FIRST Robotics - 2023 Week One Report (Getting Serious)

This year's Challenge has similarities to prior "pick and place" games.  In fact, our team might be a bit ahead of the curve as we have done some fairly ridiculous things in the past that have now become relevant.  Mr. Clamps grabbed big boxes.  Our 2020 robot had an auto leveling function.  Last year's Hank the Tank had an elevator and intake flipper mechanism even though there was no good reason for going this route.  And The Year of the Vacuum Bot....of that we will not speak other than to say we have built a multi articulated arm that can handle two different objects.

By Thursday we had a design:

And we have swerve drive, well, swerving....

That of course is just a temporary wood frame.  The goat, well that's complicated.

In our four sessions per week mode about half the actual work gets done on Saturday.  We get the kids for 6 hours instead of maybe 2.5.  And they are in theory rested, not dragging in after a school day.  For a team that in years prior has been between 20 and 25 students it was remarkable to have 34 students and 10 adults on hand.  Lots of hands getting lots of things done.

With the drive system now coming along very nicely it was time to build the competition frame.  In the early days of the team we worked in an old three story building.  Our goal was to build strong enough that we could drive the robot off the roof, hit the ground and keep going.

Not quite there yet....

OK, factor in these outside steel gussets, also the solid spacers inside the frame, and when we add a steel base plate and bolt the solid aluminum mounting plates for the drive modules....yep, that's about three stories tough...

The game this year involves grabbing things.  One lightweight and a bit fragile, one heavier, tough but a weird shape and slippery.  Our team prototyping this has gone through three versions to date, and has ideas for several more.  Here's a lateral slide pneumatic grabber:

This particular geometry was not ideal but gave the team ideas for the next iteration.  

The grabber will be mounted on an articulated arm as seen in the initial sketch.  Suggestions from our mechanical design gurus prompted a switch away from a Big Ol' Gearmotor based system to one that runs with electrically powered linear actuators.  Here's the test bed.  The tape marks are the various pick up and drop off zones.

Lots of things could happen.  Heck, will happen.  But with a solid drive base under us we can start driver's training in a week or so.  And we have at least proof of concept on our other major systems.  Of course there is a ton of software and sensor work ahead.  And even for the things that look to be figured out the Devil resides at his usual address.