FRC 2021
Game Changers
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, FIRST released 5 challenges that teams could compete in at home. 3 of the challenges included teleoperated and autonomous driving as well as intake elements where the other 2 were primarily shooting challenges using the same 7” foam balls as the 2020 season. Teams were required to submit recordings of at least 3 challenges to be scored.
Our Robot
During the 2021 season we were finalists in our division and notably scored 9th in the world in the Hyperdrive challenge, the most driving focused challenge. We also won the Chairman’s award for the second year in a row, though still no World Championship due to the ongoing pandemic.
Strategy and Approach
At the beginning of the season we decided to only compete in the 3 driving focused challenges so we could reduce the size and weight of the robot as a result of not needing a shooter or indexing system.
Also given the uncertainty of the amount of in person meeting time we would have this approach would allow us to focus on implementing the shifting swerve drive.
Robot Specifications
Our 2021 robot featured a simple hopper for storing Power Cells, a 3 roller four-bar intake, and the two-speed pneumatic swerve drive. The robot was designed to be small and light having overall dimensions of 24”x24”x25” and weighing 70.5 pounds. Overall this entire season mostly served as a proof of concept for the shifting swerve drive which gave us a significant advantage over other teams running traditional swerve drives. The robot was designed with removeable panels for easy access to electrical components and a battery mount that folded down from the bottom the robot. The intake arms are 1/4” impact resistant polycarbonate and the intake rollers are 2” polycarbonate tubes with 3D printed hubs and a small passive top roller to prevent balls already in the hopper from being kicked out by the top roller. The bottom roller is belted to spin faster than the other rollers to ensure Power Cells are grabbed off the ground before the robot runs them over even while travelling at top speed (22 ft/s). A vision system at the top of the hopper allows for autonomous tracking of Power Cells which was required to complete one of the challenges.
CAD Render