
collapsed position
Speaker position
Amp position
Our goals for next week are to finish PrototypeV2 CAD and build PrototypeV2
Intake:
Our goals for this week were to finish building V1 Intake and finish the CAD model. We also attached IR sensors for note detection, in addition to finalizing and attaching to the motor
We have finished testing and building V1.
We need to finish the CAD model for Prototype V1.
Here is a material list for the intake:
2-inch compliant wheels
6 x 18t(16t) 9mm pulleys
75 tooth 9mm HTD belt
125 tooth 9mm HTD belt
4 x 22 half-inch thunder hex shafts
8 x half inch bearings
1 x 20 half inch churro
CNC polycarbonate parts
Some problems we ran into are that multiple times during testing, our gears had a tendency to fall off, which is why we had to tap extra holes and position the belts slightly differently to make sure they didn’t come out loose. Eventually, this was fixed.
Our goal for next week is to start working on the prototype and CAD model for V2. Next week, we will also work with Software to establish our IR sensors, design and prototype a mechanism to deploy and retract the intake into the robot perimeter and decide on the mechanism for the handoff.
Drive Base:
Our goals this week were to complete the wire management for the V1 prototype, troubleshoot any issues with the V1 swerve drive, and decide the FINAL dimensions for V2, CAD V2, and inventory for V2.
We finished wire management, troubleshooting issues for V1, and decided on the final dimensions (25x25), and inventory for our parts. Here is the CAD for V1 (20x24).
One problem that we ran into was that we didn’t meet our immediate deadline for the V2 CAD this was due to all the sub-teams not communicating with us about the amount of space they needed on the robot. So, on Saturday, we met with the sub-leads to discuss and settled on a 25 by 25 drive base.
The V2 CAD is due on Tuesday, and we plan to meet on Monday to start working on the swerve. Once the CAD is done, we will cut the sides out of CNC the belly pan. Wiring will also be done alongside wire management.
The drive Climber was experiencing issues with length and concluded they needed an extra 2 inches to mount. This meant we needed to lower the belly pan by 2 inches. This design change meant we would sacrifice being unable to drive over notes. However, it was a necessity to climb therefore we sacrificed that and opted to go for the lower belly pan. With the new design change, we decided to do the flipped swerves.
Here is the CAD for flipped swerves and lowered belly pan.
Climber:
Our goals for this week were to finish V1 of the Climber and start with the CAD for V2. We finished V1 Climber and tested it with Software. We also made some design changes for the V2 Climber and started designing it in CAD.
We created a slit in the side of the Tube-In-Tube Climber so we can have a hook go all the way down to the bellypan of our robot. We are dropping the belly pan of our robot by 2 inches and making our climber 2 inches higher to make it easier for the chain to be closer to the robot when we climb.
The hook was able to reach all the way down to the bellypan of our robot and brought the chain very close to it.
We used a Falcon 500 that was geared with a 4:1 and a 5:1 to allow climbing for 5 seconds after the match ends and to hold the robot efficiently. We used two in.x2in. Aluminum is used for the base of the tube-in-tube and a 1.5-in. x 1.5-in. Tube for the tube that extends out. We used the Climber In a Box bearing kit from AndyMark, as well as the Winch Kit from Andymark as well. The Tube-In-Tube goes up very fast because of its springs and retracts pretty easily. In Total, the Climber takes up 2x2 inches, but with the motor, it takes up around 2x5 inches.
One problem that we ran into this week is that the chain didn’t go low enough for our desired mechanism, so we are planning to drop the belly pan of the robot down by 2 inches to allow the chain to be at the perfect height for the trap scoring mechanism.
Our plans for next week are to make one more of the V1 Climber, and then CAD the V2 climber and order parts for the V2; if the parts come in on time, we can start assembling the V2.
Software:
Our goals for this week were to have working swerve code, game piece alignment, and 3D Apriltag tracking.
We had a “working swerve” on our testbed, our swerve from last year, the newly built Falcon standard swerve x, and Game Piece Alignment with PhotonVision’s colored shape pipeline. We were also able to implement PathPlanner with baseTalonFX. However, we still need to test it on the robot.
However, we could not finish 3D AprilTag tracking because of difficulties implementing YAGSL. One of the big problems we ran into was not getting YAGSL working. However, we decided, for now, to continue with baseTalonFX. We realized that the angle motor gain was too low on baseTalonFX, and we spent a great deal of time working on it. YAGSL might have had similar issues but proceeded with baseTalonFX as we were already behind schedule. A problem that came along with not being able to implement YAGSL is that PathPlanner was difficult to implement without swervelib.
Another problem we ran into was getting our AprilTag camera calibrated. We decided on the Arducam OV9281s with the M12 lens with PhotonVision for our AprilTag solution. We weren’t getting a successful calibration on Ubuntu even though we received a confirmation message (the values on the cameras tab were not being updated). The problem was that we needed to wait a couple of minutes before it actually showed up (even after the confirmation message), probably due to the large snapshots we took.
Our goals for the next build are to test PathPlanner with baseTalonFX and finish 3D Apriltag tracking and Pose Estimation.
Our 8th graders and new FRC Students built the KitBot this season. Their goal this week was to finish the base KitBot. They will now go on to modify and add to their base KitBot!
