Spectrum is back for our 12th build blog. Our robot this year will be named “X-Ray 2023”
2023 Spectrum Season Resources
OnShape: 2023cad.spectrum3847.org
Github: 2023code.spectrum3847.org
Photo\Video Library: 2023photos.spectrum3847.org
Design Slides: 2023slides.spectrum3847.org
2022 Robot Rules Overview
With many of the robot rules now evergreen, we did a presentation on the rules ahead of the kickoff to give our students a good understanding of the basic rules. This may be a good thing to have your team listen to before Saturday.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-DoTdu5wc
OnShape Training
We updated and added to our Design Training Slides. We haven’t gotten a chance to record videos for these, but the slides should be helpful.
D3.1 OnShape FRC Robot Organization - 2023: Slides
Updated our recommend process to use reference cubes (similar to 1678 and others)
Added Variable Library Details
D3.5 Part Design Process - Slides
It goes over the process of designing a part for our robot and what should be thought about and done in the design.
D3.6 FeatureScripts - Slides
Links and explains many of the featurescripts that FRC teams can use to speed up their CADing
System Organization
Spectrum has a relatively flat organizational structure. We don’t have any year-round captains or specifically assigned subteams, etc. During the season, we have system leads for hardware and software. We try to limit it to 5 systems, with each of these systems normally led by 1 or 2 students. Here is how the breakdown normally works.
Hardware
Swerve/Frame/Bumpers/Controls
Game piece mechanism 1 (usually intake)
Game piece mechanism 2 (was ball path in 2022)
Game piece mechanism 3 (was launcher in 2022)
End Game
Software
Swerve/Drive Tuning
Autonomous/Path planning
Vision
Game Pieces Mechanisms
End Game (likely other tasks)
Software Organization Update for 2023
One of our larger projects this fall was creating a plan to restructure our software to make it easier for more members to be involved in software development.
The main idea was to make everything a system (subsystem), so auton, pilotGamepad, operatorGamepad, vision, etc., are all considered systems in our structure. Each of the systems has its own folder, its own config class for constants, and its own commands class (and possibly a folder for full command classes). We attempted to split more things out of the default subsystem class so they can be updated and version controlled separately. An example of this is having a separate folder for trajectories/path planning outside of auton or swerve.
Some other things that have changed or been added
Created SpectrumLib in its own GitHub library and include it in our project using jitpack.
LED Animation system using the WPILib FPGA LED driver
Incorporating AdvantageKit
Template Mechanism classes for rollers (intakes, shooters), angle mechanisms (arms), and linear mechanisms (elevators)
2023 Software Changes Notes these aren’t all fully implemented or detailed here, but this is where we were keeping notes as we went through the process of overhauling our code structure this fall.
Our Flash-2023 Repo is the code for our swerve test platform that uses the new structure. So far, it has been working well, but without a full season, we don’t know what bugs will turn up due to these changes.
3D Printed Timing Belts for Prototypes
We experimented with 3d printing 5mm HTD timing belts.
CAD files
OnShape link to the belt generator we are using to make our belt models: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0b9fe420322fe41da56645bf/w/76fedf9bfb5b78e06920c37c/e/7f7fe2c94f4c984c8a5860c6
We need to be able to tune the geometry of the belt to allow us to print it correctly and work well with our slicer settings (details below)
Materials
TPU 95A: This material was too elastic and stretched too much.
PCTPE: This is one of the most promising materials. It’s a nylon and TPU copolymer. It’s flexible but not very elastic. Belts made with this at the correct size could slip due to stretch, but we believe there may be a way to print belts slightly undersized that will stretch to the correct size.
TPU-CF: TPU with chopped carbon fiber this material also worked very well.
Slicer Settings
This was the important part of making timing belts that worked the way we wanted.
The main principle is getting each layer to only be complete loops of filament. In our case, this is 4 total perimeters of 0.6mm thick extrusions. You can adjust the model to help get the correct setup.
The top and bottom solid layers are turned off.
Avoid Crossing perimeters is turned on to limit stringing
The seam position is set to random to avoid a misshapen tooth where the seam may be.
