Kickoff Recap
Our kickoff started early in the morning, with a communal potluck breakfast. After this, and watching the kickoff livestream, we broke out into small groups to understand the game, and later into our school’s two teams to create priority lists and robot and mechanism concepts. While we were doing this a group of parent volunteers were building the field elements, which allowed us to have them done before the end of the day!
This season, we tried a couple of new systems at kickoff. Firstly, rather than working through the game as a whole team, we decided to break down into groups of 7-8 to go over our kickoff worksheet, heavily inspired by 6328. This seemed to work well, as it allowed for more of the team to directly contribute and gain a more clear understanding of the game. Secondly, we decided to break down game tasks into separate MSCW lists for 1540 and 1844. This splits all game tasks into categories of Must, Should, Could, and Won’t, based on how relevant they seemed to our season goals. In the past, we’ve typically ranked every action based on priority, but this has left exactly what tasks we want to perform ambiguous and led to us making some robots beyond our capabilities. We hope that having clear tiers of priority will make it easier to cut or postpone certain tasks if we find ourselves out of our depth or falling behind.
Points Analysis
When all coral is scored to maximize points, the majority of points come from Level 4, however they are relatively evenly distributed. One particularly interesting thing is that given scoring in the Trough will likely be significantly easier than any other level, and that it is worth 28% of points scored optimally, this could be a very strong year for low dumpers.
When scoring all algae on the field, the most possible points come from scoring them all in the processor, though this will likely only result in a total benefit of two points, as we found it is very easy for the human player to score in the net. This will only be a concern based on how close to the match is, or is predicted to be, as if you are outscoring your opponents, the slight decrease in points gained may be worth it for an overall higher score. This logic also translates to only scoring the algae on your side of the field, though with lower values.
Overall, this shows that in an alliance going for the maximum score, coral will make up the majority of points. However, algae certainly isn’t negligible, as it makes up around a third of those points when scoring all algae.
1540 Concepts
As 1540 is aiming high this season, our priorities list reflects this. We’re aiming to be able to be the primary scoring robot on most alliances throughout the season, with the ability to achieve a six ranking point match as close to solo as possible.
It’s quite ambitious, just like our season goals. However, as this is one of our strongest student groups in recent history, we’re confident that we can pull it off. We’d like to focus on coral, as it has the highest potential for points, as well as the Coral RP. This list is currently incomplete, such as having no form of intaking in Must, because we want to verify many with prototyping and more in-depth game analysis before making a final decision on some tasks.
Initial Robot Concepts
We’ve initially gravitated towards two primary robot archetypes. The first is heavily inspired by 1678 in 2019, with an arm that pivots 180 degrees on an elevator. The primary change from this design would be a wrist on the end of the arm so that we can pick up fallen coral, while still placing them vertically, and making the arm long enough to reach the ground. This would allow us to cycle back and forth from the loading station to the reef without turning, saving some cycle time. The primary disadvantage is the mechanical complexity, alongside having three degrees of freedom, which may be more than necessary.
The second involves an intake 90 degrees from our scoring mechanism. This would allow us to pick up game pieces from the floor, and then pass them off to an arm on an elevator, likely similar to 3647’s 2019 robot. This concept means that we won’t need a wrist to properly align the game pieces, as well as one fewer degree of freedom on the scoring zone. Its main drawback is that we need a separate intake mechanism, rather than one that can also be used to score.
One of the biggest issues we’ve found is ensuring that both of these can properly hang on a deep cage. We believe one of the easiest ways to do this will be to grab the cage and then rotate up, similarly to 148 in 2010. However, it’s currently unclear whether or not we can properly integrate this into our initial concepts.
1844 Concepts
1844’s Season Goals:
As Catlin Gabel’s new, introductory robotics team, 1844 had more limitations with fewer (and greener) members. As a result, we set lower goals for ourselves. However, due to our performance in Oregon Bunnybots and potential as a team, we believe our goals are still achievable, especially with help from 1540 and the shared workspace.
This discussion revealed we primarily wanted to focus on algae, with the ability to score coral in the first level of the reef. This was because we believe that most teams will focus on scoring coral, leaving algae to be completed in the background, making a robot that can score the net and processor well a valuable partner. In addition, we noticed that an algae in the net is worth the same as a level 3 coral. However, there is also significantly less algae on the field, meaning it is very possible that all algae will be scored before the end of the match. The ability to score coral would allow us to continue playing offense through the remaining portion. Scoring coral in L1 can also be useful for autos as they contribute to the RP and are worth more during auto.
Initial Robot Concepts
We also came up with several early robot concepts. The first of these involves an intake for both algae and coral, by using one set of rollers to guide the algae into the robot, and another to hold the coral at the end. The algae would be fed into a shooter to launch it into the net, or outtaken into the processor. Coral would then be outtaken into the lowest level of the reef, while an elevator with a hook can latch onto a shallow cage. The primary flaw in this design is a lack of a way to dislodge algae from the upper levels of the reef, though the climbing hook may be abe to do this with proper planning.
The second concept involves a combined intake/shooter for both algae and coral. This would be placed on a pivot, which could then reach to the ground to intake algae, or go to the loading station for coral. Once again, the main issue with this design is the lack of a way to remove algae from higher on the reef, and that it lacks a climb.
The third concept involves a slapdown intake for algae into a shooter, heavily inspired by 254 in 2014. This would also have a climber in a box, which if angled properly or allowed to pivot, could also be used to remove algae from the reef. It would also have an intake on a pivot on the front of the robot, in order to grab and place coral on the lowest level. The primary issue with this concept is the sheer number of separate mechanisms, and the potential lack of space that comes with that.
The final concept involves an intake for algae on an elevator (for both L1 and L2 algae, perhaps L3) feeding into a flywheel shooter. This would also have a place on top of the shooter to store one coral for the auto RP. This design works very well in concept for meeting 1844’s Must section, but leaves no room for any of the mechanisms in the Should section, with the existing mechanisms already taking up the entire space.
