FTC 7314 Engineering Notebook 2015-09-14

Competition Season Meeting

Meeting Date	Meeting Time	Location	Team Members in Attendance:
14-Sep-2015	6:00-8:00	TCHS Brandywine	Myles, Josh, Akhila, Trent, Braiden, Justin, Amal, Wade, Snarr, Bennett

Tasks

Reflections

Autonomous

The entire team started to conceptualize what we wanted our robot to be able to do in the autonomous mode of the game. We utilized a red v. blue scorer and the game manual to help us accomplish this. Our priority autonomous routine is to push the beacon button and score the climbers (because they're so close to each other), and possibly go to the ramp. Another auton routine could be to just go to the high zone of the mountain.
Mentor Gary brought in a sample color sensor that we could experiment and mess around with. We figured that we could use encoders or something to get to the white sensor line, and then use the sensor to home in on the beacon. The ramp was a lot more reflective than the light, so that could be used to our advantage.
The team saw that the brightness of the sensor may affect the ability of it to sense the colors. When it is too bright the sensors detect a lot, however when we lower the brightness it detects less but, seems to work better. We're really excited to test this out; it seems like it will be really useful. We will also experiment with different color sensors, like the Modern Robotics, Lego, and ADAFruit ones. Whatever it is, color sensors will be integral to the auton routine.
We also brought back and FTC 7314 team tradition, the autonomous game. The autonomous game involves a team member becoming one with robots and moving around the field in order to simulate different autonomous scenarios. It's always great fun, and allows us to gauge how much time will be needed for each scenario. We're clocking in at a little less than thirty seconds for floor auton, but who knows? Humans aren't robots, no matter how much they want to be.

Teleop

The team decided that for teleop, our top priority is to try to get up the mountain efficiently, as well as retrieve the climbers.
Ideally, we will be able to accomplish all the tasks set by the game, but the most important is definitely climbing. It's crucial to our success if we want to score lots of points, which we most definitely do. Being a pusher bot won't really do too much for us.
Another top priority, which ties into being able to climb, is being able to score debris! This years scoring is a little harder than last year, mostly because it includes both spherical and cubical objects. The trick is to design an intake system that will cater reliably to both shapes.
To help us out into perspective how much debris can be scored in a tub, we tested different scenarios. They are as follows.
Low Goal- 9 balls, 9 1/2 & 1/2, 14 squares
Mid Goal- 9 balls, 9 1/2 & 1/2, 14 squares
High Goal- 9 balls, 9 1/2 & 1/2, 14 squares
Braden learned how the field elements get set up, which is pretty important, especially considering he would like to be on drive team this year.
The team determined how much debris could reliably fit in a single basket located on the mountain.
We decided on orderings the important parts of a possible strategy. This is so when we create the robot we can prioritize to complete certain tasks without much of the efforts.
Bennett, along with Daniel, Trent, and Wade helped in ordering the most important ways to score during tele-op.
All the new members really liked their first build meeting, and the returning students are pretty excited to see how the game pans out.