They were able to complete the KitBot. We have a moving and shooting Kitbot now!
All the materials they used are included in the KitBot Kit.
Now that we are finished with the Kitbot, next week they are planning to turn it into the EveryBot. They plan on beginning by building the roller claw (amp scoring mechanism) and the climber.
That’s a wrap for Week 2! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to share your own kickoff experiences and strategies below!
The team has been working hard for week three, developing more prototypes, finalizing our robot design, working on software for the robots and software for the scouting systems, building and modifying the KitBot, and much more!
This week was our last week of prototyping, and we are beginning our final build for Belton! The team has worked hard to meet the deadline for next week to hand off the robot to software and the drive team for practice.
FINAL DESIGN:
Drum roll, please… our final design for FiT Belton Event!
Front View
Right Side View
Left Side View
Bottom/Belly Pan View
Shooter+Amp+Trap:
This week’s goals were to finish prototyping and the CAD for Belton, order all the necessary parts and assemble the first complete shooter version. Prototyping was finished to an acceptable extent, the CAD is nearly done, and almost all parts have been ordered. We ordered various sizes of sprockets (25 36 and 22, and #35 15, 36, and 30).
The virtual double-reverse four-bar stacking had to be reworked for the space between the climbers and swerves. In addition, the indexer motor was moved to the top of the shooter to allow greater rotation of the shooter.
A top/bottom shooter was built and tested with much greater success than either previous prototype.
Results of testing:
The prototype shooter was precise but not accurate. It could not score consistently, but the shafts were not in sync, and the whole assembly was held in place by a person’s weight. When held in place better, it should be more consistent. It was very repeatable when aimed at the same location with similar circumstances.
We tested .875" compression and .25" compression. .875" compression was not ideal but still worked well, and .25" compression seemed optimal.
For the wheels, we used a mix of 4"compliant wheels and 4" solid urethane wheels.
It worked well. The main tradeoff we had to make was between weight savings and flywheel momentum. The compliant wheels are light but have less momentum when spinning. The urethane wheels are heavy but will keep the flywheels spinning at a more constant speed while in contact with the note. We could not determine the optimal ratio between the different types of wheels.
One interesting finding was that the green 45A-compliant wheels actually expand by .125"-.25" when spinning over 4000 RPM. It shouldn’t impact the results too much, but it is interesting.
We tested the shooter from the Wing line at various speeds. The angle impacts the results more than the note speed soon after reaching the minimum velocity to score the note.
Some problems we ran into were that the shooter had slots in the plate that held the bottom plate that the notes slid across in place. Multiple CNC bits have been broken trying to cut the slots. We plan to make the slots bigger to make it easier to cut.
The handoff between the intake and shooter is too far to spit it in without direct support. To fix this, we will add wedges and plates to the drive base, lift, and shooter to support the note as it travels between the two systems.
Next week, we will manufacture and assemble the shooter for Belton.
Intake:
Our goals for this week are to decide on over-the-bumper or under-bumper intake, test and prototype to make a decision, and begin constructing the final intake after the decision.
We CADed and tested prototypes for both over-the-bumper and under-the-bumper intake mechanisms. Our goal was to make a decision between the two by the end of the week. We decided on an under-the-bumper intake.
We have a few more steps to assemble the final robot intake, but will likely finish on the next meeting day. The final CAD was completed with many iterations: added another roller for handoff and protection (a guard) for the note from belts and gears.
We completed both CAD prototypes this week to help decide between the two intake mechanisms and found that while both worked well, the under-the-bumper intake was more compact, could make the trade-off to shooter easier, and had fewer moving parts. It also seems more protected, so could be more durable when competing.
We created a prototype of a simple roller intake that modeled under the bumper and over the bumper. Also, a 4-bar system to experiment with.
During our testing, we experimented with compression of close to .5” and found that it was good if we were doing a handoff method while storing it in the intake because it was so tight. But since we are going under the bumper, we discovered around .2” was better for a more fluid intake.
The motor was just run at 40-80% power and had no problem at any speed pulling it in (on a max planetary 3-1 Neo Vortex).
No big problems so far, however, we are unsure of the spacing of motor plates, side plates, spacers and gears on the final intake. We are going to discuss it as a team at the next meeting.
Our plan for next week is to finish building the intake and then work on implementing a simple ramp to ensure the note makes it to the shooter.
Extra: “Pandamonium” would be a nice robot name…
Handoff:
Between the intake and SAT subteams, the handoff is very important.
Here’s a sketch for the handoff ramp; the solid yellow areas are the plates which will guide the note. The solid black lines near the bottom are the initial wedge to angle the note against the top intake roller. The big circle on the upper left is the shooter feeder roller. The plates will be mounted to the four-bar so that they don’t block the four-bar.
Drive Base:
Our goal for this week is to have the drive train built and wired for software testing. We built drivetrain and wired for software testing. We are using WCP Swerve with Kraken motors.
Swerve with 2-inch drop belly pan.
One of the Kraken swerve modules is malfunctioning. We will fix the issue with the software present at the next meeting.
Our goal for the next week is to get other subteam parts attached to the drive train, get it software tested, and ready for drive practice.
