FIRST Robotics 2024 - Week One Report

Well its a complicated game this year.  A weird little foam rubber donut has to be collected and launched into various targets, one of which can only be accessed if you first elevate your robot clear off the ground while hauling yourself up onto a swinging chain.  Uh....right.

It appears that a fair bit of our off season work may come in handy but there will be a number of brand new challenges to figure out.  For what its worth, the "glam" picture of our robot's preliminary CAD looks like this:

Two different elevator systems, and an over the bumper intake that is so far theoretical.  Oh, and nifty black powder coating, 'cause in victory or ambitious disaster you wanna look sharp.  Some images of Week One.

A prototype of the intake device.

Last year's competition robot stripped down to drive base to serve as a test bed.  It looks as if this will be another "Swerve Drive Rules" game, so our hard work on that last season will not have to be completely repeated.

This year we have a design team that has also thought deeply on strategic goals.  Will things translate from the White Board to the Real World?

Quite a bit got done in our first few sessions.  Saturdays have always been our most productive working days.  A few pictures from Saturday of Week One.

The design has evolved...

Two of the three major field elements are ready for use.

Although we design virtually we still find it useful to put a tape outline of scoring element geometry on the wall of the hallway.  This is a double check on design specs and every year seems to show us something we are happy learning about early rather than late.  We add a few artistic flourishes, call it a mural and the custodians just leave it up for us.

So lots going on.  And now starts the race.  Getting the robot from design to completion requires parts to be ordered and to arrive at the right time.  We hope we don't lose days to snow.  One key component is rather new ground for us and it is anticipated that prototypes 1.0 and 2.0 won't suffice.  "Fail early" is the saying that applies.

Stay tuned.