DEWBOT XI
In retrospect, it seems we have. The 2015 season was good to Sab-BOT-age.
DEWBOT XI is designed to compete in the 2015 FIRST Robotics Competition game, Recycle RushSM.
Notable events & accomplishments:
- 3rd seed and FINALIST at the Hatboro-Horsham MAR Qualifying Event
- 1st alliance captain and CHAMPION at the Seneca MAR Qualifying Event
- Received the Motorola Quality Award at both Hatboro-Horsham and Seneca
- 2nd seed alliance captain and FINALIST at MAR Championship
- Finished the MAR competition season as the 2nd ranked team in MAR (after friends 225 TechFire)
- Qualified for FRC Championships! (5th consecutive year)
- Archimedes Division 5th seed/4th alliance captain FINALIST at FRC Championship
Contents
DEWBOT XI Build
This is the time of the year that all good roboteers and mentors most love and fear.
I love build season. It is the very heart and soul of the robotics year. I love the challenge, the close team work (yes, even the friction resulting from teams working hard under pressure), the prototyping and testing, the false starts and finally finding resolutions to tough design problems. The hard work. The tough decisions. The pressure. The building itself; bringing everthing together and getting all of it working just right. Build season is my favorite time.
I hate build season. The sleep depravation. The angst born of trying endlessly to reconcile seemingly irreconcilable design demands. The fear that this year's robot will not live up to expectations. The parts that just don't come together and the systems that refuse to work reliably. Why do I do this to myself every year?
An old wise guy once said to me: Nothing difficult is ever easy.
Design Details
- We made the decision to stay with swerve drive for the 2015 robot. In view of the fact that blazing speed and acceleration seems to be detriments in this year's game, concepts to increase speed were not adopted and Mini-CIMs were used in lieu of CIMs to drive the robot.
- With the departures of Ben Kellom as mentor and Edgetech as sponsor, we redesigned our swerve module to significantly reduce the machine time requirements and to bring as much of the machining in-house as practical. New sponsor AMS Filling Systems provided the parts we could not produce in-house.
- Our main scoring system allows us to build stacks of up to six Totes under a Recycle Container and to score these. This stack is built inside the robot chassis and we score by simply dropping the stack and backing up. This led us to design a U-chassis, the scariest design element of DEWBOT XI.
- Pulls Totes into the robot and automatically aligns them for stacking. No fuss, no muss. When open, presents a 23.75" Tote Acquisition width. When closed, the pointy ends match the Landfill spacing.
Official Events
- Kick-off - 3-January-2015
- Hatboro-Horsham - 27-Feb - 1 March-2015
- The team got off to a good start for the season at this week 1 event. Finishing qualifications as 3rd seed, we accepted 1403's (Cougar Robotics) gracious invitation and joined the first alliance. Together with 3637 (The Daleks) we finished as Finalists. Sab-BOT-age also received the Quality Award (sponsored by Motorola). The team earned 61 MAR qualifying points at Hatboro-Horsham.
- Seneca - 20-22 March-2015
- A good second competition for us. We finished qualifications as 1st seed and invited 1218 (Vulcan Robotics) and 5113 (Combustible Lemons) to join the 1st alliance. Together, we won the event. Sab-BOT-age again received the Motorola Quality Award. The team earned 73 MAR qualifying points.
- MAR Championship - 8-11 April-2015
- Sab-BOT-age continued its outstanding performance at this event. After a rocky start (Intake Arm pneumatics did not work during the first qual match due to disconnected wire), 1640 slowly worked its way up to 2nd seed. We formed the 2nd alliance with teams 303 (The Test Team) and 4635 (Ironmen Robotics), finishing the event as Finalists.
- The team finished the Mid-Atlantic Robotics competition ranked 2nd (after 225) in a field of 121 teams. We qualified for FRC Championships.
- FRC Championship - 22-25 April-2015
Unofficial Events
- Midknight Mayhem - 27-June-2015
- Indiana Robotics Invitational - 17-18 July 2015
- Duel on the Delaware - 17-October-2015
- Ramp Riot - 14-November-2015
Other Events
- DAR FLL Scrimmage - 22-November-2014
- Downingtown's third annual FIRST LEGO League Tune Up, the D-Town Dust-off, at the CCIU TCHS-Brandywine in Downingtown, PA.
- This non-qualifying event was hosted by Downingtown Area Robotics in cooperation with the TCHS to help area FLL teams gain experience and prepare for their Qualifiers in this year's game, WORLD CLASSSM! 15 area teams participated.
- Downingtown Area Robotics-TCHS-Penn FLL Qualifying Event 2014 - 7-December-2014
- Downingtown's third annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Event was held on 7 December, 2014 at the CCIU TCHS Brandywine Campus in Downingtown, PA. This competition was hosted by Downingtown Area Robotics to allow area FLL teams to compete and qualify for the Penn FLL Championship in this year's game, WORLD CLASSSM!
- MAR Team Day at Dorney Park - 11-July-2015
Outreach
- Sugartown Elementary School's Lego Expo and Robotics Fair - 17-April-2015
- A joint FRC1640 / FTC7314 demonstrations. Both teams were able to make their robots interact with the Sugartown students and were a huge hit!
- Demo during Downingtown West High School step-up day - 1-May-2015
- Downingtown West students Dana, Fatima and Trevor, with support from Laura and Ryan, introduced our robotics program to incoming freshmen.
Media
In light of our recent competition performance, the team continues to receive media attention. Summarized below, together with the team's media output.- Philly.com - Best of the Bots
- Dana was featured in a photo from the Seneca competition.
- Photo for 2015 FIRST Championship facebook page
- DEWBOT X is featured in FIRST's 2015 Championship facebook page.
- 2014 FRC Photo Gallery
- Five of the 63 marketing tool photos in FRC's 2014 gallery show DEWBOT X and/or our drive team.
- Team Sab-BOT-age made the photo banner on the FIRST website
- Patrick Curran, Abbilyn and Siri Maley at the 2014 FRC Championship. Photo at right.
Teams
People
Team Sab-BOT-age is what it is only due to the efforts of the people involved. DEWBOT XI's success will be in the hands of the students, mentors and parents engaged. The team's very existence is possible only through the gracious generosity of our sponsors.
See our other robots in the Robot Archives.