Difference between revisions of "DEWBOT VI"

Revision as of 20:44, 19 February 2010

DEWBOT VI is designed to meet the specific challenges of the 2010 FRC game, BREAKAWAY.

current design

Documentation

Complete Manual for Breakaway

Breakaway documentation page - you can get individual sections here

Breakaway game animation

DEWBOT VI Build

The build season lasts 45 days, starting with a cold January morning and ending up in the middle of an even colder February night. The chronicles of the DEWBOT VI Build season make interesting reading of how we all band together to perform an almost impossible task of designing, building and testing a robot in such a short time frame. Associated with each weeks build are pictures showing happy (and towards the end, tired) roboteers and mentors hard at work.

Design Details

The links below will take you to details about the robot components.

Pivot Assembly

Drive Train

DEWBOT VI utilizes a multi-mode, 4-wheel pivot drive-train. Each wheel is independently driven and steered. If we do this well (from both a mechanical and programming perspective), we should have an extraordinarily maneuverable robot and one well-suited to 2010's BREAKAWAY competition. Pivot Drive was selected for:

Its superior maneuverability. This should be especially valuable in aligning with soccer balls and with the goal.
Safety while crossing the bump. A 6wd robot would tilt over further during the climb and would also experience two tipping points. The second of these (coming off the flat top of the bump) will put the robot at a considerable tipping risk unless center of mass (CoM) is very low.

DEWBOT VI is able to safely cross the bump and also drive through the tunnel. For both of these actions, the robot will need to drive in its long (x) axis direction. Chassis orientation is important for us in BREAKAWAY.

Drive Train Team Page

Mechanical / Scoring

DEWBOT VI’s scoring strategy is focused on scoring soccer balls. Towards this, we should be able to:

Herd up to 3 soccer balls and push these into the goal if playing in the alliance zone
Herd balls with the robot side as well and also push into the goal using the side.
Kick the ball towards the goal. We expect to be able to reliably score from Mid-field and to at least be able to reliably move balls from the opposing zone to the alliance zone with a single kick over both bumps. Bonus if we can reliably score from the opposing zone.
Clear soccer balls from the tunnels

DEWBOT VI has no provisions to Elevate or Suspend.

Mechanical Team Page

Tactical

Field Team Page

Programming

Programming Team Page

Electrical

This years wiring supports a number of different elements.

Drive Train; as discussed above the drive train is driven by 8 motors. On each pivot is a drive motor and a steering motor. Magnetic sensors track the steering position of each pivot

Gyrocompass; keeps track of the overall direction of the robot in relationship to the field. Even though the robot will twist and spin, it knows what direction the goal is in.

Camera; we us a web camera to find and zero in on the goal. Above the goal is a black and white bulls eye target. The programming uses the input from the camera and gyrocompass to aim and fire at the target.

IR Sensors; there are two IR sensors mounted at the front of the robot. These sensors can track the soccer ball from 5 feet away. This allows us to move up and "capture" the ball with our possessor.

Possessor; is a sticky cylinder rotating at high speed. When it goes in one direction the ball is drawn to the robot (we are putting "back-spin on the ball". In the other direction it gives the ball a gentle kick towards the goal. The direction and speed of the possessor is controlled by the cRio control computer.

The electrical page has details of the build season. Read all about the activities and see the details of the wiring.

Electrical Team Page is the discussion page on current activities and to do items (it may or may not be empty

Pneumatics

DEWBOT VI uses pneumatics to cock the Kicker and to release (fire) it.

The robot has an on-board compressor and (4) Clippard compressed air storage cylinders.

There are (2) solenoids: one to cock the Kicker (pushing back the Kicker thereby tensioning the elastic "springs") and the second to latch the Kicker in or release the Kicker from this tensioned ("armed") state.

The cocking cylinder is a 2" bore x 4" stroke Bimba cylinder. It also has a 3/4" bore "helper" on the same air circuit.

The latching cylinders are 3/4" bore x 1/2" stroke.

Autonomous Mode

Weight

Bumpers

Bumpers Page

Events

Second Bay at DEC: Downingtown Area Robotics expanded into a 2nd bay at DEC. The new bay will be used for FRC and VEX storage. The original (larger) bay will house our power tools and will remain a work area.

Pancake Breakfast - 6-December-2009: Downingtown Area Robotics All-you-can-eat Pancake Breakfast at Exton Applebee's was a great success. Both the 8 AM and 9AM seatings were almost full. We had great service from our robotic waitstaff (students not robots). Applebee's donated the full cost of the food. With the gift basket raffle we collected over $1000. Everyone had a great time and we look forward to doing it next year!

Finger Lakes Regional

Philadelphia Regional

Website

Outreach

Programs

Sub-Teams

Steering Committee

Design Team Page

Drive Train Team Page

Mechanical Team Page

Field Team Page

Programming Team Page

Electrical Team Page

Media Team Page

Game Elements & Carpentry Team Page

Competition Team Page

People

There are a large number of people that were involved with the success of DEWBOT V from students to mentors but especially our sponsors.

DEWBOT VI Students: DEWBOT VI Mentors; Sponsors 2010

See our other robots at FRC Team 1640

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 ===[[DEWBOT VI Electrical | Electrical]]===
-While the motors and pneumatics are the muscles of the robot, the electrical wiring is the central nervous system. Electrical wiring supplies power from the battery to the Power Distribution Board, from there to the Jaguar and Victor speed controllers and then on to the motors. Wires also take signals from the sensors to the either the Digital Side Car (for on/off signals) or to the Analog daughter board (position sensors) for processing by the cRio.
+This years wiring supports a number of different elements.
-The [electrical] page has details of the build season.
+:Drive Train; as discussed above the drive train is driven by 8 motors.  On each pivot is a drive motor and a steering motor.  Magnetic sensors track the steering position of each pivot
-:[[DEWBOT VI Electrical Team | Electrical Team Page]]
+:Gyrocompass; keeps track of the overall direction of the robot in relationship to the field.  Even though the robot will twist and spin, it knows what direction the goal is in.
+:Camera; we us a web camera to find and zero in on the goal.  Above the goal is a black and white bulls eye target.  The programming uses the input from the camera and gyrocompass to aim and fire at the target.
+:IR Sensors; there are two IR sensors mounted at the front of the robot.  These sensors can track the soccer ball from 5 feet away.  This allows us to move up and "capture" the ball with our possessor.
+:Possessor; is a sticky cylinder rotating at high speed.  When it goes in one direction the ball is drawn to the robot (we are putting "back-spin on the ball". In the other direction it gives the ball a gentle kick towards the goal.  The direction and speed of the possessor is controlled by the cRio control computer.
+The [[DEWBOT VI Electrical | electrical]] page has details of the build season. Read all about the activities and see the details of the wiring.
+:[[DEWBOT VI Electrical Team | Electrical Team Page]] is the discussion page on current activities and to do items (it may or may not be empty
 ===Pneumatics===