Climber:
Our goals were to finish V1 Climber, test it, and finish V2 CAD for the climber. We finished the V1 Climber, tested it, and finished the CAD for the climber.
Climber testing using the lower hooks. The V1 Prototype worked well, but it didn’t bring the chain far down enough.
The V1 Climber was finished, and we started on the gearbox for the V2 Climber.
One iteration we decided on was using the WCP 2 Stage GreyT Telescope. We also chose to make the hook much shorter. We also modified the Grey T Telescope to reduce the shaft lengths, changed where the motor is, put a slit in it so a hook can go all the way down, and changed the gearbox so it no longer included a gear ratio which made the overall base shorter.
The V1 Prototype was made using the Andy Mark climber-in-a-box, and it had a Falcon geared up with a 5:1 and then a 4:1, which gave us a greater amount of torque than the Andy Mark climber-in-a-box. The V2 based on the CAD model uses the WCP GreyT Telescope and is a 2-stage that allows us to reach all the way to the top of the chain; it has two hooks and is made out of aluminum.
The base is around a 5x5” space on the belly pan, and then after the base, it goes down to a 2x2”. This climber has the same slit feature as the last ones but is modified so the chain goes much farther down. We also changed the motor so it wouldn’t hit one of our swerve drives based on where we would place it. We placed it closer to the intake rather than the shooter because there was more weight on the intake side because of the battery, so we decided to put it there. We used the same gearing for the motor as the last one, a 5:1, then a 4:1.
The V1 climber hook didn’t go down far enough, so on the V2, we made it go down farther and higher with a 2nd stage.
Our plan for next week is to finish, test, and mount the V2 Climber.
Software:
Our goals for this week were to implement Pathplanner and Apriltag Localization with our odometry. We completed Pathplanner! However, we still need to finish Apriltag Localization implementation with odometry.
Camera calibration for AprilTag vision:
For vision processing, we use our coprocessor, the Beelink SER5 Mini PC.
One problem we had with Pathplanner was that our implementation for the supplier of the robot’s current robot-relative chassis and the consumer of the robot’s relative output was incorrect. So our solution is to use SwerveDriveKinematics, which has a class that converts getModuleStates() to ChassisSpeeds and the other way around. We are now working on adding our subsystems for a full auton.
Our plans for next week are to run Pathplanner with a fusion of Apriltag localization and robot odometry, set up command-based classes for new TalonFX changes (phoenix 6), explore HSV mask, and train a model for TPU.
Our goals for this week were to cut the necessary parts for the Everybot and finish coding and adjusting the shooter power.
We finished the shooter and cutting parts.
We started building Everybot and Kitbot shooter modification. One problem we ran into is that the shooter was shooting to the left.
Our plan for next week is to finish the Everybot, start intake building, start auton, and start on AprilTag vision processing.
Strategy, Scouting, and Driveteam:
We began our process for Driveteam selection. Next week, everyone will take a Rules Quiz and Driveteam quiz. In addition, we have decided what we wanted for scouting. In past years, our Scouting Team has given the Driveteam too much information. So, we have decided on a list of essential pre-scouting (pit scouting) and essential game scouting.
Essential pre scouting (pit):
Type of drive
Can they go under the stage
Shooting ability amp or speaker
Climbing ability (trap/Harmony)
Auton preference
Essential game scouting:
Number shots taken
Number shots hit
Where speaker shots are taken
How fast climb
How comfortable with Harmony climb
We have also created a longer list of capabilities and preferences we want to know about other teams. This year, we are focusing on preferences and percentage of shots made because of the limitation of notes, we want the lowest cycle time and high accuracy.
The Scouting Team has began building the app used for scouting, we decided to use Flutter and Android Tablets. Then, the data will be exported as a CSV and processed using SQL which is given to our Driveteam. We have began by creating form elements and getting to know the Flutter SDK better.
We are also working on video scrubbing, which will screen capture the matches in live time, split it into separate files: auton, teleop, and endgame.
Outreach:
We are super excited to host our first-ever FTC + FLL 6-part Workshop Series introducing each of those programs to students ready to learn and get a head start on possibly joining our first-ever FTC + FLL 6-part Workshop Seriesa team. These sessions are designed to be VERY basic introductions to each of these phases of the robots and competitions. Our goal is to serve students from our community and from across the DFW metro area.
Each session will have 12 students and needs, ideally, at least 4 MERC student mentors to help us maintain a 4:1 student-to-mentor ratio for plenty of student support.
That’s a wrap for Week 3! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
The team has been working hard for week four, fabricating and building the final robot, working on software for the robot, modifying the KitBot, and much more!
This week, we are finishing our final build for Belton! The team has worked hard to meet the deadline for this week to hand off the robot to software and the drive team for practice. While software is working hard on the code next week, the build team will start on the V2 competition robot for Amarillo, which will be powder-coated!
Shooter Amp Trap:
This week’s goal was to complete the construction of the competition shooter, shooter lift, and wire the shooter. We were able to complete it and mount the mechanism to the drivebase.
Materials: 2 motors with 125:1 gearbox plus a 2:1 sprocket reduction on the lift.
