Iron Claw Editor

This week, we have made a consensus on the overall design of our robot, consisting of a four-wheel mecanum drive train, v-block hatch intake, and mecanum rolly grabber intake for cargo. The v-blocks and a tray for cargo are planned to be mounted on an elevator to bring the game pieces to be deposited at different heights. We decided to go with a mecanum drive train rather than our usual west coast drive because it helps with precise alignment on the rocket and cargo bay. With the confirmation of design came the beginning of fabrication, with students working diligently in the metal shop to make drive rails for the drivetrain. We were able to begin working on the drivetrain fairly quickly, as we used a parametrically CAD-ed chassis made during the offseason to save valuable work time. Although the final robot CAD is not done, we have made progress in fully designing the individual mechanisms and planning how they fit together. We are especially emphasizing discussion and design reviews in order to ultimately have a better product. Once our programmers were familiarized with our mechanisms and new code structure, the delegation of tasks began, with small groups of 2-3 people being assigned a subsystem to program. To organize the code, the programming [...]

Our fourth build season began on Saturday, January 5th. Throughout the week, we have been familiarizing ourselves with the 2019 FRC game, DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE. On Kickoff day, our members met up at 6:40 AM to attend the local FRC Kickoff event at San Jose State University–not too fun if you’ve been sleeping in all break. Later, after getting the team together and having social time over brunch (thanks Brian, we love your tacos!), we delved into the game further. Deep Space involves placing cargo (bouncy kickballs) and hatch panels (polycarbonate disks) into holes on two “rockets” and a “cargo ship.” We noticed that the ball’s movement is unpredictable and that both game pieces require precise maneuvering. Compared to last season, scoring points will be more difficult and time-consuming. There are many viable approaches for scoring points in this year’s game, so we prototyped mechanisms for multiple strategies before deciding on one. For the next few days, we brainstormed, prototyped mechanisms, and experimented with a mecanum drive train. For both hatch panels and cargo, we made an intake prototype with v-block clamps, modeled after v-block vices used in manufacturing to hold circular objects. The mechanism clamped both game pieces well, but it had trouble ensuring that cargo rolls [...]