FRC Team 1710 | 2024 Build Thread | Open Alliance

[CoreyBrown]

---

Welcome to the Team 1710 Open Alliance build thread!

Team 1710 is excited to be a new member of the Open Alliance for the 2024 season!

Who is Team 1710?

We are Team 1710, a FIRST Robotics Competition team from Olathe Northwest High School. We first competed during the 2006 season with 22 team members, and now we are 53 strong. Olathe Northwest’s Engineering and E-Communication academies have developed a strong foundation for 1710’s success. Our core values – Commitment, Hands-On Experience, Inspiration, Gracious Professionalism, Student Leadership, and Safety (CHIGSS) – help us achieve our mission of preparing our team members for the future.

Team 1710 provides many outlets for each of its members. Through our nine sub-teams including build, programming, informatics, and graphic design, our team has something for everyone. No matter where their passion lies, we provide a constructive environment for team members to grow and improve upon their skills. From working towards a common goal to hosting annual summer camps, Team 1710 has a positive impact on everyone who passes through its doors.

Our Goals for the 2024 Open Alliance Build Thread

Using this build thread, we hope to:

• Document our design and decision making process
• Share our successes and failures throughout the pre-season, build season, and competition season
• Learn a whole lot from the community
• Teach somebody something

---

Website
Instagram
YouTube
TikTok
Facebook
Twitter / X

[Bmongar]

Thrilled to see another KC area team join the Open Alliance. Good luck.

[singtothehippos]

Thank you 1710!
I’m excited to see what you guys do this season! Good luck!

[saatb]

I’m glad you guys are joining OA, more KC team representation is always better! Super excited to follow this thread, good luck this season!

[CoreyBrown]

It’s preseason, and all 53 of our team members have just been assigned a sub-team. Let’s talk about team organization!

Team 1710 organizes in a way that embodies one of our core values: student leadership. We utilize 11 student leaders (shown in blue in the organizational chart below) to help lead the team to success wherever possible. The leaders for this 2024 season went through an application process and then were selected at the end of the 2023 season. They attend a leadership class that is integrated into the Olathe Northwest High School curriculum, and acts as a capstone class for the engineering and e-communications academies within the high school.

During the first couple meetings of the year, each leader gave a presentation on the responsibilities of their sub-team. Team members then complete a form to express their sub-team preferences. The coaches do their best to put every team member in one of their top 4 choices each year. Each sub-team (shown in black in the organizational chart below) is assigned a set number of students. These students’ primary responsibility on the team is to their assigned sub-team, however it is encouraged that they spend extra time integrating with other sub-teams, all pushing the team in the same direction together.

CEO - 1 leader

The CEO, or Chief Executive Officer, coordinates award submissions, collaborates with others to further Team 1710’s FIRST related programs, and facilitates administrative projects for the team. While they don’t have any sub-team members, the CEO corrals and directs the other leaders, ensuring that we are all working toward the same goals.

Build - 2 leaders, 13 members

The build team is responsible for the fabrication, assembly, and maintenance of the robot and all of its components. The two leaders work in tandem to ensure no hands stay idle. In the pre-season, they are working through safety training, machining techniques, setting expectations for the new members in regards to the time commitment required, and their role on the team. The build team members tend to flex between various tasks including machining, assembling, and wiring the robot.

Design - 1 leader, 5 members

The design team utilizes 3D modeling software (Fusion 360 and Solidworks) to design a robot that accomplishes the team’s overall strategy and that can be manufactured, assembled, and maintained with the resources we have. During the pre-season, they are training new members on CAD software as well as design techniques that can be used in the future.

Finance - 1 leader, 2 members

The finance team manages the team budget, maintains sponsor relations, writes grants, and organizes fundraisers for the team. This sub-team is absolutely vital to the sustainability and function of Team 1710.

Graphics - 1 leader, 4 members

The graphics team owns the brand of Team 1710. They create promotional materials such as posters, buttons, coloring books, and flyers. They also design our team T-shirts, sponsor plates for the robot, as well as all of the graphics that you may see digitally as well as physically for the team. Often times the graphics team is called upon to help create a consistent brand in various projects from other sub-teams.

Informatics - 1 leader, 3 members

The informatics sub-team leads strategizing efforts of the team through software development. They work closely with the team website and are in charge of building and maintaining our team scouting system.

