FRC 1923, The MidKnight Inventors, are proud to present our fourteenth robot: Knightshade
In developing this robot, we set our focus on three main objectives:
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Reducing autonomous and teleoperated cycle time (helping us earn a Rocket RP)
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Consistently earning an endgame ranking point
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Building a robot that could be a participant in a 30 or 36 pt endgame.
All of these objectives are still a work in progress and likely will be until our last event. We firmly believe in constant iteration.
Drivetrain:
Six-wheel west coast drive. 4â wheels. Four omnis, two colsons.
Custom single speed gearbox. 7:1 reduction, two Neos per side. Pocketed gears.
Elevator:
A heavy iteration of our 2018 robot, Blackout âs elevator.
Custom single speed gearbox. Two 775Pros per side. Geared to reach max height in 0.75 seconds.
Pneumatic belt brake to hold elevator in position.
Roller claw passes through from front to back.
Cargo:
4â mecanum intake that extends via linear bearings and pneumatic cylinders.
Hand-off to a horizontal roller claw with four 3â flex wheels.
Front positions: receive from mecanum intake, receive from human player station, score cargo ship
Back positions: receive from human player station, score cargo ship, rocket levels 1, 2, 3
Hatches:
Passive velcro and duck beak hybrid.
Scores with two pneumatic cylinders mounted inside carbon fiber rods.
Scores on rocket levels 1, 2, 3 out the back of the robot and sneaky level 1 scoring out the front.
This mechanism will likely become less passive and more active before our first event to reduce time spent at the human player station.
Climber:
For our goal of participation in a 30 or 36 point endgame, we succeeded when paired with the correct alliance partner as seen in our teaser. Uncensored version here.
Our intent from the start has been to lift a team between 90-120 lbs and average sizing dimensions onto the level 3 Hab first, then use their weight as a counterbalance to lift ourselves. The hardest part of this process is not lifting yourself, or lifting your partner. It is managing and driving with a combined CG that is, at best, at the edge of your frame perimeter and, at worst, several inches forward of that. We have been through about 30 designs and combinations of designs for an outrigger that accomplishes this task with any robot we might be paired with. While some work well for subsets of robot weights and sizes, we still havenât found a happy universal solution for all robots we might be paired with. Because of this, we have not yet succeeded in our goal to be able to consistently earn the endgame ranking point.
We have talked a lot with teams with similar designs and dissimilar but compatible designs and will likely try to show up to our first event with a design that is more effective for consistently earning the endgame ranking point, working toward a more effective outrigger for our current design later in our season.
