Prototype Brainstorming

FIRST things first. (ba-dum-tish!) The FRC game this year, Ultimate Ascent, is similar in several ways to last year's Rebound Rumble, but trickily different in others. As in Rebound Rumble, a 15-second autonomous period, in which robots act purely on their programming and not at the direction of human drivers, starts the match. Robots score points by propelling frisbees (not basketballs) into 1-point, 2-point, or 3-point slots, each of which are respectively higher and harder to reach. Ultimate Ascent's title comes into play in the endgame, wherein robots are challenged to climb a tower with three rungs and remain hanging there long enough to score points.

On Kickoff Day, also known as "FIRSTmas" by Walter, the team elected to try a different strategy than we normally do. Instead of trying to build a jack-of-all-trades robot, we decided to specialize on the endgame and design and build a climbing robot.

Today, Walter and Mike brought four prototype concepts before the team to vote on. The choices included: a "side hook" plan, in which the robot grasps the rung of the tower and hoists itself up; a "corner hook" plan, in which the robot would grab onto the corner of the tower and climb up diagonally; a "tow truck" plan, in which the robot would pull itself up with a winch; and an "inchworm" plan, in which an extremely complex robot would yank itself up the tower, flipping over repeatedly in an inchworm-like movement.

With each team member voting for a plan A and B, we ultimately elected to build prototypes for both the "side hook" and "corner hook" plans, and to decide from there which to utilize in our final robot.

Progress is Progress

25% of our allotted build time has evaporated, and we have built a bit less than 25% of our robot. We'd better get cracking if we want to build a great robot like we know we can.

Regardless, we are still making progress. Dan's teaching Henry some programming, and in the meantime he's learned how to work with Kinect. Marquel and Mr. Dodson found some good motors for use in our robot. Meanwhile, I realized that if we're going to apply for the Chairman's Award, we have less than a month before the due date. Therefore, Captain Grace says we're not likely to enter. But then what am I supposed to write for the team?

The build team has created another prototype, our best yet. It is similar to a conveyor belt in that it slides the basketballs along by spinning two timing belts along and propelling them along the prototype's length. It really is quite impressive!

Also, we have ascertained that our old robot moves and stuff. You know you're on a quality FRC team when you've got to check that the robot moves and stuff! XD

The Magical Multimeter

Today, we learned how to work the multimeter, an instrument that allows us to measure the voltage of any AC/DC circuit. This will be invaluable when we are constructing our actual robot and measuring its wiring.

Mr. Dodson has also pointed out that the screws we were using on our frame are square-ended. Obviously, that won't work with many holes, and the inspectors frown on them. So we'd better remove those.

We've refined our original prototype, curling the brush/spike/protrusions to give them extra strength. After our bucket/paint-roller failure, it's heartening to have a prototype that works quite well! Walter and company are constructing a new prototype that will hopefully do the intended job of the bucket/paint-roller prototype, which is shooting the basketballs through compressing them between rolling objects (in this case, robot wheels).

Paint Rolling Prototype

Prototyping has begun! As I type this, Walter is sawing off the handle of a paint roller so we can use it to mimic an important part of our robot: the brushes that will scoop basketballs into its apparatus, where they will travel up belts and be inserted into our cannon.

Meanwhile, Mike has developed the motions and gestures we'll use for the TeleOp section, including moves from tae bo, I'm a Little Teapot, and disco. The task of translating this so the robot can understand what it should be doing falls to Dan and Henry. Have fun, guys! :D

Brainstorming

Grace has already explained the core concepts of Rebound Rumble. I'll restate the key objective: we basically need to make a robot that can play basketball.

There have been several possible builds already suggested. The most widely accepted is to use a robot with a ball cannon, which balls are moved to by a turning wheel, rather like a waterwheel but without any water. Other suggestions include a pneumatic cannon, a trebuchet, and a Dalek. The first suggestion is, of course, the most feasible and probable.

But a Dalek-shaped robot would still be all kinds of awesome. XD