A few years ago, one of our mentors (@s_forbes) introduced our team (6413) to the power of scaled prototypes for FRC mechanisms using LEGOs. In 2022, we actually designed our climber/intake mechanism using LEGOs before we built the final design on the robot.
It turns out, if you treat each stud of a LEGO brick as a 1", you can pretty easily make a scaled model that is roughly 1/3rd (31.4%) the size of a full-sized FRC robot. Here’s an example of a robot arm our students designed for Charged Up.
Not all of our LEGO designs end up on the final robot, but that’s the great thing about LEGOs, you can make many different functional prototypes very quickly and get a feel for their viability. It’s also a way for newer students with FLL or LEGO-building experience to contribute to the design of the robot. It could also be a fun exercise for FLL teams that may have completed their seasons. Old FLL field kits actually make great parts for building FRC prototypes since a lot of the FLL missions utilize different mechanism designs themselves.
We’ll be updating this thread throughout the first few weeks of the build season with the different designs the students come up with, but other teams are also welcome to share their LEGO prototypes here as well. The first steps will be to figure out how to create scaled-down models of the field elements. In the meantime, I recommend checking out some of @s_forbesother FRC LEGO prototypes. Happy New Year! Now let’s get ready for Reefscape!
On a more serious note, I absolutely love these. We stole the 2022 climbing design for our robot that year and it worked great all season! Excited to see what y’all come up with!
You cannot steal what is freely given . I just checked a match video of your 2022 robot, nice climbing! It’s funny, I think that video inspired more than a few robots that year. I teach first-year engineering college students and I showed them that video as an example of prototyping. After class, an out-of-state student approached me and said, “That video was your team? We used that video to design our own climber!”
Quick update: Today we focused primarily on how to build scaled-down game pieces and field elements. Here’s a LEGO swerve chassis next to an scaled-down algae and coral game piece.
Neither of the game pieces are perfect equivalents. We used a fuel ball from Steamworks. They are nearly the perfect diameter, but they are not nearly as bouncy or squishy. We found these small kickballs that we think will be more equivalent to the the algae.
The 1" PVC pipe is pretty close to the coral game piece, though the diameter and wall thickness are off a bit. We went ahead and 3D printed one that would have the proper dimensions so that you can see the difference. The 3D printed one is on the left while the PVC pipe is on the right.
yo let’s go it’s the other (and better) LEGO guy!! was wondering who those youtube videos were from and now i know lol.
i also have to start finding field elements and building those so i can try to make a ev3 reef scape robot before i go back to school for work term, thanks for the fuel and pipe inspiration!
Another quick update, here’s a better look at the 1/2 barge and cage element. The top and bottom of the cage were made from laser cut plywood. The rods in the cage are .5" aluminum rods.
That’s awesome to hear that someone else is interested in building these LEGO FRC models. Feel free to share any progress you make in this thread, I’m sure the community would love to see what you come up with.
thanks! i would be more than happy to provide my ideas here too.
out of curiosity, has @s_forbes found a good substitution for a constant force spring in LEGO? i was thinking a rubber band, but that might be too brittle.
for an elevator, i could still use string or twine, but i’m looking at building a 2910 2023 style arm (which used CFSs)
The constant force springs on the 2910 2023 arm were only used to keep the E-Chain cable carrier tensioned, they did not serve any function with the extension or retraction of the arm, if that matters to you. It’d be super awesome to see a Lego version of that arm!
wait…so how does the elevator go up and down? is it belt driven or is that what the cable’s for? if it’s a standard cascade style arm, i’m wondering how i should route it through LEGO
i have the stages themselves finished (save for a few minor tweaks ill need to make)
For your purposes, you might have to make the first stage a big bigger but you could use Lego chain to drive the first stage and some string for the 2nd?
i’m still having a bit of trouble understanding the routing. is there a chance you can draw it for me? also the 2023 CAD file is showing “faulty typology” for a couple of the Falcons in the arm, and it’s not displaying any of the assemblies
. I just checked a match video of your 2022 robot, nice climbing! It’s funny, I think that video inspired more than a few robots that year. I teach first-year engineering college students and I showed them that video as an example of prototyping. After class, an out-of-state student approached me and said, “That video was your team? We used that video to design our own climber!”