Media - 1 leader, 4 members

The media team chronicles Team 1710 with the use of photos and videos through every stage of the season. They create and edit everything that is seen in all of Team 1710’s social media.

Outreach - 1 leader, 4 members

The outreach team promotes creativity and learning within the community by organizing events at local elementary schools, middle schools, and event centers. This team tracks all of the community service hours for the team, making sure to alert the team of any opportunities to do some good in our area. This team also organizes our Winter Workshop and Summer Camps which help get or keep young kids interested in STEM.

Programming - 1 leader, 5 members

The programming team writes the code that makes the robot go. Their language of choice is Java, and they use it to reliably move each part of the robot, usually relying on feedback from various sensors and cameras.

Initiatives - 1 leader, 2 members

The initiatives sub-team strives to make an impact on people within the team as well as out in the community. They facilitate all of our various initiatives such as You Go Girl, Goof Proof, You Are Not Alone, Rainbow Alliance, and more. During the build season they ensure everyone has a creative outlet to decompress from the stress that goes into the operation of the team. In the past we have had board game hours, painting with Bob Ross, team-wide dodgeball, and other fun events to help students take a break.

[CoreyBrown]

Pre-season is in full swing now and the team is beginning to prepare for our off-season event - CowTown ThrowDown.

The students have been familiarizing themselves with the workspaces that will be utilized throughout the season. Team 1710 operates out of Olathe Northwest High School, and primarily out of 4 main rooms; the class room, project room, wood/metal shops, and the flex theater.

About half the sub-teams find their headquarters in the classroom. The finance, informatics, graphics, media, outreach, initiatives, and programming sub-teams all call the classroom home during the year. The classroom is where sub-teams collaborate with each other and it is usually the first place the robot moves on its own. Team 1710 shares this space with 9 FTC teams as well as the teacher who uses this as their classroom during the school day.

The flex theater is the team’s primary practice location. Here, we usually set up a half field (sometimes 3/4 field if the game deems it necessary) and practice driving. The flex theater is shared with many other clubs and organizations within the high school, so the field setup must be taken down most evenings and set back up again prior to practice.

The project room and workshops are where the robot is fabricated and assembled. These rooms house the design and build sub-teams throughout the year. Team 1710’s primary tools in the metal shop are the lathe, mill, and CNC router table. There will be plenty of time spent in the workshops throughout the year, and we will be sharing those experiences here!

[Big_W]

Team 1710 is participating in an off-season event this upcoming weekend called Cowtown Throwdown. This event is a great opportunity for members to experience a competition setting and get experience in their new roles. To make sure we are prepared for this event, members have been hard at work learning new skills, advancing team resources, and preparing the robot for competition.

Drive Practice

To prepare interested members for our upcoming pre-season competition, Cowtown Throwdown, leaders organized four drive team practices to teach interested team members how to drive the robot competitively. During these practices, members learned how to drive the robot in both an offensive and defensive manner. They also were introduced to our team’s strategies and what to look for in a match. In the picture below, members are going head-to-head to get experience in both offensive and defense roles. On the defensive side, drivers were challenged to block our competition robot from scoring a game piece under a chair which acts as the lower-level nodes. Meanwhile, on the offensive side, drivers worked to score and maneuver around our smaller robot and score.

Pit Training

Members involved in the team’s pit crew received basic safety training and an introduction to the robot. This basic safety training included correct PPE (personal protective equipment) and how to use basic machinery seen at competition. Our robot introduction involved a look at the major systems of the robot. Also members will be introduced to a few common breakages that the team faces. An example this is belt wear. With the constant strain put on our belts during a match sometimes the wear out and need to be changed. To fix this we put on one of our pre-made back-up belts. New members were given a tour of our pit and the organization that our team keeps in competition.To try to prevent this, before each match members look for signs of strain on the belt. This isn’t the only thing we check for at the beginning of every match. Throughout testing and play our team has found the most common failures and made a Pre-Match Checklist that we use before every match.

Scouting App and Training

Every year, our informatics subteam makes a scouting app for the game. Our informatics leader has started training the team on how to use the app. When we compete at Cowtown, we plan to scout for all qualification matches. The scouting app is the same as used last season and can be found at https://team1710scouting.vercel.app. By getting members experience in scouting, our team will be able to have more in-depth data later in the season.

While at Cowtown, we plan to be testing a new tool which was developed entirely over the summer by an Informatics member. This new tool is a machine learning model built on Python and tensorflow. The system is intended to intake all data for the qualifiers during the first day and attempt to predict the placement locations for each team for better synergy across an alliance seed for the final matches.

