FRC Team 3313 Mechatronics from Alexandria, MN did another practice run with our robot. We used the practice setting on the drive station. 2/2 on Autonomous, 9/12 during Teleop, and a 10 point hang.
Obviously, there is no defense played here and the “field” we are playing on is about 8 ft. short of a normal one. But it’s still good to practice!
More improvements planned: fencing to protect the electronics, a topper on the hopper to prevent Frisbees from sticking, some kind of vision processing (photon cannon?), and a kick stand for setting up the robot to start. We also plan to make an autonomous from the back of the pyramid as well.
Let us know any thoughts or comments!! We have always appreciated all the advice, compliments, and comments from the FRC community.
That looks fantastic! As always, make sure to test on carpet as well. Since you already have such an excellent robot, what are your plans for the next two weeks?
You said above something about vision processing. How about instead of that, you put a structure on top of your shooter that allows you to back up into the pyramid and be aligned. This type of “hard stop” alignment tends to be infinitely faster and more reliable than vision tracking.
Great job guys, this robot needs tweaking but is effectively done. Having 2 weeks to just straight practice and work out the kinks will be huge.
My advice: feel free to throw it in the trash but I really like your robot and would love to see it perform that much better.
Your drive could be much faster, see if there is something small that you can do to make it better. I would stay away from changing your wheel size because that could hurt your very accurate shooting. Something like a different sprocket or pulley on your wheels or gearbox depending on what you use to gear it faster could give you another run to and from the hp station a match. With the motors you have and the fact that pushing doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal you could go up to 13-14 feet per second as opposed to what looks like 8-9 feet per second.
Why not change all your wheels to omni wheels? This will allow you to turn about the center of your robot instead of around basically the end of it, this will make your turning tighter and faster.
Maybe take some of the time you have to try and have the robot begin to backup to the feeder at the end of your auton? This will cut into the time spent going to the feeder station at the start of teleop.
My guess is that they want to be able to push if need be. I personally think that 13-14fps is a bit fast for a single speed, and I would personally rather have the traction wheels rather than omnis. Its all up to the team to decide what they want to do with the drive.
I would also second someone comment about using the pyramid to align yourself. Remember, you can’t be rammed or pushed if you are touching the pyramid (right?), so it somewhat functions as the key did last year.
I like it, I think this “type” of robot will be very successful this year.
I would suggest that you work on an auto mode that shoots into the 3 point goal but from the side of the pyrimid. That free’s you up during auto so if your other partners need to start in the dead center everyone can still score in the 3 point goal.
Other then that I would just say practice, practice, practice.
They already have one set of omnis so I’m guessing they aren’t exactly going for pushing even though omnis don’t necessarily mean you aren’t a pusher, obviously it’s their decision but my personal view is if it functions the way it does and isn’t exactly designed for pushing why not make it turn faster and drive faster as well?
You look a lot like you might be able to score from hanging position. That would be really cool.
Also, I suggest you practice cutting down time in your loading sequence. Two things I have noticed that work well:
Slam into the feeder station and let your bumpers allow you to become flush to the wall.
Have your human player stack 4 frisbees and balence them on one hand. Then, use your other hand to “shuffle” the top frisbee through the slot. Feed continuously.
This robot looks great guys! I’ve got a suggestion, besides those that haven’t already been mentioned, that I feel would benefit you guys greatly.
I complete agree with using your robot as a hard stop against the pyramid. One of the things you might want to try is adjusting the angle of you shooter, if it is at all possible, and trying to shoot from the back of the pyramid through it. that would greatly increase the speed at which you could collect Frisbees and shoot them, and it already looks like you have the distance to do it.
Great work! A lot farther than most of the teams I’ve seen.
Have you guys practiced with a goal that has chain in it? I recommend doing so just to check if at your shooting angle and speed, frisbees aren’t able to bounce back out.
WOAH! So many awesome responses! Thank you so much!
Based off of the wonderful comments, we are thinking of some new strategies and ideas. The FIRST community is so fun. Anyway, here are some things we are working on or going to work on in the near future…
“Manual shifting” drive train using Java programming (press button to increase or decrease max drive speed). This will allow us to traverse the field faster but still maintain control. Will take lots of practice but should be worth it.
We attached a ramp in our feeder station to better model the Frisbees entering our robot.
We will attach some kind of bars on the back of the shooter so that we can align ourselves with the pyramid during teleop. This will allow us to find our location from across the field.
We will practice more with driving from the other side of our practice field instead of from the side. Video of this will be up before Stop Build Day. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to a ton of carpet area soooo not much we can do with that.
We thought some more about Frisbee feeding… Not sure what to do about it but we will definitely keep brainstorming.
We built the goal box today on our 3 point goal and bought some chains to hang in it. This will allow us to practice shooting Frisbees into a goal with chains in it. Video evidence will come when our competition robot is back together after painting it later this week.
We will continue to work on an Autonomous from the back of the pyramid. It’s a work in progress but we’re going to make it happen. 3 discs to shoot along with more Alliance flexibility is definitely worth it.
PHEW!! I think that’s it!! Keep the comments coming if you have them. We genuinely appreciate the advice and suggestions.
Keep looking out for us!! We’ll have more videos later this week!
Fine control on a fast robot like yours is tough. I like the manual shifting idea, though instead of increasing speed, make it decrease speed. It is only my personal preference though (after driving s supershifted robot). Let your driver make that decision.
A trick that I learned for fine control driving practice is to put some cones out and drive in a tight slalom pattern. Extra bragging rights if you can do it while pushing a moving dolly.