This does leave a small hole in the belt, but that didn’t seem to cause a problem with our tests.
Results and Recommendations
We printed two belts for our 2022 launcher hood and were able to launch balls well with the printed belts. They do feel looser than the stock-reinforced belts.
At the current stage, we are confident we could print a belt for a prototype or test, but we wouldn’t want to use a printed belt on a competition robot in any critical area.
The next step is to alter the geometry so that we can easily print a belt with a slightly smaller diameter than a standard belt but with a similar tooth size so that we can account for the stretch built into the printed materials.
Fall Elevator Design
We also designed an elevator during the fall, like many many teams. Ours wasn’t designed specifically to be a model of how we could build a competition elevator in 2023 if needed. It was designed to experiment with a few different elevator ideas and be a useful training tool for robot assembly.
Kickoff
Priority List
We completed our initial priority list of tasks for the 2023 game.
Cones from the shelf or the floor.
From what we have seen, we are currently a lot lower ground pick of cones than many other teams. Here are a few reasons that we discussed today.
The cones can’t easily roll much further than the wall when dropped onto the floor from the loading stations, so you don’t have much of a cycle distance advantage over taking it off of the shelf.
Intaking the cones from the various orientations and positions against the walls will be very difficult. We don’t believe it will be faster than loading from the known positions on the shelf, especially with the possibility of vision-guided aiming at the loading station.
The Human Player shelf is just a bit higher than the middle cone node, so you don’t need to raise or lower it to be able to place it on the midsection. And for the top, you only have to raise it about a foot and extend it about a foot more than the mid. Much easier than also needing to reach the floor with your cone mechanism.
You can have a specific cube(ball) intake on the ground level and don’t have to potentially compromise your robot's ability to intake cubes(balls) also to pick up cones rapidly.
15 scoring locations out of 27 can be cubes which is more than half.
Each alliance has 27 cones, so if you drop one, you can always return and get another to fill the 12 required spots.
Any dropped cones while attempting to score on a mid or top row will land in the bottom row. If you are strategic about when you score the bottom row, your mistakes may still count for points.
Potential Alliances composition at Districts and Worlds
Cube Intake and Launching Prototype
Robot Inspiration
33 in 2012 - Stinger and other 2012 team’s bridge balance aids
1678 in 2019 - Double robot lift for the end game (wouldn’t need to climb)
148 - 2011 - 4 Bar Arm - Arms are potentially useful in this game
1684 - 2019 - Separate intake from elevator scoring mechanism. Doing this for the cubes(balls) will give you a wider intake for picking up the cubes(balls) from the floor.
Tilted/Angled Elevators from 2018 - 2056, 1731, and a few other teams had slightly tilted elevators that let them reach out of the frame while extending up.
Game Comparisons
Logomotion - 2011 - tic tac toe near side
Driver training will be similar.
Rebound Rumble - 2012 - End Game
Balancing on the bridge
Steamworks - 2017 - Cycles and non-symmetric field
Autonomous and cycles will be different depending on which alliance you are.
DDSPBTBC - 2019 - Multi-Game Piece
Cubes roll like cargo, and cones behave like hatch panels.
Power Play (FTC) - 2022
Picking up Cones
Day 2
We began making some of our field elements and talking more about possible designs.
Robot Testing
What happens when a 2022 robot runs into a cube? Watch till the end
Squishing the cone test
Scoring the cube with Infrared
8515 can score the cube as well
Example Sketch
Robot Inspiration
1986 - 2012: Twin Tucking Tabs and Stingers
6800 - 2022: Arm on an elevator
1619 - 2018: Full-width cube intake
Day 3: Cone Intake, robot sketch, and game manual notes
Pinch Roller Cone Intake
One of our students devised an elegant solution for a game object mechanism that deals with both balls and cones. The circles are tubes, and it intakes cones from the top. Here is a very early prototype:
Elevator + Slider
This is one of our favorite sketches of a robot that can reach the top cone-scoring location and do most of the top items on our priority list.