[CoreyBrown]

Team 1710 had the pleasure of competing at CowTown ThrowDown this past weekend!

We love coming to CowTown every year, as it is a great opportunity for our new student leaders to practice packing and delegating tasks at competitions. It also gives the new students a glimpse into the competition season, whetting their appetites for our regionals next calendar year. This year, like most years, we opened up the drive team to any students that wanted to participate. Each qualification match gave an opportunity to a new driver, mech, coach, and human player.

At the end of Qualifications, 1710 was ranked 23rd with a 3-4 record. We were selected to be on the 3rd alliance alongside some of our good friends; our captain - 3284 Camdenton LASER, the host team - 1730 Team Driven, and fellow Open Alliance members - 5119 Team STEAM. The alliance fought hard all the way through Finals 3 where we lost by just 5 points!

Here is a short recap video from our media team: https://youtu.be/GbGTZKK2yF0

Quals 7

Problem: Robot experienced brownouts.
Cause: The battery started below 10V which is never a good start to a match.
Solution: The battery used has been deemed faulty. We also have a battery schedule in use, however the voltage was not checked prior to the match. The battery has been retired.

Quals 12

Problem: Autonomous failure of the arm. The arm failed to lift the game piece out of the intake.
Cause: Improper pre-match setup
Solution: These types of problems are expected when the drive team does not have hours of practice and several events under their belts.

Problem: Robot sat dead on the field for an extended time.
Cause: Drive team accidentally switched the controllers. They also restarted robot code during teleop.
Solution: Don’t panic behind the glass. This comes with practice. A verbal reminder was also given before every match to check controllers.

Quals 19

The robot worked the entire match! During post-match inspections, the pit crew noticed the over-the-bumper intake belt slid off. They replaced the pulley that had broken and then prepared the robot for the following day.

Quals 27 - No Notes

I told you there were no notes in here!

Quals 33

Problem: Robot arm is not responding to commands properly
Cause: Neo wire disconnected at a junction point.
Solution: Reconnect the wires.

Quals 40

Problem: Sat dead on the field at the end of the match
Cause: Main breaker was tripped during contact
Solution: In the future we will need to place the breaker in a safer position. This also happened during champs with this robot.

Quals 47

Problem: Drive controls not responding correctly
Cause: Swerve calibration issue and a voltage drop towards the end of the match
Solution: During the match, driver compensation. After the match, calibration.

Elimination Matches

Match 8
Problem: Bottom stage arm belts snapped.
Cause: Improper set-up of auto before match caused stress on belts for extended period of time.
Solution: Drive team needs to stress better training and set-up. Pit crew needs multiple ready back-ups for belts that are likely to break sequentially.

[ngreen]

@CoreyBrown

I told you there were no notes in here!

But we had to look anyhow!!

Quals 16

Problem: Robot driving erratic
Cause: Left front drive motor not getting power (wire disconnected). When we fixed a module issue we didn’t tighten the controller ziptie and they came loose pulling the wire out.
Solution: Recconect wires and re-ziptie

Some matches later

Problem: More erratic driving
Cause: When zip-tying earlier, the spark max bracket ended up partially between the controller and absolute encoder board and was sometime disconnecting wedged between.
Solution: Re-ziptie below the bracket.

Qual 45

Problem: Pulley connected to ultraplanetary bolts sheared off
Cause: Potentially some bolts weren’t fully engaged (loctited). And also rougher driving with new operators (need better stopping when at ends).
Solution: Changed ultraplanetary output stage and tightend bolts

Elim match 1

Problem: Before match noticed extender wouldn’t move.
Cause: When tightening ultraplanetary overtightened it.
Solution: Undo the 3 layers of bolts to get to overtightened bolts, and check motor bell moving while tightening gearbox. Missed first elimination match

[Big_W]

To train members more in-depth in their roles on the robot side of the team, a few members of our leadership team have developed a pre-season project to test new methods that we would like to implement for our 2024 robot. Each method being tested relates to robot design, construction, and programming to give all members more in-depth and realistic training. The general plan is to make a 32” x 32” robot chassis. On this chassis, our team will be using our brand new SDS MK.4i Swerve Modules with our used Falcon 500 motors.