2 Kraken motors with 125:1 gearbox plus a 2:1 sprocket reduction on the lift.
We realized that it may be harder to reach the trap than we thought. We may not have given ourselves enough wiggle room to get the shooter out from under the chain, but we will see when it is all together.
Another problem we realized is that wiring for the multiple moving joints proved to be very difficult, but it seems like we have figured it out. Still need to make minor improvements.
Plans for next week are to fully finish wiring, so that means finalizing tie-downs, wrapping the wires, covering, etc, testing the lift and wrist for the shooter, and adding handoff plates from intake to shooter.
Intake:
Our goal this week is to mount the competition intake to the final robot and finish the wiring. We finished mounting the intake but did not finish the wiring.
Materials: churros, gears, belts, 9mm pulleys, and wire-brushed aluminum for the side plates
We had some trouble with our center-to-center distances. The center distances between the belt pulleys were wrong, so the belt’s tensioning was off. That caused a problem where some of the belts were either too loose or tight so that the roller couldn’t turn.
Next week, we plan to coordinate with software to install IR sensors.
Drive Base:
Our goals this week are to cut cross beams 23 x2, figure out new placement for electronics, attach electronics with screws, and wire management. We also wanted to attach bars, work on CAD, layout electronics, build battery mounts, cut battery tubes, CAD battery dividers, and wiring (once CAD is finished). Then, we want to install tube blocks, install battery plates, finish bumper CAD, basic wiring and wire management, and give software Drivebase specs for Pathplanner. Finally, we wanted a functionality test to finish the battery tray, assist mechanism attachment, and finalize bumper specs and assembly. All were completed except for making the final bumpers.
The Bumper CAD was updated Multiple times.
We made the final specs of the bumpers: 0.83 m by 0.93 m.
Materials (for the bumpers): 26 1/2” front and back, 30 " sides, 4 1/2” wood height, and 2 " diameter pool Noodles.
An issue we ran into was that the bumpers were not fitting properly, which required a redesign and placement of wiring with all the sub-teams and quick repair in mind.
Our plan for the next week is to make the first set of final bumpers, help with software handoff, and finish up any loose ends for the drive base at the moment.
Climber:
The goals and deliverables for this week were to Finish building the climber and mount it.
We were able to finish all of our deliverables.
Materials: WCP GreyT Telescope Gearboxes are our Climber Gearbox, but those gearboxes are really big for our robot dimensions, so we made our own custom gearbox that does the same thing but uses less space.
The gearbox changes worked perfectly and fit inside the drive base and all the other systems. However, we have not been able to fully test the climber yet.
The tubes for our climber were 1/8" thick, and the hooks were .2" thick. We modified some nut strips to support our gearbox in the way we wanted it to, which required us to drill through some of the tapped holes.
Climber Heights:
Base = 14.25
1st Stage Tube = 15.25
2nd Stage Tube = 15.50
Some problems that we ran into were that the holes didn’t line up with the climber-bearing kit screws, so we had to open those holes.
Our plans for next week are to test the climber on the chain and start researching ideas for better climbers to use for our other robot for Amarillo.
Software:
Our goals for this week were Game Piece Alignment, Multitag Apriltag Localization, and Pathplanner autonomous routines. We completed Multitag Apriltag Localization and discussed autonomous routines with Driveteam.
We are still currently working on Game Piece Alignment.
Materials: CORAL TPU M.2 and ELP High-Speed Wide Angle Global Shutter USB Camera (game piece camera)
A problem we ran into is that we wanted to use PhotonVision, but also wanted to have custom game piece detection with an M.2 Coral accelerator. The first big challenge was getting the PCIe driver to work, as it was made for older Linux kernels. It didn’t take us very long to get it working with Ubuntu 20.04, but photonvision does not work on this as WPILib requires you to have Ubuntu 22.04 (the biggest dependency being glibc 2.31). We solved this by using the "on Windows’’ section of the documentation, but that wasn’t before we tried various other solutions we found on forums. To get custom Python code to work with PhotonVision, we created two "helper services’’ so that photonvision can start about 10 seconds after the model pipeline so it doesn’t steal the camera.
Kitbot:
Our goal this week was to machine intake attachment, start climber build, finish amp, and start coding an auton. We finished everything but the intake.
We changed the amp wheel so that one of the wheels would have more grip and not hit the note when coming outside of the shooter
A problem we ran into was that the amp messed up the shooter angle. The motors were not running, and the talons were not updated. Code organization problems. We changed the amp power and put the wheel on the inside. We also changed the spot from where we shot into the speaker.
Our plan for next week is to finish our intake and climber and create a basic auton.
That’s a wrap for Week 4! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! :panda_face openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
The Mercenaries have had a busy and intense few weeks, and we are eager to share this week’s updates. We were able to fully finish building our Belton Robot. Drum roll please…we introduce AutoTune.
However, as we began to test with software, we ran into a couple of snags in the past couple of days…
Robot at the start of the week
Robot Yesterday
This week included finally finishing our competition bot and handing it over to Software to get all the mechanisms programmed, working, and drivable. We also did heavy work on Vision and Autonomous. Three steps back and one step forward.
