Week One (1/9/11 - 1/15/11)

Brainstorming and prototyping dominated our first week. A group of students and mentors worked on prototyping a telescoping elevator mechanism that would lift logo pieces. In their design, a system of ropes and pulleys extends a three-stage telescoping tower. They built the design out of wood, nylon rope, and duct tape. The team:



Fully extended (in the image on the right), the mechanism was around 12 feet tall, high enough to score on the top row. To lessen the amount of tension on the ropes needed to lift the elevator, the team strategically connected surgical tubing between stages.

Other students looked at the stability of a tall arm structure. Since Team 20 plans on using a crab drive again this year, they took last year's crab drive chassis, added an 11-foot metal pole to simulate an arm, and attached a 6-pound weight on top to simulate a gripper. They turned the robot on and drove it around, testing to see whether the robot remains stable during turns, sharp accelerations, and sudden stops. The configuration pictured to the left seemed fairly stable. The robot did not tilt or wobble during maneuvers.

Here, a student studies the 2005 robot, which used an elevator mechanism similar to the one we are considering now.





Students and mentors also considered end effector design: how are we going to pick up inner tubes? A vacuum was one idea. Several members tried picking up logo pieces using a shop vac.

To increase suction, they scrapped together an end nozzle for the vacuum out of water bottles, duct tape, and airtight seal material. This design fit the tubes more snugly.





The CAD team was working hard to create models of the field and the various prototype ideas.





The animation group recieved their new challenge: "Change Their World". This year, they have to give an alien race a new technology that will improve their lives. Based on their wheel theme, they are already setting up a storyboard and creating scenes and characters.





Lastly, we recieved a visit from Team 1665, from Hudson, NY! They came to observe our build season, and to learn some programming tips.

Saturday, 1/8/11 - Kickoff Day

A half foot of snow did not stop Team 20 members from gathering at NorthEast Controls to watch the 2011 FRC kickoff. We were introduced to the new game: Logomotion! Our robot must pick up inflated square, circle and triangle inner tubes, and hang them on a wall in the shape of the FIRST logo. In addition, we get a hefty bonus for detaching a "mini-bot" off our main robot and getting the mini-bot to climb a pole. A video summary of the game:



Afterwards, Team 20 split into groups to read and understand the rules. We then brainstormed possible strategies. Immediately, we realized that our robot must repeatedly traverse the field in order to pick up and hang inner tubes. Could we have a specialized "inner tube ferry" robot just to do this? Or, maybe our robot can throw the inner tubes across the field. The human player may be able to do the same thing.

We also found that the mini-bots were very valuable and can swing many games. This is not an endgame we want to miss out on.

Then, we focused on a crucial early question: what must our robot do? We came up with a very traditional Team 20 answer: everything. We need to move quickly and with agility across the field; pick up inner tubes, both off the ground and from the human player, with ease; drop them off quickly on all three levels of pegs; and have an awesome mini-bot, including a strong allignment system.

Season Diary:

Championships
Connecticut Regional
Granite State Regional
Week 6 (Tech Valley Exhibition)
Week 5
Week 4
Week 2
Week 1 (Kickoff)