The Slanted Elevator allows you to reach further as you raise the carriage.
The slider lets you extend towards the mid and top rows.
We use the length of the cone to reduce the extension needed to reach the top cone locations.
The cone pinch intake doubles as a ball intake
A flywheel/roller would let us launch balls to score them quickly in auton.
New things in the manual
District points for playoffs are official, according to the manual.
The 5th/6th and 7th/8th placed alliances don’t receive any Advancement Points
The points for each team are awarded based on the percentage of your alliance’s match wins that your team played in. So for an alliance without a backup robot, everyone gets 100% of the ALLIANCE Advancement Points.
If a backup robot were to play 1 of 4 match wins for the alliance, they would receive 25% of the Advancement Points, and the team they replaced for that match would receive 75% of the Advancement Points.
Playoff tiebreakers are only Tech Fouls and not all fouls
This is a good improvement.
New Champs Division Names
We believe the Milstein division is honoring César Milstein, and the Johnson division is honoring Katherine Johnson, but we haven’t seen an announcement yet.
R304 Blue Box
It’s now explicitly written that “running a 3D printer or other automated manufacturing processes overnight producing ROBOT parts” is against the rules.
Day 4: Ground cone intake & cones on the substations
Updated Favorite Sketch:
Today’s update allows us to lower the cone pinch intake to the floor.
Our starting configuration would have the elevator raised slightly to allow us to fully retract the slider.
With this we will likely need more extension than a single-stage elevator can provide, but we are still working on the sketches. A two-stage elevator is easy enough for us to build.
A two-stage elevator will also let us have a lower starting height and lower CG when fully retracted, so there are additional benefits for the added complexity.
Cones on the Single Substation:
We played around with multiple ways to stage the cone on the single substation so it is stationary. This allows a robot to intake it without waiting for the HP to drop it.
This specific setup is likely not repeatable but using a third cone with the cone flange past the rear lip of the ramp or by using the chute door to stop the rear cone from sliding should work well.
Cone Orientation on the Double Substation Shelf
It appears possible to place the cones sideways on the shelf in the double substation. This allows robots that can intake cones in this orientation to use the shelf instead of intaking from the floor. This orientation also lowers the tip of the cone so a robot doesn’t have to extend as high to pinch it. It may be possible to place the cone in a way that allows the tip to hang over the edge of the shelf as well.
Robot Inspiration:
1323 - 2019: Carbon Fiber Linear Slider + Bearings
Day 5: Idea Refinement, Pincher and Launcher prototype.
It’ll be a short one today!
## Idea Refinement
Today we refined our current design, including working out most of the 2d geometry before moving on to 3d geometry. We will be building an Alpha Robot this weekend to prove our current theories and to be able to rapidly iterate on game-piece manipulator prototypes with the strictness of a robot chassis. It will also allow our controls team to have a robot to test control ideas with.
A significant change to our design is that the elevator is now in 2 stages. This allows us to keep our CG lower overall and extend higher. Here is the sketch now; it might be more confusing than helpful at this point, but I’m willing to answer any questions you might have
## Pincher and Launcher prototype
We also had an opportunity to test out a joint Pincher/ Cube intake/launcher prototype. Here is a video.
Robot Inspiration: 2337 2022 (Elevator Mounting)
Day 6: Alpha CAD started
We have decided to follow the 1678 model of building an alpha robot. We quickly realized while testing intake prototypes that we will likely need to bolt them onto an elevator and slider to be able to fully tune them to the needed configuration and if we are going to do that we should just bolt it all to a chassis.
Alpha will be built on top of the swerve chassis from our 2022 practice robot. It will give us a chance to figure out many of the potential problems in our design and start programming and driver practice.