We will also be attempting a new organization system of electrical components (yet to be designed). This organization will be similar to team 1538’s, The Holy Cows, the electrical system of having components mounted on both the top and bottom of the electrical board.

The third method that the team will be attempting is our bumper mounting method. Our previous method was a simple thumbscrew that went into a tapped hole in the corner of the robot. With the implementation of MK.4i’s, we will no longer be able to mount from the corners of the robot. Since we need to change the mounting position of the bumper mounts, we are testing both to see if our old method works just as effectively if the mounts are moved and if there are any more efficient bumper mounting methods to optimize time in the pits. Currently, we have four designs to be tested: thumb screws, tight-hold draw latches, slide-snap latches, and compact toggle clamps (all from McMaster-Carr).

Overview of current chassis design

This is the current overview of the project. It is still in its early stages since we are still having new design members work on different design aspects.

Electrical Board Inspiration

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/team-1538-the-holy-cows-wiring-workshop/443154/4
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/team-1538-the-holy-cows-daisy-rapidreach/429687
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/team-254-presents-2023-breakdown-technical-binder-code-q-a/443167/18

Bumper Mounting Methods

Designs of the different methods we will test:

Slide Snap Latch

McMaster-Carr

Tight Hold Draw Latch

McMaster-Carr

Thumbscrew (Previous Year's Design)

Compact Toggle Clamp

McMaster-Carr

[ElliotS]

I would highly NOT RECOMMEND the slide snap latch we used them in 2022 and we had a ton of problems with them. The bolts with the nubbins on them came out, the latches bent, the latches came out, and a few other things. We are using our 2022 robot as our outreach robot at the moment and they are just attached, they are just sitting there.

[Big_W]

Thanks for letting us know! We had previous concerns that this latch might be too weak for high impacts but liked the quick attatchment. It is super helpful to hear about how it may hold up in a true match.

[coderkevin]

Hey there 1710! If you’re interested, this is our heaviest recommendation for a bumper mount system: Simply put some angle aluminum pieces on the inside of your bumpers and clamp them to your frame with these clamps:

Compact Hold-Down Toggle Clamp, Steel, 150 lbs. Holding Capacity

McMaster-Carr

We’ve used these since 2022 and they are the only bumper mount system we have actually loved using! Previous to this we used the slide locks but didn’t like them because of the slop and alignment issues.

Oh, and if you don’t have wrap-around bumpers? Just drill a hole in your angle aluminum and make a corresponding peg on your frame to go through it. Easy!

[Big_W]

As part of our team’s dedication to safety each of our team’s build members are trained annually on the machines in our shops. This training is divided into two parts: General Training and Specialty Training.

Firstly members are trained on each of the machines in our wood shop, those being the drill press, band saw, and miter saw. For each of these machines, members were given a presentation on basic safety and then watched a demonstration of its usage. After the demonstration members had to pass a test on the basic safety of that machine. After passing the test members were required to complete a performance test. In this performance test members demonstrated knowledge of the machines by either performing a specific cut or making specific holes while following basic safety procedures.

The second part of our safety training is our specialty training. Our team is fortunate enough to have a large build subteam. To help retain depth of knowledge throughout specific areas of construction, the build subteam has three specialty groups: Assemblies, Electrical, and Machining. For in-depth learning, each of our specialty groups had specific training led by an experienced member. Our assembly specialty group got an in-depth look at how systems are constructed by disassembling our 2023 robot Slipstream. Our electrical specialty group got an introduction to our wiring standards by reorganizing and fixing our outreach robot’s electrical board and by disassembling our 2023 robot Slipstream. Our machining specialty group completed some practice parts that focused on different techniques for the machines they will be using.

[Brandon_C]

While our Programming, Build, and Design subteams are working hard on their pre-season project, our Outreach and Initiatives subteams have been working on some more team-wide projects.

On Team 1710, we have five initiatives that shape our team culture and create a positive impact on the people around us. These initiatives are how we address issues in FIRST and STEM. We do this in a number of ways, whether it be a public presentation, community workshop, or material we pass out at competitions. Our current initiatives are called You Go Girl, Rainbow Alliance, You Are Not Alone, Goof Proof, and LEGO Drive. In order to teach our whole team about each of the initiatives, we hold committee meetings at the start of team meetings. In these committee meetings, a member from our initiatives subteam will present the history, current projects, and future plans for the initiative, along with time for conversations among the whole team to generate new ideas or ask clarifying questions.

