Day 9: the faceoff aftermath

Design 3D printed ramps that fold in and out. They also finalized chassis model on CAD.



Electrical finished the board for the programming bot.
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Day 8: prototypes civil war

​The puncher prototyping team flipped the sprocket in order to ensure sizing was correct. Then they
worked to add more torque to the motor instead of tubing. This ensured the mechanism wouldgo back
further. There is currently a 10:1 ratio on the transmission and it was having problems so they changed
the positioning to lower unwanted tension.




The people working on the catapult rebuilt it in metal and with better pneumatics. They changed the amount of solonoids from 2 to 4. At the scrum near the end of the workday it was stated that the catapult had officially been through 16 iterations of design in 1 week of build season.
Because of the change in solenoids programming had to do some modifications to their program.



Finally today the shooting prototypes were analyzed against each other. They both were presented to the whole team and a pros and cons list was made for both. The prototype teams presented their work in front of  the rest of the team. A debate went on with some input from outside but mostly just from inside those prototype teams. In the end we knew we had to all acknowledge that we are all on Team 701 an as 1 unified team we need to fairly decide which design was best. We went about this by judging efficiency, comparability with other robot systems (intake and ramps), and the simplicity of the designs themselves. By the end of the debate, both designs were scored fairly equally but it was decide that the puncher would be more compatible with both the ramps and the intake. Then a vote was held and sure enough the puncher was decided for Team 701s shooter of 2018 2018 FRC Power Up Game.

Day 7: we're getting close to a prototype battle

Electrical finished wiring up their bellypan on the protobot. Then they said their goodbyes and finally the protobot now named the programming bot, moved on to programming.

The slingshot team made it their goal to make a retracting and releasing mechanical system to make it launch more efficiently. They attached surgical tubing that pulls back the sliding box structure using a 10:1 gear box and motor. They also welded chain to the sprocket in order to secure it to axle on sliding mechanism.

To get a more accurate imitation of shooting onto the scale, the catapult team built a wooden chassis to support their arm. They also had electrical help them hook up pneumatics and a quick board.

Day 6: and a catapult

Electrical made a lot of progress on the bellypan today, and will likely finish before lunch tomorrow.

Design 3D printed ramps that fold in and out to prototype how we are going to execute climbing.

Mechanical members not involved on a prototype team, started making the next step fopr the pit. They started constructing 12 by 141/4 squares for the shelve that will hold all the red mechanical part boxes.

The prototype team for the catapult tested variables to determine the optimal setup to launch the cube. They tested the pivot points and angles of different things in relation to the mechanism.

Because of their results yesterday, the slingshot/puncher prototyping team spent a lot of time discussing the design of the prototype, and worked to redesign the mechanism.They then rebuilt the general structure. They solved the binding problem by welding and riveting more stable joints.

Day 5: so we have a puncher

At this point there are clearly two shooter prototypes being made by two groups of people ranging in committee; the slingshot (also known as the puncher), and the catapult.

A crude version of the puncher was created. It was tested on the scale but to do that a member of the team supported the base of it with their legs while pulling back on the "sling" mechanism to make it shoot. When tested in this way it ended up hitting lip of scale instead of inside the plate 2/3 times. This obviously proves the mechanism needs to be tuned and adjusted greatly so it will be more self operating. 

The waterjet belly pan that was ordered, arrived today, so in the next few days electrical will be mount and hook up all the electronics. Once that is complete, we will have an operational board.

Day 4: horizontal exchange

We worked hard to discuss various options. By the end of the day we came up with new idea for the horizontal intake.





















Also, mechanical worked with the mentors and alumni to build beginning of exchange

Day 3: intakes... intakes... more intakes

The main goal of day 3 is to test run the beginnings of all the prototypes. This will
help us ensure efficiency among specific prototypes so we know which is best.
Because of these test runs, we were able to firmly decide to discontinue work on
the flywheels because it was quickly noticed the difficulty of in-taking with that
particular design.

This shooter relies on the cube being aligned perfectly, and it is prone to jam.
Because of this obstacle, we took up another prototype that we had been discussing,
a linear puncher. With a very quick mock-up one, we quickly noticed that it does
not take that much force to project the cube.

The catapult is currently made out of 1/8 lexan sheet and laser cut wood. Today it
made more progress, as that prototyping team was able to get it to shoot farther,
so it just needs to launch higher now.

The pit plumbed the sterilite tote shelf assembly to ensure strong structure. They
then riveted at the plumb. The field building alumni worked hard to build the the
switch component of the field.

Day 2: stop talking. start working

Each individual committee discussed both immediate and long term plans for build-season. Committee

heads met to discuss strategy concerning the work to be done today.

Design first worked to quickly CAD up each prototype so that mechanical could get building and
assembling.

While mechanical awaited Design to finish quick layouts of prototypes, they split up the work force of
team members into smaller teams. Then they were assigned parts of prototypes to work on. These
included vertical and horizontal intakes, the catapult, and different versions of flywheels.

          

Programming worked together to download all the firmware and programs they will need to get started for this season. They worked on simple programs to test run the prototypes. Then they split up to the different mechanical teams to test the beginnings of their prototypes.

Meanwhile the alumni and RoboVikes,that didn't have a specified job to do, worked on assembling the field components for this years game. By the end of Day 2 they had successfully built one platform, the central zone assigned to each alliance where climbing and the scale take place.

Day 1: power up for planning and prototyping

Yesterday the whats and hows were discussed. The hows were thought over, designed, presented, debated, and refined. Now those refined ideas and basic drawings must be modeled into prototypes.

The designs to be prototyped consist of:

For Robot

• Side roller intake
• Top roller intake
• Catapult
• Dual flywheel
• Outake
• Puncher
• Ramp

For Field

• scale
• switch
• platform
• exchange