Five Mechanical Systems
Drive Train, Controls, Bumpers: MK4i 24.5” x 27.5”
Elevator: TheThriftyBot blocks for Alpha, likely continuous with a timing belt, Falcon+MAXplanetary
Slider: Basically a sideways elevator, Falcon+MAXplanetary
Intake: Pinch Roller + Falcon+Belts
Launcher: Top spin or no spin launcher (still testing): Falcon+Belts
Day 7: 4-Bar
Switching to 4-bar from Slider
We are switching system 3 from a linear slider to a 4-bar linkage. This allows us to use our full elevator extension for raising the intake and use the 4 bar to lower the intake to the ground for pinching cones and picking up cubes over the bumper. This system configuration won’t allow us to crash the intake into the robot like the elevator+slider setup would. This should give us more reach and extension than our previous configuration.
In this sketch, the circles represent three of the intake’s positions. The lowest setting is for intaking cones from the floor, the middle for intaking cubes, and the highest for its stowed position. The orange lines are the bars in the fully extended position.
Continuous Timing Belt Elevator
We worked on one of the possible ways we will power our elevator- by using a continuous timing belt to drive up and down the elevator. This has some advantages. We only have to tension one thing instead of the two a cascade setup would require. When we are scoring low and mid, we will only raise our carriage, which should keep the CG slightly lower.
Robot Inspiration
Nick Aarestad’s Linkage Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAC_seQHJY
2910-2018: Timing Belt Path on the Elevator
Day 8: Elevator and Controls
Elevator go brrr (doesn’t go brrr yet).
Today we made a lot of progress on manufacturing alpha. We made an elevator using 2x1 REV MAXTube and the Thrifty Bot bearing blocks. Unfortunately, the pattern doesn’t match up to the MAXTube, so we had to match drill into it. Our Final version might use the West Coast Elevator bearing blocks because they match up to the MAXTube. Here is a picture of our progress:
Controls
Our Apriltags came in today, and we got them on the acrylic backing. Gamma Ray 2021 was upgraded to 2023 Code and Firmware to help start getting our code base for X-Ray 2023.
Day 9: Alpha Elevator Assembly
Today we focused on mounting the Elevator onto the Alpha Chasis. A couple of unique things about it are the way we mount the crossbar and A-frame. Here is the concept pioneered by the EngiNERDs in 2022. The tube extends thru the plate providing more strength and keeping the end of the tube open so it’s easy to bolt/nut into and you can remove debris.
We also built and rigged the elevator.
The ratcheting wrench allows for the elevator to be easily tensioned. Using a wrench to provide ratcheting tension has been used by many teams including 125 in 2018.
FIRST Choice Round 2 Priority Lists Lock Monday, Jan 16th
Make sure your team has completed their FIRST Choice Priority lists for round 2. Multiple items were added to the site and all teams were given more credits to use.
Robot Inspiration
1678-2022: 4-bar linkage, bushing, chain mounts, etc
Day 10 & 11: Design Recap
Every Tuesday we hold our design recaps
Elevator Test Video
Day 12: Alpha Elevator Explained
Our Alpha elevator uses a timing belt and idler pulleys as its motion system. It’s designed around the 0.5” hole spacing on the REV Maxtube and uses the REV Max tube plugs to allow us to bolt the idlers into the rail.
The main drive pulley is a 32 HTD 5mm hex pulley with a TheThrifityBot 3D print ½” hex insert in it.
The belt for the elevator has to be designed so that each of the vertical run is perfectly vertical, any angle in those runs will cause the belt path to change total distance as the elevator moves up and down thru its motion.
To allow these to be vertical paths we are 3D printing our own idler pulleys that are based on the width of the 5mm timing belt and the ½” hole spacing.
The 3D printed idlers are explained here
Tube Spacer Link: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/129/190/9390N12 We sanded these and then cut them to length on our lathe.
These spacers may also work for this purpose but we haven’t tried them yet - https://www.mcmaster.com/93441A425/
STLs and STEP files for the pulleys can be found here: https://www.printables.com/model/373552-spectrum-3847-5mm-htd-elevator-idler-pulleys
For Alpha, we are using 3D printed tube plugs with the ½” OD tube spacer and 3” long 10-32 bolts so they are supported through more of the tube and can’t bend as easily. We haven’t been able to test the shoulder bolt solution with the aluminum tube plugs yet as we are still waiting on that order to arrive. We will decide if we want to use the long bolts with tube spacers or the shoulder bolts in the coming weeks.