In the past two weeks, we’ve presented Rainbow Alliance, Goof Proof and You Go Girl. We will be presenting on You Are Not Alone and LEGO Drive next week.

You Go Girl

You Go Girl is our initiative created to empower women to go into STEM. Since STEM is traditionally a male-dominated field, we want to make sure girls know that there is a place for them in STEM. We promote this initiative by hosting an annual You Go Girl Workshop where middle school girls get a chance to do fun STEM activities and learn about the opportunities they have in STEM.

Rainbow Alliance

Rainbow Alliance is our initiative created to encourage members of the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC community to find a place in STEM. Our goal with this initiative is to make sure that everyone feels safe and included while pursuing a STEM career. We make constant social media posts to raise awareness about important dates like Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Transgender Day of Remembrance. During these months, we highlight contributions made by LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC Leaders in STEM. Additionally, we educate the entire team about what it means to be a good ally and how to help LGBTQ individuals by having a speaker come in and talk with the team.

You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone is our initiative created to address mental health. Mental health is a big issue both in and out of robotics. We want to make sure everyone has the resources to combat stress and stay mentally healthy. During our build season, we host 30-minute activity sessions called Mental Health Hours to split up our long 8-hour Saturdays. Last year, we passed out cards to promote the new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and had the Director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center give a presentation at the Heartland over 988 along with coping strategies people can use in times of stress.

Goof Proof

Goof Proof is our initiative to promote safety on our team. While our Build and Design subteams are working in the wood and metal shop, we want to ensure they are practicing safety at all times. We create posters showcasing proper shop safety attire. We teach our team how to handle dangerous situations, should they occur. Along with creating posters, we create a safety coloring book every year to hand out at the pits to keep safety on everyone’s mind.

LEGO Drive

Every year we host a LEGO Drive at our school. We are able to raise around 100 LEGO sets annually that we donate to Children’s Mercy Hospital. We chose LEGOs after working with nurses and discovered that LEGOs are both easy to sanitize properly and fun for kids. This year, we’ve expanded our LEGO Drive to other schools in our district and have pledged to donate to Kids TLC along with Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Over the summer, our Outreach subteam started 6 FLL Teams at local schools, two at Mission Trail Middle School, one at Central Elementary, two at Canyon Creek Elementary, and one at Havencroft Elementary. In addition to fully funding these teams’ rookie year, members from our team have been mentoring all of the teams as well. Our members have been teaching kids how to design components for their robots, program SPIKE Primes, and present their Innovation Project. We started mentoring these teams in early September and plan to continue to mentor teams through our build season.

[Big_W]

Team 1710 has a Graphics subteam dedicated to the creation of our team’s merchandise, social media posts, and competition material. Throughout the year, their six members work on their individual projects, gathering feedback from the whole team to incorporate feedback into our team’s projects.

In the past few weeks, our Graphics subteam members have finished their first projects, buttons! Our team has four initiative buttons and a team button, along with buttons for scouting, Impact, Drive team, and Pit Crew. They use these buttons as introductory/training projects for their members to help them learn new graphic design programs. In the creation of our digital media, we primarily use Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign, and Google Suite for project management.

Every year, members go through the Graphics’ project list where they make new designs for a variety of yearly projects. This list includes(but is not limited to):

• T-shirts

• Buttons

• Pit graphics

• Flight suit patches

• Impact book

• Posters

• Social Media Posts

• Safety Coloring Book

As we near the end of preseason, each member has finished around 2 projects. Once build season starts in January, the Graphics subteam will continue working through their project list. Once the robot is finalized in early post-season, members will be able to begin working on robot-related projects, such as the nameplate, robot trading cards, and other graphics.

Some finished projects (Click Here)

A LEGO Drive poster for our team:

(where we help donate LEGO kits to Children’s Mercy!)

Our “Winter Workshop” Poster:

(An STEM event we hold for 3-8th graders before winter break)

Our 2023 Team Button:

Native American Heritage Day Post:

Native American Heritage Month Post:

[AndrewSK]

While the Build and Design subteams have been hard at work on the preseason project, Programming has training and preparing for build season. One of the most important concepts in controlling subsystems is Proportional Integral Derivative (PID). To prepare our new members for this difficult concept, they have been training by running motors in our practice robot case. They started with basic positional PID with NEOs, outputting the position graphs to Shuffleboard and tuning from there. After a walkthrough from one of our veteran members, they are now independently working on PID with Falcon 500s.

