kaushiktadepalli

Week 0 Scrimmage Preparations: As we continued to work towards the Spartan Week 0 event, we finalized the list of our competition members in both the pit team and strategy. We made some final touches and adjustments to have a competitive robot to field at the event. The week leading up to the event, we allowed the software team to make some major improvements to the robots functions while our new driver and drive coach got prepared. Intake / Store Testing: Throughout the preparations for week zero we made minor tweaks to the intake and store subsystem, our testing revealed some performance issues which need to be fixed. We found that many of the balls would shoot out of the top of the hopper rather than going into the dye rotor (spindexer), so we added a net to the extending portion of the hopper.  Shooter Testing: Over the past two weeks of FRC, our team has had several successes and roadblocks. Our turret now aims exceptionally well using a phase shift combined with the robot velocity. It’s been smoothed with a linear filter for limiting jitter. Our shooter and hood are currently operating well, and have a strong outtake speed, looking forward to seeing how it works at [...]

Convergence: Build Week 5 & 6, which spans work days 21 to 30 for our team, is the time of convergence. The drivetrain and Control System Board (CSB) were completed by Work Day 12. The software groups worked on code to validate what would be required for each of their respective subsystems. The various CAD groups turned prototypes into real subsystems, going through many preliminary design reviews (PDRs), iterations, and then final critical design reviews (CDRs). The Spindexer (dye-rotor), floor, and racetrack required some extra time to finalize their designs. During this time, the manufacturing group started to manufacture subsystems that cleared their CDR phase, our 3D printers have been working overtime as well. Subsystems assembly teams have been very busy. Our three robot driver candidates continued to practice with our prior-season robots to become familiar with optimal drive paths within the Alliance and Neutral zones, traversing the bump, and going under the trench. Intake and Store: Assembly work was completed on the intake and store. The Control Systems team completed all the wiring. We moved the robot to the field to validate the end to end operation by running several tests. Our robot driver was able to test acquisition of game pieces running at various speeds while the intake and store hardware [...]

Prototyping Climb Decision: Telescoping arm - After weight and packaging considerations by the team at large, we made a DVC decision to redistribute the workforce of the windmill climb to the telescoping climb. The windmill design added extra structure and instability, which increased weight and made integration more difficult. The telescoping climb offered a more compact and straightforward solution that fit better with the rest of the robot. Refocusing the workforce allowed the team to improve reliability and spend more time testing and refining the final climb system.   Intake & Store: This week, we have been finalizing the wire management of the intake motor, as well as the mounting for the back wall of the hopper. We decided to use 3M Dual Lock to attach the back wall to the side walls, so it’s easier to access the battery and service other mechanisms above the drivetrain. We also decided to bend the back wall around our climb rather than go around it to make it easier to attach and detach. Spindexer: The CAD and design of the dye rotor were adjusted throughout the week. We were able to make a lot of progress CAD-wise, and we began manufacturing the hex shaft and [...]

At the start of build week three, our Decision Voting Committee (DVC) made some important decisions regarding what mechanism had conceptually demonstrated the ability from a hardware and software point of view to support our functional requirements & strategy, and what mechanism would be given an additional week of prototyping time. Our Intake and Store, Spindexer, and Turreted Shooter were approved for our competition robot. Our two climb prototypes were given another week to finalize their prototypes. Intake & Store: Over the past week, our team has been completing the intake CAD. We decided to do a linear intake with an extendable hopper on top of it, so it can store more balls. For this design, we made the hopper extend horizontally while the intaking mechanism extends at an angle, allowing us to have a higher capacity while still fitting under the trench, even when the intake is stowed. We are now finalizing our mounting system, which will allow our manufacturing team to get to work. Spindexer: With the decision to move forward with the spindexer our cadders started working on the CAD for a more complete design based off of our prototype to be integrated with other subsystems. We are taking inspiration from the 111 [...]

This offseason, we decided to build a robot to play a modified version of the 2020 FRC game, Infinite Recharge. We wanted to get more experience building robust linkage intakes and have a chance for the programming team to tune an adjustable-hood ball shooter. The robot’s subsystems (intake and shooter) were primarily designed by first and second-year students, with minimal input and guidance from the upperclassmen, and were designed to be mounted on our new MK5n swerve drivetrain, with a redesigned control system board, and a new “waffle” mounting plate system that was lead by upperclassmen. The goal is to use these “waffle” mounting plates as a standard subsystem interface to improve serviceability no matter the subsystem. You can check out the MK5n Drivetrain blog here.  We’re proud of the work that they were able to accomplish and believe that this training has better prepared the entire team for the upcoming build season and competition season. Partially inspired by 1678’s 2022 and 2020 robots - “Steal from the Best, Invent the Rest”, we de-scoped the game and decided to focus on what would teach us the most while being able to be built in the least amount of time. For example, we decided to only store one [...]

With the introduction of the new SDS MK5n swerve modules, we decided to build a 26.5 x 26.5 (our team’s preferred frame perimeter) drivetrain during the fall season. We wanted to make sure there would be no surprises during the build season, and we also wanted the opportunity to work on a new layout of upside-down belly (brain) pan. We spent a lot of time and energy planning out the layout of all our control system components on the brain pan. We worked out how the wires would route inside the brain pan and how to implement strain relief on key connections. We also planned out the CAN bus, and decided to implement two CANivores to isolate the drivetrain devices and the subsystem devices. We will also be using jacketed CAN wire whenever possible, black for drivetrain, grey for all sub systems above the drivetrain, we believe different jacket colors will help with serviceability and troubleshooting. We decided to use Refire quick connect adapters (Anderson and Molex SL connector option) on our Krakens to simplify wiring, improve serviceability and troubleshooting. This also allows us to implement direct runs on the CAN bus, reducing the number of connections, which typically are points of failure. The goal is also to isolate and keep all drivetrain power, [...]