3D printed Idler pulleys for 5mm belts with ½” hole spacing.
The belt is tensioned by mounting one end of the belt to a hex shaft that is spinning in a ½” ratcheting wrench (you can also do this with a ⅜” wrench and ⅜” hex shaft). So if we need to add tension you just turn the shaft a few clicks tighter.
The other end of the belt is secured to the elevator using a laser-cut polycarb bracket and zip ties.
We are currently using TheThrifityBot Constant Force spring and mount from the TTB Elevator Kit but we will likely move to a custom design for our competition robot.
The side bearing blocks on the Alpha Robot are the TTB Bearing Block Kit and for our competition robot, we are planning to use WCP Inline Clamping blocks since their hole patterns line up with the REV tube and tube plugs.
Day 13 & 14: It’s Always a Launching Game
Launching:
Today we experimented a bit with launching cubes and made some progress. There is still a lot of work to be done, and we are still changing all the spacing to see how the cube reacts.
Cone Intake:
We found that softer rollers seem to grip onto the cones better. We can intake cones at really aggressive angles. More refinement is still needed.
Day 15 & 16
Cone Intake Testing
We are pretty happy with the test version of the cone intake. It’s able to pick up tipped-over cones that have their tip ahead of the flange and the flange within the width of the intake.
When at the right height it can pick up standing-up cones as well.
Cube Intake Testing
We don’t have the internal structure fully developed so the cube doesn’t like staying in but when we get the intake to the right height it pulls cubes in very quickly.
Basic Charge Station Test
We are still building part of the station but got enough built to see if Alpha could drive up
This is using unmodified SDS MK4i modules in the standard low 2x1 mounting configuration.
Day 17 & 18: Week 3 Design Recap
Drive over the cable bump video
Drive up the charge station video
Day 19: Elevator Rails and intake testing
Intake Testing
We had some of our best intake tests today. One of the key points in an interactive design cycle is when you begin to understand what can be removed not just what can be added to allow the system to keep working but to make it simpler and more robust.
Yesterday Alpha’s intake had 3” compliant wheels on the top roller and launcher. Today we swapped those for 2” polycarb and silicone rubber (these are the hood rollers from our 2022 practice robot).
This test setup worked very well and allows us to build the intake lighter, simpler, and make it less expensive. This is just today’s version of the intake, we expect it will change many times over the season and probably before next week but it’s at a good progress point.
The current intake can
Intake cubes from the floor in the full down position.
Intake tipped-over cones from the floor when the nose is slightly pointed at the intake and the flange is inside the width of the intake. We estimate we have around 150 degrees of intake range on the cone. With training, we believe this should be good enough for our pilot to use this as an efficient loading option from the loading zone.
Intake standing cones if the intake/four bar are set to the correct height. The current intake is pretty height sensitive to standing cones. We need to be within in about a ¾” height window for it to intake well. This should be good enough for us to intake cones from the Human player shelf.
Things to experiment with
Intake from the single substation?
Improve storage geometry to make sure the cone tip always goes in the intake so we aren’t holding cones tilted up.
Ensure our grip on the cones is firm enough so we never drop a game piece.
Improve scoring geometry on high and mid posts.
Intake Standing and Tipped Over Cone
Intake Cube
1/25/2023 Intake Specs
Lower roller is just 1/2" hex with silicone tube floated on top.
Top roller is a 2" polycarb with silicone tube floated on it around it (actually, it's just our practice bot hood roller from last season).
Gap between the roller surfaces is around 4.75" in these tests and roller C-C is at a 73° angle from the floor.
Elevator Progress
We cut all of our elevator rails for the practice robot and competition robot. We also began laser cutting some of the additional parts.
WCP Inline Clamping bearing blocks are being powder coated, as are The Thrify Bot Elevator Gussets we will be using on the elevators.
Day 20-22: Intake and Practice bot
Intake
We experimented more with the intake these past two days. We have added a second roller to the bottom to better guide both the cone and cube into the correct position for transporting across the field. This lets us pull the nose cone up more and stops the cone from diving down and being held in an incorrect position for scoring. Other experiments can be seen in the photo gallery including a hard wooden floor that helped guide the nose but reduced the floor cone intake abilities.
