FIRST Robotics

[DBRider251]

Is anyone in the community into, or has been a part of, the FIRST Robotics Competition? This is my 2nd year competing, and I love it. I was just wondering if anyone out there also did it, or if you guys have an idea on this year's game. I personally like it, but what can I say, I love a challenge.



I believe if we use 8in pneumatic wheels in the center of the frame with 8in omni wheels on the front and back, it'll help a lot more than anything else. I see a lot of teams using only pneumatic wheels, only the stock wheels that came in the kit (horrible to me), and I saw a couple teams using mecanum (how that will work, I have no idea.)

I also believe scoring in the high goal is almost pointless. (Calm down, I said almost) I think it would be more beneficial to cross under the low bar, score in the bottom goal, and cross defenses more often to score more points. I think it would be easier to score 6 or 7 in the low goal, opposed to being accurate enough to make 3-4 in the high goal. I personally wanted to combine these 3 ideas(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gt1tazM0ig , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxG7JpejR4g , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UEFgFeyjw) and see how far we can get. We already have all of the defenses build, and are pretty confident with getting through all of them except the Sally Port and Drawbridge.

Scaling at the end of the match is a huge deal to our team, and we can't really figure out how to get it to work. The highest our robot can be is 54", until the last 20 seconds of the match when it can extend up to the bar to pull it up. We've tried to use a folding arm and winch, telescopic arm, almost anything that we can think of, we just can't get it to work. Maybe something pretty close to Team Indiana's Ri3D build, but just carrying a hook up to the bar, then having a winch pull it up. I was wondering if you guys had any ideas to help us out or could throw something together really quick in a 3d program and let us visualize it.

We're Team 3072 in the Chesapeake region. We're based out of Southwest Virginia, and plan on competing in Blacksburg, and Portsmouth this year. If anyone else is into this stuff, and are going to those events, find me at our pit and talk to me. I'll be a driver too, so just ask around for Lane. I'd love to meet people from the community that has a shared interest in being a complete nerd

[wheels1758]

I am a mentor at one of the local high schools here in Washington. This is my second year as a mentor. I wish there was FIRST at my high school back when I was there!

The game seems like a lot more "fun" than last year.

We are also planning to build a robot that can make it under the low bar, as that obstacle is guaranteed to be on every playing field. We're going to try to make the high goal. Unfortunately, our team is a bit short handed at this point, so it will be interesting!

I think a winch with a hook would be a sufficient method. The nice thing about it is that the mechanism to get the hook up to the bar doesn't have to be strong enough to lift the entire robot. I can picture a winch mounted to the rear with a telescoping/folding arm to lift and secure the hook. Mounting the winch/arm to the rear means it won't interfere with the ball handling, assuming you are grabbing/loading/firing from the front. I'd also picture the robot rotating so that the base is parallel to the castle wall when the robot is up, otherwise there will be a big torque on the lifting mechanism.

[DBRider251]

I never thought of doing it the way you have it pictured. WAY new perspective.

I agree, last year was weird. We did AWFUL and honestly had a shitty robot, but we played with good enough teams that we made it to 8th place in playoff rankings and got to play on the playoffs. We made it to semifinals, but we were doing a lot more than we asked of our robot, and we just couldn't compete.

I'll try to finish our design for ours late next week, but I think we're going to have the frame opened on the robot, and let the ball sit inside the bot. One of our teammates had the idea of an arm that folded up with chain and gears, but that seems really heavy for a game that seems like you would need to be light.

[DBRider251]

Also wheels, have you figured out how many times it takes to score to completely damage the tower so their flag comes down? Our team seems to think 8, but I cant find a rule about it.

[wheels1758]

Yes, 8 is correct. Section 3.1.4 of the game manual

[DBRider251]

How in God's name did I miss that? I swear I can't read...

With that, I don't see the need to score in a high goal, unless you just want to farm points that bad. I would think getting over defenses and scaling are the most important. We'll keep this thread alive. I'll update with irl pictures and some Solidworks screenshots. Hopefully, everything goes as planned this year. Good luck to you guys.

[bdownen323]

My boss was a mentor for his local high school team and gave some supplies (I made a little press release about it) and I did some research on the contest and it looks really cool. I think my sister might even be doing it soon, but I don't think my local high school is big enough to field a team. Maybe her homeschooling program has a way to get a team together locally.

[m121c]

I wish I would have been apart of our robotics competition team in highschool, but I passed it up knowing that I couldn't be committed with it + racing. Looks pretty cool!

[DBRider251]

Definitely something I'm coming back to for community service during college next year, and years after. I love the atmosphere altogether

[DBRider251]

This is what we designed to use for a shock system. We're going to put 2 on each side of the wheel, a rod through the top hole, and connect the rod to a pneumatic cylinder which will have one end capped off, creating a constant pressure and allowing absorption. With the 2 outside wheels being omni wheels, i can almost guarantee this will help more than it could hurt. Especially over obstacles that abuse the robot. I'll update with pictures of the design Monday.

[DBRider251]

Update on basic frame. Might end up putting the outside "shock" on the inside. Still have to make the brackets for the pneumatic wheels that will sit lower than the omni's.

[DBRider251]

Basically finished. Cable management and a couple of mounts left, and we'll be good to go, and ready for FIRST Stronghold! We've had no difficulty getting over any obstacle, (excluding Sally Port and Drawbridge, since we can't open them from the front). The Rock Wall, Portcullis, and Ramparts are a little challenging for us, but the Moat, Cheval de Friese, Low Bar, and Rough Terrain are easy, with the Rough Terrain and Low Bar being the easiest. High and Low goal accurate, and only 84 pounds to top everything off. Good luck to everyone else out there!

Short video of it shooting