Our veteran programming members have been assigned with figuring out vision, specifically, vision pose estimation. Last season, we struggled to have a working vision system on our robot which impacted our ability to perform accurate autos. We plan on changing this next season by getting vision odometry setup on our outreach bot. We use the open source software PhotonVision and a Raspberry Pi as the coprocessor. So far, we have been successful in setting up the hardware, calibrating cameras, and creating working pose estimator code. Currently, we are working on creating autos with the 2024 PathPlanner Beta and plan on being able to test them soon.

[Big_W]

Last Friday, during our last meeting of 2023, we were able to finish our pre-season practice project. This project was introduced in an earlier post in our thread: (FRC Team 1710 | 2024 Build Thread | Open Alliance - #10 by Big_W ] The final design was changed from a 32”x 32” frame to a 28”x 28” frame to reuse bumper material from last season’s robot. Last season’s robot, SlipSTream, had a 28”x 28” frame. Not only did this save bumper material, but it saved our team from having to create all new tubing for the practice drivetrain.

Because of the practice robot, we were able to prototype new ideas that we wanted to use on the robot, like new methods of attaching bumpers, mounting electrical components, and the Mk 4i Swerve drivetrain with colson wheels as mentioned in our previous post.

Successes:

• Our MK4i code was quick and easy to implement onto the drivetrain

• Finished practice project during our last team meeting

• New members learned needed skills on a realistic project to that of build season

• Testing bumper mounting methods led us to two firm solutions to swap bumpers in a much quicker time period

• Leaders were able to familiarize themselves with the process of organizing and following through with deadlines.

• Double sided electrical board proved to provide easier access, maintenance, and organization compared to mounting on components on just one side (See Final Results Below).

Major errors and what was learned from them:

Issue 1: We fell behind schedule by about two meetings by the last week of the project. Members worked hard and finished everything in the overall timeframe we wanted to meet the hard deadline of the last meeting.

Lesson Learned 1: Account for the unknowns. There will be failures and unexpected delays that cannot be predicted. Set time to account for errors and delays.

Issue 2: Bolt head on the slide snap latch bumper mount created unwanted spacing for mounting.

Lesson Learned 2: Considering bolt heads is important, especially in tight places.

Main Design Takeaways for Build Season:

1. Implementation of new electrical board helps create more space to allow for a more compact robot.
2. MK4i’s will most likely be used since they successfully protect our motors (our motors have taken damage in the past due to being hit).
3. Both our Compact Toggle Clamp and our Tight Hold Draw Latch worked well at quickly securing the bumper to the frame. A final decision will be made after considering the height of bumpers.

[Big_W]

Kickoff:

Every year for kickoff, our team first gathers early in the morning to share our preseason successes and goals for build season. Then after watching the live stream, we gather back and break the entire team into groups to read the rules and form a strategy, then reconvene and discuss. We repeat this process once more after we have determined a strategy to come up with robot designs.

Strategy

Among our strategy groups, we started with dissecting the game manual to better understand the game as a whole. Each member of our groups was given a portion of the game manual to read, and then the members came back together and discussed the rules and asked questions about each section. After gaining a better understanding of the overall game, groups began creating an overall game strategy. Then, we came back together and presented our strategies to the rest of the team and debated which strategies were best eventually coming to a consensus that a rapid speaker note shooter was a high priority, we needed the ability to score the amp and trap, and favor ranking points and the idea of specializing in burst-fire shooting, while being able to play the entire game.

Robot Designs:

When we broke off to discuss robot designs, we used a diverse amount of resources, looking back on past years’ games and using KrayonCAD to develop some rudimentary designs, as shown below.

Our original idea was to attach a shooter to a pivoting telescope (pink arm), but we then contemplated the feasibility of shooting from a mechanism that could intake and outtake from the same opening, speaking that a flywheel would likely be needed to shoot long distances.

Our long process of picking through various designs included the idea of being able to “burst-fire” notes from the alliance zone to the speaker, hinting at a quick path from the ground to the shooter. We also wanted to keep a small robot for easy navigation, wanting to be able to move under the stage for quicker rotation. With so many different elements to this year’s game, we thought it would be best to minimize our freedoms of motion, combining subsystems to leave less room for error, while also maintaining that aspect of modularity.

