Difference between revisions of "DEWBOT XI Build"

Revision as of 16:38, 6 January 2015

The true raison d'être for FRC is found during build season, not in competition. This is where you learn. Pressure is high. Here you face your biggest challenges, and either overcome them, or are overcome by them. Build season is the lesson; competition is simply the exam.

Students join our team throughout the year, and most see competitions before build season, especially off-season events. Still, these students are rookies until they have passed through their first build season. Trial by fire.

Or perhaps, trial by ice this year. We were extremely fortunate to lose only four meeting days due to weather this build season. The season saw four major storms, including an ice storm which knocked out power for some people on the team (including Kelloms, Weissmans and McKowns) for five days! Fortunately, the TCHS lost power for only a day and a bit, so only one meeting lost.

This page contains a day by day breakdown of what we did. Dates hyper-links go to the corresponding photo gallery.

Kickoff

• We attended kick-off at Upper Darby High School (home of old friends team 357 Royal Assault)
• Clem McKown gave a workshop on Pneumatic Systems
• Returning to TCHS, we went through game rules
• then engaged in several rounds of Recycle Rush using StudentBots on a simulated field and reviewed the results
• We put together our first thoughts on game strategy

Week One (1/4-1/10)

Sunday 4-January

• We identified the following key robot jobs:

1. Facilitate loading of litter into Recycle Containers from Human Player
2. Build stacks of totes in-situ (in the robot) & place these (to score) where desired
3. Place recycle containers on stacks of totes
4. Grab recycle containers from the step (without removing landfill totes)
5. Auton - Stack (3) yellow totes in-situ & place in Auton Zone
6. Coop Stack - Pick up (3) yellow totes (either as stack or stack them) & place on top of opfor yellow tote on step

• From these, we came up with the following robot strategies

1. Stacker Bot (The Chooser)
   1. Human Station Feed specialist
   2. Floor pickup specialist
2. Recycle Container Specialist (The Chosen One)
3. The Swiss Army Bot (Fills both above roles)
4. Feeder Bot (supplies totes to Stacker Bot)

• Stacker Bot Missions:

1. Auton - (3) yellow tote stack
2. Coop - Place (3) yellow totes on top of opfor yellow tote on step
3. Collect & Stack totes in-situ
   1. From Human Player?
   2. From Landfill - Orientation?
   3. From feeder?
4. Place stack where desired to score
5. Stack height capability - 4 minimum - 6 maximum

• Recycle Container Specialist

1. Auton - Able to move robot, recycle container & tote to Auton Zone
2. Eary Telop - Capture Step Recycle Containers
3. Tele - Enable Human Player to easily load litter into recycle container
4. Place recycle container on top of stacked totes (4 minimum - 6 maximum)

• R&D Teams

1. Determine how to stack totes in-situ (Josh, Alex, Patrick, Paul)
2. Container Possession - how to grab step container (Lucy, Laura, Dana, Abbi, Douglas, Yahya)
3. How to lift & stack totes (Brad x 2, Sully, Madi)

Monday 5-January

Tuesday 6-January

Wednesday 7-January

Friday 9-January

Saturday 10-January

DEWBOT X Week One Build Season Photo Gallery