Practice Bot
Practice and Competition bot; drive and elevator MAXtube rails were powder coated. We started assembling the practice bot elevator.
Day 23-24: Launcher go brr
* *Exceptions apply, see terms of service for details
Launcher
We did more testing on our launcher by replacing the launcher motor with a 12:18 gearbox with a Falcon 500. We also switched the 2” silicone rollers for 3” compliant wheels. Here are 2 videos about how that went:
Practice bot swerve
We have been refurbishing out 2022 Comp bot swerve modules for our practice bot this year. It’s a really slow process and takes around 3 hours per module. 2 are done, and the rest will be done through the week. This is what our drivetrain for the practice bot looks like right now.
Day 25: Design Recap
Day 26: Practice Robot Progress
Our practice robot is coming together quickly. We had cut and powder coated all the rails. We are powder coating practice parts for two reasons, one we started competing with our practice robot more at off-seasons so it’s nice for it to look good, and it lets us choose the best coated parts for our competition robot.
Our competition robot should be assembled pretty quickly behind this one, we already have all the rails cut and powder coated and the swerve modules assembled.
Progress will begin on getting the Four Bar components mounted on to practice robot, and then we will need to manufacture our V1 competition intake and launcher.
Launcher Progress
Changed all intake/launcher motors to Falcons, still running open loop and manual aiming.
More test videos where it misses are in the gallery
Day 32: Design Recap
Day 39: Design Recap
Floating Intake Rubber Videos
Setup and Explanation
Video of floating the rubber on to the polycarb tube.
Day 53: X-Ray and Autons
X-Ray update X-Ray has been fully assembled, wired, and can drive. We are very happy with how it looks. It did have some issues yesterday. 3 cube and balance sequence.Autonomous
Event Recap: Waco District 2023
Finalists, Impact award, Deans list semi-finalist This Weekend Spectrum competed at the Waco District Event. We would first like to thank our alliance partners: 6672 Fusion Core and 5503 Smithville Tigertrons as well as congratulate the winning alliance of 624, 2881, and 8088. On top of having a successful event with the robot, we also were honored to receive the FIRST Impact Award and one of our team members was selected to move on to compete to be a Dean’s List Finalist at our District Championship. Failure: Carriage derailment: our carriage twisted in place. This was a problem we saw once on our practice robot, we had already replaced the thin wall rev max tube with a thicker wall max tube and added 1/16” spacers behind our WCP bearing blocks but that wasn’t enough to prevent it from happening during the event. Fix: We cut some extra extrusion we brought and made the carriage 9” tall, 3” taller than it was before. We were able to perform this fix between matches. This wasn’t a planned upgrade but a solution we developed at the event. Because of our continuous elevator, the fix didn’t require any adjustments to our setpoints or limit us in any way as we had about 6” extra in our first stage that we weren’t using to score top cones. Failure: Cable carrier snapping Failure: Camer mount bent. We believe this happened because of the cable carrier problem above, when the cable carrier got caught it bent the camera mount. Fix: Replace it with the spare. We will likely make this slightly thicker in future versions to prevent it from ever getting caught by the carriage. Fix: We replaced it with metal versions of that pinion that we had always intended to run for competition but had never replaced. This problem never caused an issue during a match, it was discovered during a system check in the pit. Failure: The lower intake pulley slammed into the four-bar arms a couple of times, forcing the belt off and rendering the intake useless. Fix: We fixed tension by slightly increasing the diameter of one of the idlers. We also printed a new spacer that should have kept the belt on a pulley. We had one more failure of this kind during the tournament so we will continue to improve this belt run.’ Failure: We had a few wood screws back out or shear on our bumpers. Fix: We just rescrewed them, but we are working on a better bumper attachment system for our next events. Failure: Carnivore booted into a new USB cable state and cause to sit idle for match 34. Fix: Replaced the carnivore USB-C cable, and checked it’s status light after boot up before leaving the field before each of our matches. Failure: network switch failure prior to finals 2. We believe we left a cut thru ethernet cable (it got cut by the carriage weeks ago) installed in our robot and someone inadvertently connected to our switch and it shorted out somehow. This did not cause us any issues in a match. (Thank you 15 min match breaks) Fix: VHBed the spare switch on top of the old one and played finals 2 and 3 with that switch. Autonomous: We ran a three-cube auton sequence for most of this event. Auton was strangely inconsistent. The robot would dodge the staged cubes right after a match where it launched all three perfectly. The most consistent part of auton was the first cube launch, which landed in the top or middle cube node regularly. Our best Auton Performance was in our first playoff