Shooter Amp Trap:
This week’s goals were to work out kinks with lift and shooter and finish the preliminary V1.5 CAD. We were able to test the shooter fully, and we were also able to finish the preliminary V1.5 CAD.
One change we made was that for V1.5, the shooter’s wrist is 3”. longer, to allow shooting from further distances without raising the lift. The indexer is 1.5”. closer to the shooter-flywheels to allow wheels only on the sides, and now compresses the Note by .5”, along with the flywheels.
V1.5 CAD
A MAJOR problem that we ran into was that the motors that powered the bottom joint for the lift were powered out of sync by software, tearing apart the bevel gears in the 90-degree gearbox Because the gearboxes are on the bottom joint, which is sunken below the top of the drive tubes, the entire lift had to be taken out We plan to troubleshoot and fix it Sunday, and get rid of the 90-degree gearboxes for V1.5
Shredded bevel gears
This week, we plan on fixing the lift issues, designing lift V1.5, building and testing shooter V1.5, and starting on a preliminary design for the V2 shooter and lift.
FYI this is how the Bot looks as of Feb 8
Intake:
Our goal this week was to get the intake working.
We discovered that the intake was compressing the note at a weird angle that required the intake motor to run at 90% to intake a note.
A major problem that we ran into was that the intake had to be running very fast for a long period of time to intake a note. During initial testing, we ran it too quickly, so the motor became too hot, browning out the motor controller.
We had to replace the Kraken, and we moved the intake forward by 0.5” and created 3D-printed wedges to help move the notes smoothly.
Another issue we noticed was that the notes entering from the sides would potentially get caught. So we designed 3D-printed parts to help guide the notes.
Drivebase:
Our goal for this week is to complete the competition bumpers, help software with any drive base issues that they find, work on a wiring table, find and clean the parts for V2 swerve modules, and powder coat the new parts for V2.
We also helped our Rookie team who we are mentoring, Heatwave (9407), to build their swerve modules.
We were not completely able to finish the competition bumpers because changes were made to the intake after testing with the software. The intake was moved forward, changing the frame perimeter by 0.5”. We changed the bumpers (again) to two 27.125" and two 32.125" for the wood.
An issue we ran into was that the intake made bumpers unable to be completed because we had to make new ones (again) and therefore autonomous testing could not be completed.
Our plan for next week is to work on the wiring table, make more comp bumpers (hopefully the embroidered fabric comes in), work on swerves for V2, help powder coating with any drive base powder coating, and help Heatwave with drive base stuff.
Climber:
Our goals were to create a part list of our climbers as well as research different climber designs for our V2 robot. We finished our Bill of Materials and came up with criteria for what we wanted for our V2.
We tested controls with software.
We realized that our climbers are slightly unstable because we do not have front bearings due to the slit.
Our plan for next week is to make spares for our climbers and fix the stability issue. However, we cannot find a way to fix it. Some plans we have for the V2 climber are to make it more stable on our robot, make the hook more stable, and try to make the climber base smaller.
Software:
Our goal this week was to finish coding the robot to hand off to the Drive team. Our focus was mainly on Command-Based teleop for the intake, climber, and SAT, note recognition and follower, AprilTag alignment, and mounting the cameras.
For SAT specifically, we needed to PID tune and tune the follower motor. However, we ran into a huge issue of the follower being a few encoder values off which caused the bevel gear in the 90-degree gearbox to shred. We are still trying to fix this, but we will not be using the follower class provided by WPI.
We also needed to create and design permanent mounts for the cameras for AprilTag alignment and note detection. We are 3D-printing camera mounts which will mount to our swerve modules.
For note alignment, we use a Bee-link mini PC that runs PhotonVision with a custom-trained model. In addition, the yaw of the closest and most accurate note bounding box from inference is calculated and used to set the rotation of the swerve.
We have also created a spreadsheet of each subsystem we need to work on and the priority.
Red is a high priority, yellow is a slight fix, and green is good.
Kitbot:
Our goals this week were to build the EveryBot climber and design a ground intake. We finished the software for enhanced driving.
Finish all of the robot’s hardware and software
Pit:
After completing the competition robot for Belton, we have begun designing and building the pit.
Outreach and Impact:
This week, we had to finish the Impact Essay and Executive summary questions, as well as finalize the idea for the impact presentation and begin the shot list. All of these deliverables were completed, though missing a few slots of information for our essay.
We didn’t fully finish the shot list for the video, but our progress has been exponential, and we’re close to choosing a song.
When it comes to defining our goals for the Impact Presentation, it’s not just winning FIRST Impact, it’s winning the hearts and minds of the judges we interact with. To do this, we needed to include impactful stories, SIGNIFICANT MEASURABLE IMPACT, and a cohesive storyline that follows Nancy Duarte’s utopia vs. now formatting.
We are working hard to perfect the essay through feedback on the essay by using a rubric to grade the essay on specific criteria we want.
That’s a wrap for Week 5! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
The Mercenaries have had a busy week of software development and troubleshooting…a lot of troubleshooting.
Our robot at the beginning of the week:
Our robot at the end of the week:
This week was full of testing, breaking, rebuilding, testing, and breaking again. We are trying to solve optimization issues and fine-tune our robot while getting in ample drive team practice and tryouts.