We found several approaches, yet our most appealing idea so far involves a shooter mounted on top of an elevator, handed to by an indexer and over-the-bumper intake, giving a direct path from the not to the shooter. Inspired by user howlongismyname and his 12-hour robot design, we sought out the idea of putting a hook on the second stage of the elevator that would come back down to a locking mechanism, then continue extending upward, using the over-the-bumper intake as a guard, to score the trap. This design of course has a lot of calculations and fine-tuning, but we believe that by combining the subsystems, we can maximize the time and efficiency put into constructing/controlling our robot.

Other solutions we are currently looking into are using either the intake or a bar mounted on the shooter to score the amp, inspired by Cranberry Alarm’s Intake vs Shooter Testing. Again, there are many things to consider in terms of minimizing freedoms of motion, so we will continue to test the feasibility of each concept in a two-robot system.

The Apollo/Artemis System

Our two-robot system is a method we are trying out for the first time this year, in hopes of providing more time for programming/drive practice, also while allowing the opportunity to “fail fast” and pivot the design as needed. Below is a rough schedule of how we think this season will go.

Any feedback on strategy/robot design/scheduling would be greatly appreciated!

[samfruth]

Bi-weekly Breakdown:

With the good ‘ole glorious Kansas weather ruining our first couple of meetings, we were forced to work remotely for a while. However, we accomplished a lot in terms of narrowing down on strategy and robot design.

Strategy Update

With our main priority being the ability to rack up points with our shooter, we are currently focusing our attention on a “burst” strategy in which we go back and forth across the opponent’s alliance zone and the source and fire into our alliance zone several times (red line) and then eventually go to our amp area (where we are protected from defense), and fire several pieces consecutively during amplification.

Again, this plays into our robot design of needing an almost immediate transition from ground to air for the note and keeping a low, strong shooter. On the rising “trap controversy”, we see trap as not crucial to our success, but a “nice” thing to have for getting RP, especially in the early competitions. Right now, we would consider ourselves putting 90% effort towards shooting and amp scoring while only 10% towards trap, meaning we give it one good shot during build season, but do not commit a lot of valuable time and resources to it.

Design Update

Regarding actual design, we wish to follow that straight-shot shooter with the potential to do trap either now or after our Week 3 comp, through an elevator, which serves as our climbing, trap, and amp. We have decided we will commit one week of our time during build season, but no more than that, as we would rather have driver/programmer time. In the case that the elevator can do the trap, our robot would look something like the KrayonCad design below, featuring an OTB intake that feeds directly into our shooter (yellow box), mounted on a pivot, mounted on an elevator, similar to 254’s in 2018. In the case that this design does not work for the trap, we will remove the elevator entirely, fix the pivot directly on the frame, and swap our intake with one capable of doing amp as shown in the second picture.

Production Update

On the production side of things we had decided early on that we wanted a 26”x26” chassis so we began manufacturing two of those chassis in accordance with our Apollo/Artemis (2-Robot) system. Due to the snow delay, the manufacturing was delayed causing us to have to put in some extra time to try and stay on track. On top of that, we ran into an error in the way we manufacture our 2”x1” and 1”x1” tubing.

Our process for cutting tubing involves a 2-part system utilizing both our Trak Knee Mill and our Techno CNC. First, you cut the tubing to length with a miter saw and for added precision, we use the knee mill to end mill the edge to the precise length we need. Then, we place the cut tubing into a pre-cut slot that has an angle bracket bolted flush with the slot. This allows us to clamp the tubing down securely and quickly unclamp and reclamp so that we can machine each side. Then we cut out the corresponding holes and repeat the process for each side of the tubing.

The issue we ran into was that the holes that the CNC was cutting were all offset around .02” toward the angle bracket. This confused us so we tested to see if we clamped it wrong or if we accidentally got something stuck between the tube and the bracket but that yielded no different result. Then, we visually checked our zero on the slot and it seemed correct but when we checked the zero relative to the bracket the bracket was not centered on the bit like it should’ve been. So, we reset the bracket to ensure that it was flush, looked at the zero again and it was still wrong. We eventually realized that the angle bracket itself is what caused the .02” discrepancy and adjusted the zero accordingly and that yielded us nearly perfectly centered holes.

The error caused a significant time delay but thanks to our machinists’ resilience and our coaches’ gift of extra time we were able to get nearly caught up to where we originally planned. We also plan on finding a better remedy to this issue in the future which will probably include a better angle bracket and potentially a harder material for the slot as well.