Team goal: This season our goal is to make it to Worlds.
Team history:
- 2019-2020: Our team was founded concurrently with the (re) opening of our school in 2019. We started out as a very small team in our first year, with only around 10 members - only one of whom had any previous experience with FRC. However, with plenty of help in the form of donated materials, time in their workspace, and lessons from both 4180 and 2928, we were able to build a functional robot and bring it to competition. Unfortunately, that first competition (Glacier Peak), would be our last that season, as it was soon cut short due to covid-19.
- 2020-2021: For most of this year, both our school and our team were fully online. Without any way to actually build a robot, our team chose to participate in the Game Design Challenge and the Innovation Challenge (our submission for the Game Design Challenge, which won the Rookie Design Award, can be found here). We also chose to take this time to rework our branding, which we hadn’t put much focus on during our first year.
- 2021-2022: This was the year that our team really started to get going. For the first two years, we had been a very small team, but at the first interest meeting of this year, we had a huge number of people show up.
Team structure:
- Logistics (competition management, internal and external communication)
- Business and Marketing (fundraising, branding, media)
- Strategy (game strategy, scouting, drive team)
- Mechanical (CAD, build)
- Controls (code, electronics, pneumatics)
- Safety (mental and physical wellbeing of the team)
Each of these departments has an elected officer associated with it, and then below them there are appointed leads and specialists (leads being people who oversee smaller groups within the department, and specialists being people who know one specific skill).
Department Stuff:
Logistics (This section was written by Logan, our logistics officer)
Kickoff planning:
The main thing that our logistics department has been working on for the past few weeks is the planning of and preparation for a kickoff event that we are hosting, with the Iron Riders - team 4180, the Vikings - team 2928, and the Robo Raiders - team 3681. Our plan for the day starts with all the teams watching the livestream of kickoff together, followed by making sure everyone gets acquainted with the rules for this year, especially helping new members understand how they work and what the key parts are. Then for the rest of the time until lunch, we are holding Open Space discussions (also called Unconferencing), where participants get to suggest topics for discussion that they are interested in or find important. That way, people can choose which conversation they want to be a part of so that everyone is engaged and having the discussions they find relevant. After lunch, we give teams time to do their own thing. They can use this time if they want to have other discussions or need to plan for the build season. Finally, we bring everyone back together for a quick closing circle to gather any last thoughts or reflections from the day.
Full schedule is attached here: 2023 Kickoff Schedule
Controls (This section was written by Jairen, our Controls Officer)
Offseason recap:
The controls department handles all of the controls system work of the team. Code and electronics have been our primary focuses this offseason. This year, our main challenges will be with using swerve and more complex autonomous routines, including utilizing AprilTags.
Code has been working on learning Java for FRC. Members who are new to the language or programming, in general, are going through the basics of the language. Members with experience are learning to apply it to the competition, such as using WPIlib and how to code for mechanisms and drive systems. This season, we want to move into more advanced autonomous code, including path planning and utilizing PhotonVision to detect AprilTags.
Electronics has primarily focused on learning the various control system components and their functions. As we move into the build season, we will practice skills such as crimping and wiring on test chassis and mechanisms. Our goal with electronics this season is to have clean, robust, and modular wiring.
Training Materials:
Intro to Electronics
Version Control
Good coding practices
Build tools
WPIlib docs
Network Tables
Mechanical
Capabilities (This was written by me, our Mechanical Officer):
Old: Last year, the team had four laser cutters (2 glowforge, 2 VLS), nine useless MakerBot replicators, a drill press, one vertical and one horizontal bandsaw, and assorted hand tools.
New: After last season, our team decided that a major purchase we needed to make was for a CNC Router. One of our coaches got us CTE funding to purchase one, as long as it arrived before the end of August. We purchased an Inventables X-Carve Pro and all the other accessories we needed, including an air compressor, Fog Buster and more. We also built an enclosure for the router and had to renovate our old wood shop to make it fit. This will make our build season run faster, since last year if we needed to make any parts with more than our existing capabilities, they had to be sent to a mentor or student’s house to fabricate.
The CTE Department also purchased a MakerBot Method X and 6 Anycubic Photon M3s. With the Method X, we can print stronger filaments and have fewer prints fail due to warping.
Offseason Project (This writeup is from @ncbanse, our Design Coordination Specialist):
One of the trainings our Mechanical department did this preseason was a project called bridging 101. People worked on designing, building, and testing bridges with the goal of making the strongest.
The purpose of this project was to introduce members to CAD, and simultaneously teach them how to design parts that can be manufactured on our new CNC Router.
Project organization:
First, we split the Mechanical team into three groups. Each group had an (approximately) equal number of experienced members. After being introduced to the rules and goals of the project, teams spent around 30 minutes sketching design concepts for their bridges. This included basic sketches for each component, and delegating who would design them. Then teams spent the next couple of meetings Modeling their bridges and presenting their progress to the team at the end of each meeting.
Manufacturing:
All bridges were designed to be laser cut or CNC routed out of .25” plywood, with 3D printed components and 10-32 bolts to connect the pieces of plywood. We used laser cutters to save time and teach people how to use them for prototyping. However, we did cut an example bridge out on the CNC Router.
Testing:
To test the strength of our bridges we used a strap and a Home-Depot bucket to hang weights (CIMs and Mini CIMs) from our bridges. We then proceeded to add more and more weight to the Home Depot bucket until the bridge failed.
Results:
Our team’s best bridge held an astounding 275 pounds! Mechanical team members gained meaningful Onshape experience as well as practice using our laser cutters for prototyping. On top of that, all Mechanical team members practiced using the engineering design process on a tight schedule, which acted as good practice for build season.
Offseason CAD:
Onshape
