Among the preseason projects by the LigerBots this year was some work to develop detailed presentations about robot design that could be used for training or reference. We ran through these presentations during our fall training, with senior students developing a mock FRC game and newer students learning how to build up a robot design step by step. Now we’re making them available to the FIRST public!
You can access the presentations at this link.
They’re PowerPoint presentations, but should convert cleanly into PDF files or Google Drive presentations - if anything, a couple GIFs may be lost in translation.
Here’s the table of contents:
Introduction to Robots and FIRST Strategy
Defines a robot in the context of the FIRST Robotics Competition, how to go about goal-setting, identifying a chokehold strategy in a game, accounting for trade-offs, and reading through the manual to find the best way to achieve your season goals.
Drive Trains and Chassis
A basic introduction to the parts of an FRC drivetrain, the different types of drivetrain, using weighted objective tables to choose a drivetrain, and how to make calculations of gear choice using the JVN Calculator.
FIRST Robot Mechanisms
A library of robot design patterns we’ve recorded over many years in FIRST. Grouped into categories like “storage/indexing” and “launching mechanisms”, we show examples of nearly a hundred different mechanism concepts, listing design considerations and questions to think about for each one.
Sensors
An introduction to closed- and open-loop control, the different properties sensors can measure, types of sensors, and design considerations.
Robot Recipes
Shows how to analyze and understand an FRC robot’s capabilities by looking critically at it and breaking it down into smaller component mechanisms and sensors. Talks about how to travel from an idea into a fully-fledged version 1, gives a lesson about building within one’s limits, and talks about key quality attributes to aspire toward when designing and constructing a robot.
Bonus: Build season process
Heading into 2018, we adjusted our build season design process to make our project plan less haphazard during the early part of the season. We also documented the process to keep us sane. It isn’t battle-tested, but we’re sharing it with the public all the same.