match where we landed a cube in 1 top node and 2 cubes into the mid-nodes. Self-Driving (On the Fly Path following) Self-Driving did not work at this event. We eventually determined that if the robot touched the charging station or cable bump, odometry would get messed up and self-driving would break for the rest of the match. Our LimeLight 3 was reading april tags correctly but we haven’t adjusted the pose estimator to quickly enough adjust our estimated position to correct for the large odometry errors. It did work once during a match where we didn’t go on the charge station in auton. Improve autonomous repeatability and switch to starting the match by scoring a top cone. Increase intake gap distance to allow for better cube intaking. We had some issues with cubes not entering the intake cleanly. Enable closed loop heading control at all times the pilot isn’t steering the robot, this should eliminate some of the drift that we saw this weekend and enable features like auto-locking the robot parallel to the grid for easier scoring. New Cable carrier/management plan for the elevator New/improvement bumper mounting Improve lower roller belt and pulley setup to prevent it from ever skipping in the future. Scouting: Things went rather smoothly. We had many new scouts and being the first event there were a few hiccups such as keeping all the tablets and laptops charged but we were able to get good data and share it here after the first day of matches. Thanks to 2719 and Ty Trembly for developing their QR scout program, this is our 2nd year of using it and it has helped us immensely. Pick List Meeting: This was a complicated and long pick list meeting. Waco was a relatively balanced event with multiple (8-9) robots capable of scoring 5+ game pieces per match. The rankings at the end of Friday did not make it clear who would be the top seed at the event so we had many things to look at and discuss throughout the night. The overall goals of the pick list meeting are for our team to better understand 2 things, who are the top teams at the event and how would we rank/tier them, and then for us to get 24 robots into our tiers so we know if we are on the #1 alliance we will have a pick ready if all our other choices are taken. Sorting the top 8-9 robots took quite a while (and this ended up changing a good amount before alliance selection on Saturday morning) and even longer to get to 24 in our higher tiers. We finally wrapped up a little before 1 am. (about 3 hours of meeting). Alliance Selection: The last qualification match and a replay were needed to set the top 5 seeds. 6377 Howdy Bots were able to lock the #1 seed by securing 3 RP in the final qualification match and 6672 was able to move up to the #3 seed in a replay of qualification match 69. This ended up being extremely important during alliance selection. Waco saw the #2 and #3 seeded teams decline invitations from the #1 because of how strong a field existed to draft from. We were very excited to be picked by 6672 as we had never gotten to be in an alliance with them even though we have known them for a few years now. Once selected we were able to find each other in the stands and pretty seamlessly worked to get a list together for our third pick and were very happy to see 5503 was still available for us to pick. We worked with the Smithville Tiger Trons in 2022 at Dripping Springs and knew they would be ready to work with us to do well in the playoffs. Load in was quite the adventure for us. As we were approaching the venue just after 7pm Thursday night when we start getting texts that the area is under a Tornado watch and we may not be able to load in as there is likely going to be a shelter-in-palace order once it elevates to a warning. We were able to pull in and unload our bus and equipment in just under 10 minutes and while I was moving the bus I started feeling the winds pick up and dust started swirling in the parking lot. I was able to get back in the building but another team in a charter bus pulled in and we need to help get their students out the bus and into the building before the winds picked up any worse without the tornado sirens going off. Everyone was brought into the building safely. The event was under a shelter in place order for around 30 to 40 minutes before we were allowed back into the pits to continue with inspections and getting ready for the matches the next day. And we were able to help the other team get loaded in after the warning was over. Thank you to our sponsors REV Robotics, Solarcraft, Inc, the Gene Haas Foundation, Analog Device, Texas Workforce Commission, Intuitive Foundation, International Society of Automation, Houston Chapter, QAD Works & St Agnes Academy & Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped make Waco an awesome event.Results:
Spectrum went 12-6 overall at the event, finished ranked 5th, and was invited by the 3 seed of 6672 to join their alliance. After inviting 5503 to join this alliance, we played through the top bracket upsetting the #2 and #1 seed alliances and falling against the 5th alliance in an extremely close tiebreaker finals match.Failures and Fixes:
- Once as the elevator went up while scoring a cone. The polycarb had already been dented a bit, but one of these dents finally snapped. We remedied it with some backup polycarb and tape, but this did not last long.
