Busy Weekend

A TON got done at the shop this weekend, as you probably could have guessed by the gap in blog updates. First, we got a really good minibot set up and sent out our polycarbonate CAD parts to be cut. A youtube video below, we finally broke 2.5 seconds and hope the final one will be about 1.5.

In addition, we got the lift AND the arm fully assembled and mounted onto the practice robot. The claw materials should be in by Wednesday, as well as a few last gears, and we should have a fully functioning robot by Saturday. Exciting! We weighted all the components, and pretty much anything we could imagine ever going on the robot, and were still about 10 pounds underweight. It looks like this will be the first year we arent scrambling at the last minute to cut weight off. Everyone on the team has been working hard and we are all excited for competition.

Arm Work Day 1

 

Arm fabrication and assembly continued today. The sliders were assembled and the much of the channels and square tubing was cut. We hope by tomorrow to have a fully functioning arm (minus a couple of shafts). Exciting!

Milling, Milling, and more Milling

 

The last two days have been busy milling, cutting, and drilling random pieces while we wait for the major arm components to arrive from online metals. The bumper mounts have been fabricated, the tread has been cut and riveted to the wheels, the battery brackets have attached to the frame, the banebot gearboxes have been assembled, random electronics have been mounted to the bellypan, and finally some lift gearbox plates have been milled, pictured below. The next few days should be huge as more and more parts arrive. We optomistically hope to have the whole lift-arm-claw system attached and running by next Tuesday on bot the practice and the competition bot, so keep checking back for updates.

Practice Bot Drive Base Assembled

We designed the belly pan from 1/16" 6061 aluminum, cut on our newly acquired plasma cutter. Attached is a brief video I shot before my camera died. Hopefully we can get a better one tomorrow.

Today was very successful. About 100 rivets later, the frame was fully intact and we also had a battery mount in place. Team members worked on chain tensioners and bumper mounts this year as well. No more ziptie-ing the bumpers on. Below team member Hailey Brown and mentor Santosh Reddy hold up the assembly. Shaft material arrives on Wednesday and the goal is to have both robots driving by Friday. That will give the coders time to perfect the two speed transmission code and the builders to work out any kinks we have. We are excited about our progress thus far.

CAD Revealed

This is iteration 1, before we had to make some changes due to bending issues. It sure is pretty, if I do say so myself.

Minibot testing and more

Today we had our first successful minibot test!!!

It got up in about 3.2ish seconds. Every 1/100th of a second matter. Our goal, for now, is 2.2 seconds but this might even go lower as design continues. Work on the drivetrain is slow but steady. Hopefully all work, except for lathing shafts, will be done by tomorrow. Hopefully.

Next week will be busy. Due to continued issues with sheet metal fabrication, we are continuing to gradually redesign components of the robot to be made in shop. The snow, at first a huge help, is now coming back to bite us as we continue to search for professional help.

This time last week I was hopefully optimistic that we could finish the robot in 4 weeks. Now I am concerned simply about getting it done. Keep checking back for updates, this week is crucial!

First Day of Machining

Today, the WiredCats made great strides in their prototypes of the minibot. Hopefully we will have a video up tomorrow. We are tweaking with gear ratio and magnet placement, but we have made it our goal to climb the pole in less that 2.6 seconds. After we have our optimal gear ratio and magnet layout, we plan to then just work to minimize weight while maintaining structure and effectiveness.

Also, the CAD team worked to design both a new control board with some unique features for this years game and to redesign the drive to fit our new machining capabilities.


Which leads to my next point. Last week, due to backup from the snow, our bending sponsor was unable to support the team at this time. Unfortunately, this called for a major revision of many systems. Updates to follow. We are still hopeful to find a shop to help us with at least a few sheet  metal parts.

A few team members traveled over to the Machine Shop at SPSU to mill the drive train modules. Two pictures attached below. We hope to have the chassis assembled (minus gearbox) by Sunday.

CAD Complete

Today the sheet metal parts were finally sent off after a week+ of dedicated CAD work. Although probably behind our initial schedule, we hope that the extra CAD effort will allow the robot to pop together flawlessly. The FTC kits are expected tomorrow and we hope to design the perfect minibot. Our calculations show that in a perfect system we could in theory get up the pole in 3 seconds. Here is a video team 2170 posted to Youtube, similar to our planned design in terms of magnet use, but we hope to have some other tricks up our sleeve as well. Enjoy, and thanks again to team 2170. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOAo1lyAikc

Update! Week Two!

Week Two begins with ambitions running high.
Discussing the CAD of the Robot, the team split up into their respective subteams to finish their daunting task given to them at the start of the meeting.

On a media related note, the website is going heavy color scheme and pictures development. The hope is that the ideas and such will be thought of and produced afterwards as soon as possible. Because of the Snow week, the media team is a week behind schedule, due to lack of contact with others through the icy snow.

Week 2

Week 2, and its hard to believe that we have stayed on schedule. Construction is just about to begin after a week of CADing. Pictures will be uploaded soon, but for now our design is a secret :) . This week, the build team will finish up some field elements and construct minibot prototypes while the electrical wire a CAN system on the kitbot and the coders write basic line following commands. Stay tuned for more updates!

Back to work

Today we tested our new and improved double roller prototype. The plates were cut on our plasmacutter. The mechanism moves at 14 linear FPS, grabbing the tube tightly from almost any angle. Our only worry is that we will be grabbing too hard. The design looks promising. The snow, while hindering at first, has allowed us to organize out thoughts and plan carefully our design. The CAD is near completion and we have found a sheet metal sponsor. Parts will be shipped out Sunday to be cut. Hopefully in the meantime, the FTC kits will arrive, allowing us the prototype the minibot. The shop is about to get really busy.

SNOW DAY!!!

Yesterday we debated the drive train issue, power vs. maneuverability, as well as the difficulty of the build process. Eventually we decided to go with a fairly standard 6WD, for now.

Yesterday we called it quits at 7 so everyone could get home before the bad weather hit. We made morphological charts weighing the pluses and minuses of each design before dividing into prototype teams and making trying out some claw designs, pictured below.

This design expands inside the innertube. While the grip strength was powerful, you must pick up all tubes on top, making it difficult to get them from the human player.

This single bar roller grabbed the innertubes quickly and from any angle but sometimes lost grip. Once school is back in session (and right now that could be as far away as Wednesday), we will make 2nd generation prototypes and test new ideas. Not wasting these valuable days, CAD work is being done from home.

Kickoff! This years game: Logomotion!

With excitement, anticipation, and apprehension all in one day, FIRST has finally given out the game!
It's called Logomotion! The objective of the game is to score more points than the other team with your alliance members by making your robot hang up inflatable shapes (The shapes that make the logo of FIRST) onto your wall.

But here, this is a better explanation:

Planning went until 6:30 pm and will continue tomorrow from 1 PM to 6PM
Our hope is that we will come up with what type of drive, manipulator, gripper, and minirobot we want to build and specific assets that will help us score the most points.
-Sharpie

Here are some pictures from the 2009 season.

FIRST Kickoff Tomorrow

On the eve of the first kickoff, tensions are high and excitement abounds. Anyone can watch the FIRST kickoff from the NASA TV feed online. In other news, the WiredCats website is in heavy development, and the build team is at the ready. Pictures are being culled from past seasons to comprise a powerpoint on the home page.