FRC 2019
Every year FIRST reveals a new game that poses different tasks and challenges which can be completed for points.
Teams then have ~6 weeks to build an original robot mostly from scratch to play the game with many size, weight, and cost constraints.
The game is played on a 27’ x 54’ field (basketball court size) with two alliances, each consisting of three teams and three robots.
While points are scored by individual robots, ranking points require the cooperation of the entire alliance to achieve. After each team plays 10 games with random alliances, the 8 teams with the most ranking points then pick alliance partners for the finals. Regional competitions usually consist of around 50 teams, 24 of which compete in the finals with the winning alliance qualifying for the world championship.
Destination: Deep Space
The reveal video we saw at the beginning of the season
The Robot
Robot CAD Render
Our robot featured a 3 stage elevator that allowed us to score at all levels of the rocket, an intake and scoring mechanisms for both game pieces, a butterfly drive train that allowed us to play around defense without sacrificing maneuverability, and a 3rd stage climber that allowed us to climb to the highest level at the end of the match. An integrated vision system tracked the vision targets on the scoring areas and automatically steered the driver into alignment. This along with a camera allowed the driver to effectively score and play the game without vision; which was critical when scoring on the far side of the rocket and during the 15 second “sandstorm” period at the beginning of the match during which driver vision was obscured. The robot was completely designed, manufactured, and built by high school students in shop in only 6 weeks.
Robot on the field
Competition
We competed in 3 official competitions. One regional in Huntsville, Alabama where we finished quarter-finalists, one regional in Knoxville, Tennessee where we were the winning alliance captain, which qualified us for the World Championship in Houston, Texas where we finished quarter-finalists in the Newton Division.
The final match of the Smokey Mountains Regional where we qualified for the World Championship
My Contribution
During the 2019 season I was the design lead of the team and contributed by adapting and optimizing the butterfly drive design I had worked on before the season started. The butterfly drive train included 4 pneumatically actuated modules each with one traction and one omni wheel. When the pistons are retracted the drive train is a 8 wheel center drop ideal for pushing and defense. When the pistons extend only the omni 4 wheels touch the ground allowing the robot to slide and allowing a skilled driver to make faster turns and maneuver around defense bots. I also helped design part of the climb system which involved integrating a power take off (PTO) into the drive train that would allow the drive train to drive wheels on the bottom of the climber legs via a set of gears that would engage once the climber legs were pulled down by the elevator.
Although complicated, this system reduced the number of actuators needed and the weight of the robot, both of which are very limited given the size and complexity of the robot. Because it was my first build season on the team, I focused primarily on learning but quickly became an integral part of the team.