Shooter Amp Trap:
The goal this week is to repair the lift and build shooter V1.5.
The lift was repaired, and the new shooter was built successfully. However, we need to complete the drawing packets (CAD pictures) for judging.
A new virtual double-reverse 4-bar was created. It got rid of the troublesome 90-degree gearboxes, shortened the arms to get out of the way of the intake-shooter handoff, and added a constant force spring to reduce backlash.
Shooter V1.5 was completed as well. It reduces the distance between the feeder wheels and flywheels to allow removing the center flywheels, increases compression on both the indexer and shooter flywheels, lengthens the wrist to allow for subwoofer shots without moving the 4-bar, and adds a lightening pattern.
The new 4-bar fixes the backlash, along with the 90-degree gearbox issue. The new 4-bar has almost no backlash now. Also, since it’s shorter now, it doesn’t get in the way of the intake-to-shooter handoff, and it allows for steeper shots.
The new shooter has not been thoroughly tested yet, but the indexer compression is much too high now. Based on the CAD model, it should be just fine, but there may have been a CNC error, causing the bearing hole to shift downwards. The wrist was further lengthened to aid in getting steeper shots. Additionally, the wheels were switched back to solid urethane wheels, as the green-compliant wheels expanded too much while spinning.
On top of all that, the whole assembly is powder-coated now.
The shooter feeder (indexer) has too much compression, so the plan is to reduce the size of the roller to compensate or switch out the plate for a thinner one. We went with switching the plate and the compression is now more ideal for the indexer.
The handoff between the intake and shooter is a bit longer now because the shooter is now designed so that the lift is not needed to score in the speaker, so an intermediate system may be required. We are still working on a solution.
Next week, work on shooter V2 can begin, as well as prep for Belton, including spares, drawings, etc. Our goal is to work on those and a handoff mechanism that needs to be designed and built as well.
Intake:
This week’s goal is to center the note as much as possible. We ran into the problem that when intake the note from different angles, not directly in front of the intake, the note would get stuck and catch on the pulleys on the sides of the intake.
We prototyped wedges to center the note.
Moved the mounting holes to better mount on the intake. Other than that, our intake works well and is consistent.
Drivebase:
The goals for this week are to attach proper bumpers to the robot, inventory for V2 Swerve Drives, cut tubes for the V2 drive base plus powder coat them.
We finished everything but inventory for V2 Swerve Drives. However, we have completed a list for our inventory.
The changes we made this week were mostly on the side plates that were CAD out for one side of the robot just to have AutoTune on the side. We used the laser cutter to engrave the name on the plate and painted it to make it stand out. We decided to not continue with the side plates because it gives the possibility of accidentally getting a note stuck inside the robot which will disable us for the rest of the match.
A problem we had with the drivetrain was that one of the swerves was pulling too much current and flipping the breaker, causing the robot to continuously reboot because the battery voltage was dropping to 7-8.
We found the problem to be in the gearing, missing a spacer. We fixed it, however, the issue still persists. Our goal for next week is to solve this issue as fast as possible and continue to do inventory for V2 swerves.
Climber:
The goal for this week is to work on making spares for the Climber.
We started making some spares for the Climber and were planning on finishing them next week. However, while testing with software and attempting to score trap, two of the hooks snapped off the telescoping arms. There was no damage to the climber, just the welded hooks were damaged.
We made new hooks that are thicker and more structurally sound.
We are in the process of mounting the new climbers and our plans for next week are to finish the climber spares.
Software:
This week’s goal was to test and implement multi-tag Localization with the PoseEstimator class provided by PhotonVision and Pathplanner on-the-fly pathfinding.
We were able to complete Pathplanner pathfinding, however, we were not able to finish Multitag Localization using the PoseEstimator class.
We had an issue with our network connection between the RoboRio and the mini PC where the network tables server repeatedly gets disconnected. We solved this error, it was caused by the different PhotonVision and PhotonLib libraries. We are now struggling to calibrate cameras due to the SQL structure preventing the camera calibrations from being saved. For reasons we don’t know yet, the calibrations seem to disappear when you reboot.
On top of this, our previous struggle with the shoulder motors not following each other using follower mode may have just been the slop (unsensed motion) in the previous mechanism. It seems to work very well with a closed-loop position loop while using a follower. However, the extent of this can only be tested when we move to various positions without the incremental approach.
Our plans for next week are to finish TeleOP ASAP to allow driver practice. As per our original schedule, we planned to hand off the robot to the drive team with a fully functional TeleOP. Clearly, we are behind schedule, but auto can be worked on whenever drivers aren’t meeting for practice.
Our odometry inaccuracies seem to prevent us from going to the center line making Multitag Localization a priority. "
Kitbot:
Our goal this week is to the climber and get the floor intake ready for fabrication. We finished the climber and mounted it. However, intake still needs to be built and the code for the climber is not complete.
We had trouble configuring PID for the climber motor, for some reason, the Y button won’t work in our code no matter what controller we used. We have finalized the ground intake and our goal next week is to fabricate the parts for it. One of the challenges that we are currently facing is using closed-loop position-based control to hold the climber’s potion while on the chain.