- In a later match, we reversed quickly when the elevator was up, and the cable carrier got caught between stages. It snapped completely and fell off the robot. This also caused the four-bar motor to be disconnected.
Fix: We wrapped all the cables in gaff tape and tied the wire bundle down with a string. This allowed us to continue to use the elevator and not catch the wires on anything.
Failure: Lower Intake Roller 3D printed pinion pulley friction locked to the polycarb motor mounting plate. Controls Update
VideoPlanned Improvements:
Strategy/Scouting Recap
Story Time: Load In Tornado Warning
Thank Yous
Photo Gallery Link
Event Recap: Texas State Championships 2023
Award: Gracious Professionalism Award This past weekend, Spectrum competed in the FIT District State Championship. For playoffs, our alliance partners were FRC#5427 Steel Talons and FRC#2582 PantherBots. Spectrum had a 9-3 win-loss ratio in Qualifications. During playoffs, we lost our first match in the upper bracket, and continued to lose in our second match against 5415 Pearadox, 5431 Titan Robotics, and 9140 The Robobots, which ultimately eliminated us from the competition. Failures and Fixes: Failure: The charge station couldn’t press down in a few matches. Fix: Raising the rear bumper a small amount seemed to help but the charge stations were still not as smooth as in previous events. Failure: Pulley flange on the inside roller failed at a print layer and fell off Fix: Replaced the pulley Fix: Replaced, and have no solution that mounts them together for Champs Failure: The elevator belt had a tear, which we caught during visual inspection before it failed Fix: Replaced the elevator belt Failure: Damaged the tread on one of our wheels. Because the replacement tread was significantly bigger in diameter compared to the original diameter, the discrepancy between the new and old diameter would affect our autos. This is the first tread swap of the season after the damaged one from Waco. Fix: Swap treads on all four wheels with new ones Failure: Misaligned bumper mounts to the robot. Fix: Bolting the ones that were aligned and it was fine for the rest of the event Implemented AprilTag relative aiming for cube node scoring. The field pose estimation wasn’t accurate at our first two events. We made quick control loops to center us on the cube nodes for cube scoring. The cone scoring command retracts the 4 bar and lowers the elevator at the same time, making that process quick and smooth compared to the districts. Had high cone auton modes on clean and bump sides. Planned Improvements: Improved autonomous modes Change to cube scoring to become more consistent. Flashlight to help with mid-field intaking Strategy and Scouting Recap: Our scouting went well. Our data was pretty accurate, and most of our match and alliance predictions were true. Thank Yous: Huge thank you to our alliance partners: FRC#5427 Steel Talons and FRC#2582 PantherBots; you guys were awesome to cooperate with! We wish you a happy rest of the season. Also huge thank you to our sponsors: Analog Devices, Solarcraft, QAD Works, Team REV, Gene HAAS Foundation, ISA - Houston Section, Texas Workforce Commission, and Intuitive Foundation! You all made this brilliant season possible.Results:
Failure: Elevator lower idlers bend at the shaft. The autonomous mode was stalling down the elevator and that was a contributing factor to it bendingControls Update