Sessions

Building skills over the summer. We learned Onshape, CAD design, and FTC coding to prepare for the new season.

We're reviewing different aspects of game strategy that will impact design. Grouping the critical functions of the game into 3 buckets: intake (picking up game elements (called artifacts), launching artifacts, and chassis/wheel structure to facilitate being able to park on the bottom and/or top of the Base.

Team members started by sketching their own ideas for the robot’s design.

Each drafter presented their concept, explaining how it could work on the field.

Our discussion helped select the most promising designs to prototype next.

We reviewed all the sketches together and compared possible solutions.

Each sketch explored different ways to complete scoring and movement tasks.

We divided into groups and are working on cardboard construction of two intakes and a launcher. 

Mechanical and controls subteams worked together to turn sketches into functional prototypes.

We built early prototypes to evaluate different design ideas.

Completed prototypes showed how each mechanism could move and interact with game elements.

We compared multiple designs to identify which solutions were most effective and reliable.

Testing helped us measure performance and improve consistency.

Each test provided data and ideas to improve our final robot design.

Using tape we laid out a partial playing field, and began collecting (subjective) scoring data from the playing field. This data will be used to mathematically determine a game strategy which will partially drive our robot design.

After testing our prototypes, we used Onshape to design our robot with GoBILDA parts. Making the robot in CAD helped us see how everything fits and plan how to build it.

Using CAD helped us adjust parts, check spacing, and make sure everything would work before building the real robot.

We used our findings to design a strong frame and plan where each mechanism goes.

The Spindexer - our vertical indexing system designed to move and organize game pieces efficiently.

Mechanical and Programming subteams worked together to test the camera system and plan how driver controls would be mapped.

We developed and compared multiple drive path plans to optimize shooting, intake, and coordination with our alliance partner.

Teamwork in action: while one group built the robot, another developed and tested the code to control it.

We began testing with a partially built robot to check movement and make sure early systems worked as expected.

Pre-final version of our robot as we tested and refined key mechanisms