FRC 9062's new robot Bill! Offseason Overview & CAD

Competition Off-Season Events
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Hello there! 9062 has been busy in the offseason and after our last post, I figured we should make a new thread with the progress we’ve made.

Bill pretty picture
Bill pretty picture1920×1280 99.9 KB

Our new robot, Bill, is done and we are very proud. Completed in 8 weeks, it is the largest robot we have built as a team and certainly the most complicated.
CAD can be found here: Onshape

Robot features:

  • SDS MK4i L3 Colson swerve modules on a 24" square chassis
  • 14lbs belly panel with inverted PDP / spark maxes
  • modified Princess Auto linear actuator for shoulder movement
  • 180:1 elbow gearbox off 2x neos (upgraded from 500:1 original design)
  • intake inspired by Team 5460: Strike Zone features 4" 45A flex wheels and a 775pro powering the gearbox. Swappable via 2x 10-32 bolts on the arm. Elbow can swap using 6x of the same bolts and made for a good crumple zone.
  • 1-second rotation from starting config to low scoring.
  • Capable of picking up cubes and cones from the ground or double substation, and scoring anywhere on the grid.
  • LimeDAR 1.0 functionality for aiming limelight toward any AprilTag within sightline
  • cycles: 4.5-5.5 per match, maximum 7 completed

On the field, Bill was capable of a consistent mid or high 1 piece auto, as well as a consistent 1 high cube auto with mobility and charge station auto-balancing. This really helped us out at our offseason events.

Results:

  • 5th seed at the Southwest International robotics tournament in Windsor, ON

  • 3rd alliance captain at Southwest, selected our friends 1285 The Biggest Birds and 6875 Amazon Warriors

  • 4th seed (of 27 teams) at Overtime Sunday offseason tournament in Hamilton, ON

  • 3rd Alliance captains at Overtime, selected our friends 8884 Knight Owls and 2852 DM High Voltage

  • Won the Goal Tender award for defensive action

Thank you to 772, 4039, and 5406 for hosting such wonderful offseason events. We had a great time and look forward to competing with you in 2024.

Other projects:
FTC kit build: We are building an FTC kit with the hopes of integrating it into our school’s curriculum for the January semester. So far, the students seem to really like it so I am excited to teach it.

3D Printed drone: One of my students is working on a 100% printed drone, and we are waiting on the flight board before wiring. Things are looking pretty good but we are unsure of the thrust that can be made from his custom printed blades. Wish him luck!

Shawty the outreach bot: A while back we made a hastily-cobbled robot named Shawty. It could toss cubes and cargo (2022) up to 10’ in the air and made for a great demo bot, but we have dismembered the robot in order to save parts for 2024. (she did in fact have the boots with the fur, check out our youtube videos!)

new robot cart: We are reusing some parts of the cube nodes from Overtime Sunday (thanks 5406!) and turning them into a robot cart that can hold our AndyMark drive station kit. We will be posting the results on YouTube for those interested!

Animated videos: as always, our animator Ian is hard at work making memes and animatics for our robots. Here’s a good one he made this week: https://youtu.be/WDyszCbvfWI?si=0ZG_WgeviRhhQcni

That’s all for now, but I’ll update here with any future projects and results as we warm up for FIRST Crescendo in 2024!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CriticalCircuits/featured

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Bill was awesome to watch, even if only on a screen! I’m very excited to see what you guys do next!

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Thank you so much! Looking forward to seeing another creative C4 robot next year too!

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Bill’s reveal video was cool, but I’m still partial to the teaser:

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me too, that was fun to make and record lines for.

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Some awesome work coming out of 9062! I was very impressed with bill when you first dropped the teaser, and even more so seeing it compete in person.

Can’t wait to see what the Crtitical Circuits manage to create down the road!

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Thank you Brian! I look forward to seeing how Oakbotics grows even more this year.

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Update time! Today was our last official day in the lab for 2023. Our students are getting excited for build season, so I thought this would be a good week to reflect on our progress since November.

Safety Animation Submission

At the time of posting this, I have no idea who has won the Safety Animation Award. Ian and Mandy, two of our grade 12 students, put this animation together and I find it to be really enjoyable. It is called “The Danger That Lurks”, check it out using the link below.

LEGO models of robots

For fun, we’ve been making some Lego models of FRC robots through the years. This link below is a playlist of YouTube shorts we made showcasing them.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIPQOVonrVQ4JflU9guXQbQjgyjlO864K

The Covalence Crew

We are working on an initiative called The Covalence Crew that helps other teams in the Ontario region, similar to the Open Alliance but region specific. Details will follow in our build blog / vlogs for 2024. Inspired by covalent chemical bonds, we are stronger through the sharing of information, resources, tools and volunteers.

The first step of this is Robots Done Quick, an event aiming to complete as much of the prototyping and kitbot assembly as possible in 36 hours. The intent is that teams can decide as early as possible whether they want to imitate the recommended kit robot, or design their own. Additionally, we’ll be reviewing where the weak spots are so teams who do choose to build the kit know what they’ll have to troubleshoot during competition.

The second step involves build season peer support. We will be in contact with a few teams during build season to help with mechanical and electrical questions regarding both the kitbot and the Everybot when it drops.

Third step is pre- event support. On top of volunteering, we want to make sure each team in the covalence crew is supported prior to their first event. We are planning to host an in-person mock inspection event, where teams can come get weighed and inspected before week 2 competitions.

This allows our students to train to be robot inspectors for future events, and allows teams to solve many of the issues that could arise from inspection before an official event. This robot inspection day will be hosted at our HQ, the amazing Columbia International College.

The final piece of the puzzle is event support. We plan to bring our newly upgraded Covalence Cart with us to our district events (Newmarket and Waterloo) and will have a roaming repair crew at the ready for getting teams ready for their matches.
Video of cart: https://youtube.com/shorts/ZiZAF9XGl-I?feature=share

If anyone has other ideas on how best to support Ontario teams, please reply here and we’ll do our best to integrate it into our plans!

Toolbox Upgrades

We spent some time this month making and fixing our pit station toll boxes. Now, instead of our 2 toolbox setup from 2023, we are making use of some recycled field parts with our new pit station tool carts. Each was made for under $100, and we have a few videos in the playlist below detailing what each set does.
Link for lab upgrade playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIPQOVonrVQ6tt6aUiqEj0xWIzwbermBo

A huge thank you to our sponsors and supporters for making this happen. We are going to two of the hardest events in our country and every project we’ve completed in the preseason will help us and others in the future.

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Hey everyone, one last update for CD before kickoff. Below you’ll find our newly public 2024 practice CAD, which you are welcome to ask questions about or copy for your own use in Crescendo! It features a 24" chassis with MK4i swerves and a 254-inspired intake for any spherical game pieces.

Happy 2024 and good luck to all teams!

CAD release: Onshape
GitHub release can be found here: GitHub - FRCCriticalCircuits/Critical-Bill-2023-PUBLIC: FRC 9062 Offseason Bot

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