2016-2017 Robot

Tags: mechanical and innovate
Personhours: 28
2016-2017 Robot By Ethan, Omar, Jayesh, Evan, Tycho, and Max

Task: To build the robot for the 2016-2017 season

As much as we love our robot from last season, Geb, we need a robot that is better able to fit the season's challenges. Our needs for this year are:

  • Manuverable and fast
  • Able to play defensively
  • Can support attachments such as an intake system
For manuverability, we decided to use mecanum wheels.

The cool thing about these wheels is that they enable you to strafe side to side, instead of turning. However, they do require different coding than our normal wheels.


To play defensively against other robots, our robot must be decently sized without falling into the same trap of last year, where are robot barely fit into the sizing limits, and in one tournament, did not at all. As well, it must be heavy enough to not be pushed out of the way by other robots, especially due to our strategy this year (blog post on that later).

Finally, our robot must support attachments. Currently, we are considering a launcher, and intake system, a circulation system, and a yoga ball-lifter. And, to accommodate all of these attachments, our basic frame is a re-enforced square frame.

Experimenting with a Mecanum wheel chassis! #ftcrobotics #omgrobots

A photo posted by Iron Reign Robotics FTC (@team6832) on


However, we are still experiencing problems, such as our chain falling off due to the supports moving toward each other. As well, we probably need to find a better place to put our motor controller and battery.

Reflections

We need to get our robot effectively finished within the next month if we are to go to the Arkansas tournament. As well, we need to add supports to our robot to stop the chain issue. Within the next two weeks, we should have made one or two attachments.

Date | October 15, 2016