Strategy, Scouting, and Driveteam:
Pit:
Robot Cart
That’s a wrap for Week 6! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
We have had a busy week, working late into the night every day. We have slightly fallen behind schedule and everyone is working overtime to ensure we are caught up. We do not have many build updates due to last week’s post being delayed, however, we would like to update you about our outreach and marketing.
Outreach and Impact:
We had to finish and submit the impact essay and executive summary. They were both completed. We have also begun the rough draft for the Impact Presentation, our goal is for the final version to be done next week.
2/17, or today/Saturday. We attended the John and Judy Gay Library and reached 28 students, showcasing robotics and FIRST to them, most with no prior experience.
This same day, we also hosted the first day of our FLL game intro STEAM Nights, in which we reached about 40 people teaching them about Lego Robotics, SPIKE Primes, and getting them started building robots.
The day before, we held another STEAM Night in which we introduced students to Game Strategy and Robot Design.
This week we also had an outreach program for our local homeschoolers, in which we showcased all levels of our program, and then spent time in depth explaining FLL and helping them build Lego Robots while also sharing their ideas for attachments. Our students had a blast here seeing the fantastic ideas of our future team members!
We also attended our McKinney Chamber of Commerce’s weekly ““Links”” meeting in which our team represented STEAM in a room with about 40 businesses around our community."
We have also been invited to attend the Frisco Rough Riders STEM fundraiser! Every game ticket sold through our link raises funds for our students! We will be there with our robots answering the public’s questions. Be sure to stop by and say “Hi!” while you’re there.
Frisco RoughRiders
vs. San Antonio Missions
May 10, 202, 7:05 PM CDT
Riders Field
7300 RoughRiders Trail
Frisco, TX 75034, US
Purchase Deadline: May 10, 2024, 7:05 PM CDT
Marketing:
Began flag, buttons, flyers, and dog tag designs.
The samples for shirts and hoodies came. We also worked on some 3D prints for cool merch.
Our goal for next week is to finish the Impact presentation, finalize the flag design, start making flyers, and choose a pin based on how the 3D print turns out.
That’s a wrap for Week 7! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
Our first competition at Belton is around the corner, and everyone is putting in overtime at the shop to get things done.
Shooter Amp Trap:
This week’s goal was to tweak handoff and shooter for more reliability and make spares for Belton. Various attempts at making the handoff reliable have been made and have failed. COTS spares are halfway done, custom spares still need to be started.
We made various vertical and horizontal funneling wedges and plates to center the notes entering the shooter. All of the wedges have failed at fixing the problem, but the problem has a potential diagnosis: In the previous wedge designs, the Note was being pressed against the edge of the wedge by the roller, increasing compression without increasing forward force on the Note.
The handoff and indexer have had major issues for multiple days now. The indexer was compressing the note too much, so we switched to a smaller roller.
New wedges have been designed which actually face the roller with the compressing face. Install new wedges, and snap the indexer plate back into place to fix the indexer overcompression.
Intake:
To get spare parts for the intake and two complete and add the wedges for the handoff. The wedges for the handoff are added and there are some problems that we are still working out. Most of the spares have been completed, though we are still waiting on some parts that we have ordered and need to CandC some plates.
A problem that we ran into is that the notes ate on the wedges a little bit for the handoff and are still working on our final version.
We ran into some problems, getting spares and our re-CnCing them this week. Our goals for next week are to work on the intake for the V2 robot and finish getting spares.
Drivebase:
Our goals for this week are to finish the bumpers, weld and powder coat bumper frames, fix the loose ground cable on the 2024-COMP-1 battery, cut V2 tubes, powder coat tubes with red, make spares for bumpers, and troubleshoot the red bumpers attachment to the robot.
We changed the bumper size. The new interior measure of the bumpers is 30 7/8 and 25 Âľ. Bumper wood length is 2 26 1/8 and 2 30 7/8 with a 1/8 tolerance. We had problems with the bumpers fitting on the robot and the brackets lining up with the robot holes.
Our goal for next week is to finish bumpers, work on V2, and help other sub-teams with drivebase-related issues.
Climber:
Our goals for this week are to make climber spares and test the climbers on the robot. We got all the climber spares finished.
We changed the hook size to be larger and thicker, so it wouldn’t break. The changes of the claws fit perfectly in the slit, we still have to test it though.
We ran into a lot of unstringing of the climbers during this week, but we got a really good knot as well as used other resources to make it hold together more.
Software:
Our goals for this week are to get the robot competition ready with all of the subsystems tested, autonomous tested, AprilTag Localization, and game piece alignment. We were unable to do much fine-tuning this week for autonomous and teleop because of the handoff problem. However, we were able to successfully implement game piece detection and basic swerve rotating sequence and clamped with PID for auto alignment to the game piece.
Kitbot:
Our goals for this week are getting the roller intake to work, and help with learning scouting and other tasks before Belton. We also created a small auton.
In order for the roller intake to work, we changed the gear on the roller intake. We ran into some problems with the 3D-printed pulleys and found a way to make sure that they didn’t fail.
