FIRST Robotics 2023 - Week Two Report

Despite losing a day to snow we had a good week.  A number of problems were identified....and we think solved.

The End Game this year involves three robots crowding together on a teeter totter and making it balance.  Our 29 inch width was not going to work.  The difficulty of the solution was rated as Low because it is easier to cut things down than to stretch them back out.  The practice frame was chopped by two inches, the motors and electronics remounted, and here it goes:

We might trim off another inch for the final version....we have to do some stability testing on the test robot.  Oh, and we can just drive sideways to the very edge.  The software team was discussing putting a sensor on the edge to tell us just how far we could go.  Half the wheel width off maybe?

Other systems are being refined.  We have an unusual arm system that is a hybrid of a linear actuator and a very high torque gear motor that drives an arm.  On the end will be a pneumatic grabber.  We are on about version 5 of the grabber and so far don't quite have it nailed.  But here in a hallway we are crowding together the arm development base, the latest grabber, and the wooden mock up of the field element that they are designed to score on.  Lots of activity.

Most years the robot has to be closely watched.  Will the frame perimeter be a little big?  Will we flirt with the 125 pound weight limit.  The answer to the first question is clearly, no.  As to the second well it is time for The Scale to start making its regular appearances.  Drive base, actuator, grabber, compressor, electronics, some allowance for aluminum structure, rivets, bolts, maybe high humidity conditions, pile 'em on and.....

Some of this is clearly done Old School with wooden mockups.  But for the final version we are generating CAD and having some elements custom laser cut.  Here's a pretty picture of part of the innards of the robot.

So far so good.  We'll need to make a final call on the frame width this week and cut the competition frame down accordingly.  Then we get to start working on the final product.