Last year a few mentors from the Steel City Robotics Alliance (SCRA) were a part of the Ri3D Redux team. We think that being on Ri3D and having the mindset of building a bunch of things quickly and seeing what works or not is invaluable for FRC teams. However we wanted to include more people from the Pittsburgh area into the mix.
The Steel City Robotics Alliance is excited to join the 2024 Ri3D challenge! The team consists of mentors and alumni from teams all across the Pittsburgh region, as well as Students (Undergraduate, Masters, and PHD) from Universities in the Pittsburgh Area. We are putting an emphasis on prototyping, and we hope to inspire teams both in our area and across the entire FRC community. Our team is passionate with years of FRC knowledge. We hope to serve as a springboard for local teams that are able to see our prototypes in real life and help the community by making youtube videos of our prototypes.
To watch our progress, subscribe to the SCRA youtube channel, where we will be hosting a livestream and posting videos of prototypes: https://www.youtube.com/@SteelCityRoboticsAlliance We will be using this thread to communicate with the community.
Thank you, and good luck with the 2024 FRC competition!
Prototyping Blocks
This year we were inspired by a 3D printed clamping brackets, and decided to make similar brackets out of wood on the router. They have been super helpful in prototyping because you can cut them on a bandsaw as you see fit, add holes easily, and just use wood screws to add more things. Our version has a 1.125 inch hole for bearings and a ring of 10 holes for attaching anything with a CIM hole pattern (Max Planetaries, NEO Vortexes, etc).
We were able to quickly mock together prototypes for getting ideas tested, see how they worked, iterate quickly, and then get key dimensions from them.
Top Roller Shooter
First, we tried a top roller shooter made out of 3inch cardboard shipping tubes hooked directly to NEO Vortexs. It had a 1.5 inch gap between rollers and no horizontal compression and it was able to shoot from one field wall and hit the base of the other field wall. We then switched to PVC and wanted to try having two sets of rollers. The PVC version has 12 inch rollers so there is some horizontal compression (because of the length PVC we had in house). The PVC version with compression seems to be worse than the original carboard version, but it works well enough and due to time constraints, we will not be trying to find out what factors made this version worse (leading theories are: different friction on rollers, and the horizontal compression).
Over the Bumper Intake
We prototyped with the wood blocks to create an over the bumper intake with star wheels to kick the note up off the ground and then rollers to guide the note into the robot. The note is extremely compliant, and it seems like the note is able to be forced through fairly convoluted paths of rollers, even if there are large gaps between rollers as the note is caught on the next roller and forced into position.
Kitbot Improvements
We increased the kicker wheel intake constant to 0.5 as it could stall if the intake process was stopped halfway through and the note was only contacting the kicker wheel.
We added a zip tie loop from the lower polycarb sheet to the crossbar in order to lower the polycarb slightly to improve the performance of intaking from the human feeder station. This meant that the polycarb bent slightly throughout the entire length of the sheet, so we needed to cut out clearance for the shooter wheels, otherwise the wheel would rub against the polycarb. This also meant that the gap between the two panels was reduced, so the note was compressed between the two sheets and we had to add washers to the existing spacers to give the note some wiggle room.
We swapped the smaller spacers on the motor assembly to nuts and washers so the entire assembly can be taken off without having to worry about all the spacers falling off as you take the assembly on and off the robot.
Another issue we noticed was that notes could get stuck in a number of places around the robot, so we added zip tie chains to prevent notes from becoming lodged between the belly pan and the frame rails.
We made a second layer to the electronics board using 2x4s as spacers. This improves access to the electronics for repairs as you do not have to get into the tight space between the motors for changing out components.
We also added a passive flap to the end of the shooter ramp that opens the via inertia. This turns into a ramp that allows you to easily score in the amp by having the shooter wheel spin slowly as the note exits the shooter and then it slides down the ramp and into the amp.
Posting this now, and will be adding images, links and videos as I have more time.
We wanted to make an mvp climber using things that teams will likely have already. The solution we came up with is two half inch wood panels with a 1/4 inch slot milled into them to accept the chain and a few curves to help guide the chain into the slot. It’s powered by a Neo on a max planetary gearbox that many teams will have from the Everybot last year. We did have to switch out one stage from 3:1 to 5:1 (125:1 in the end) so it wouldn’t backdrive, and we used a second output faceplate so the shaft was not cantilevered. We attached a ratchet strap directly to the hex shaft with a bolt and washer through the side of the hex shaft, and added elastic to keep the arm raised.
We just finished making the video of us talking about our kitbot climber and amplifier modifications, as well as our prototyping process and shooter for a separate robot.
I have been trying to answer any questions on the videos, but if you have general questions feel free to ask them here as well!
I love this! its a great way to modify the kitbot to easily increase its versatility. By using the kitbot, any new team can make these same modifications. hats off to you!
Glad you like this the team, especially kevin spent a good chunk of time on thinking through really simple economical improvements.
We will be sharing DXFs etc of the climbers shortly- ( kevin is getting some well deserved sleep, and i am trying to catch up on real work )
I really would love to see that climber on a lot of kitbots, I think its just so cheap and easy to implement. It can be implemented by only having to buy another Max planetary base kit, and a 5:1 stage if you have last years parts