Our goals for next week are to decide on the robot name, fix the intake, improve autonomous, and fix the climber.
hat’s a wrap for Week 8! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! We can’t wait to see y’all at Belton!! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
Team Sustainability Award sponsored by Dow and Event Finalists
This weekend, we competed at the Belton District Event. To begin, we would like to thank our alliance captain the 9121 Mavericks, and our other alliance member the 5503 Smithville Tiger Trons. We would also like to congratulate the winning alliance of 3847, 5414, and 9054.
We went 11-8-0 overall at this event and finished ranked 12th before being invited by 9121 to join their alliance and then inviting 5503 to complete the 5th alliance. We fell to the lower bracket after playing against the 4th alliance. After that, we won against the 8th, 6th, 7th, and 2nd alliance in the lower bracket to move on to the finals with the 1st alliance.
We were honored to be awarded the Team Sustainability Award sponsored by Dow and look forward to competing in the Amarillo District Event!
We are having a lessons-learned meeting on Monday to discuss this event and what improvements we can make for Amarillo! That’s a wrap for Week 9 and our first event! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! We can’t wait to see y’all at Amarillo!! GO MERCS! openallianceroboticsbuildseasoncrescendo
After our Lessons-Learned meeting with the team, the entire team decided and got to work building a new competition robot for our upcoming FiT Amarillo Event.
Here is a link to our Lessons-Learned document.
Intake has to be quicker and it has to be able to center a note
Handoff should be a lot smoother and more reliable/faster
Shooter-Amp-Trap (SAT) mechanism has to be quicker moving to positions
Need to be able to shoot from podium in ~2s using Auto Alignment
Needs to be able to shoot from 16ft from speaker using Auto Alignment
Needs fixed and auto shooting positions
Auto alignment for AMP
Need a working climber that fits under stage
Need to climb in ~5s
Not doing Trap
Need These auton routines:
Center - Preload + 3 Wing = 4 Notes
Left & Right - Preload + 1 Wing + 1 Center = 3 Notes (Different Routines depending on which note in the wing we pick up)
With Good Robot Left & Right Score - Preload + Center Notes
With Good Robot Left & Right Note Push - Preload + Push Center Notes to us
The team also ultimately decided to keep working on our V1 robot and maintaining/fixing problems, while simultaneously grinding out and building/coding/testing V2.
Throughout this and last week, students spent countless hours (14 hours a day) grinding out and finishing CADding and building this robot. Here’s a subsystem breakdown:
Shooter Amp Trap:
This week’s goals were to finish designing/CADding the shooter mechanism, manufacture, and assembly of/on the V2 robot, while fixing some of issues with the V1 shooter. All goal’s were finished to a satisfactory extent, and the shooter was wired and began undergoing software testing.
The V2 design was finished at the start of this week. It fixes many of the issues that V1 had, for example shooting accuracy, shooter movement speed, range of motion, etc. V2 shooter has more accurate shooting with split flywheels using a dead axle design instead of a live axle for the shooter, reducing the need for more churros for structure, and giving us the ability to spin the flywheels at separate speeds, giving gyroscopic movement to the Note, allowing it to spin in the air. Basically, the split flywheels make shooting from further away much more accurate.
The indexing from the intake is more reliable with rollers on either side of the Note at any time, and the new design gets rid of the old V1 four-bar mechanism, among other fixes, such has most aluminum (except tubing) has being reduced to .08" material instead of .125", greatly cutting down on weight, allowing us to move at faster speeds.
Our new robot design has the ability to score in the Speaker and (unlike V1), Amp! Having rollers on both sides of the note at all times allows much greater variance and control.
Our “Amper” mechanism is powered by 2 linear actuators which move down the Amper mechanism (two plates with Kraken-powered rollers on the top which bend the note into the Amp) over the shooting mechanism.
Our new lift system is overengineered to be very robust to ensure accuracy. It has 2 Kraken motors geared at 125:1 with MAXPlanetaries, which then go through a 4.5:1 sprocket reduction. It is a bit slow, so we may replace or take out a slice on either gearbox.
The cad of the climber is based of of team 148’s design. The climber uses a Kraken motor with a 125:1 gearing to allow more torque to hold up our robot. It uses custom CNCed parts as the base and top of the climber and uses sprockets and chain to pull up and down our climber, it is also still short enough to go under the stage by having the hook really large and only connected at the bottom so it can still reach the chain.
That is all for this week, stay tuned for next week to receive HUGE updates on our robot and our performance tests for Amarillo! GO MERCS!
This weekend, we competed at the Amarillo District Event. To begin, we would like to thank our alliance captain the 9080 Enigma, and our other alliance member the 6974 Ziya Robotics. We would also like to congratulate the winning alliance of 4206, 4063, and 7088.
We went 7-7-0 overall at this event and finished ranked 12th before being invited by 9080 to join their alliance and then inviting 6974 to complete the 2nd alliance. We fell to the lower bracket after playing against the 7th alliance and sadly got eliminated by the 3rd alliance.
We were honored to be awarded the FIRST Impact Award and look forward to competing in the Texas District Championships!
We are gearing up for the Texas District Championships! That’s a wrap for Week 11 and our second event! Stay tuned for more exciting developments from OpenAlliance. If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments. Thanks for following our journey! We can’t wait to see y’all in Houston!! GO MERCS!
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