Difference between revisions of "DEWBOT VI Build"
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===Kickoff=== | ===Kickoff=== | ||
| − | :After losing most of our team to college, and with only 5 returning members, for 85% of this year’s team FRC Kick-off was a new event. 30 students, parents and mentors drove to Upper Darby High School to watch the events from Deam Kamen’s home in New Hampshire and see a mock-up of this year’s play pieces up close. | + | :After losing most of our team to college, and with only 5 returning members, for 85% of this year’s team FRC Kick-off was a new event. 30 students, parents and mentors drove to Upper Darby High School Saturday January 9th to watch the events from Deam Kamen’s home in New Hampshire and see a mock-up of this year’s play pieces up close. |
===Week One (1/10-1/16)=== | ===Week One (1/10-1/16)=== | ||
:'''Sunday - Brainstorming''' - The team met from noon until 4:30 in an intensive brainstorming session. We went through the rules, talked about over all game strategy like "Don't get penalties", and came up with specific strategies for each zone for both Autonomous and Teleop. | :'''Sunday - Brainstorming''' - The team met from noon until 4:30 in an intensive brainstorming session. We went through the rules, talked about over all game strategy like "Don't get penalties", and came up with specific strategies for each zone for both Autonomous and Teleop. | ||
Revision as of 04:00, 7 February 2010
This page contains a week by week breakdown of what we did.
Contents
Kickoff
- After losing most of our team to college, and with only 5 returning members, for 85% of this year’s team FRC Kick-off was a new event. 30 students, parents and mentors drove to Upper Darby High School Saturday January 9th to watch the events from Deam Kamen’s home in New Hampshire and see a mock-up of this year’s play pieces up close.
Week One (1/10-1/16)
- Sunday - Brainstorming - The team met from noon until 4:30 in an intensive brainstorming session. We went through the rules, talked about over all game strategy like "Don't get penalties", and came up with specific strategies for each zone for both Autonomous and Teleop.
- We then broke into two groups to discuss and brainstorm different drive base systems. We talked about the pros and cons of 4WD, 6WD, Mecanum, Pivot and even a tumbler drive. At the end of the session we were leaning towards 6WD and Pivot drive systems
- We then split again to discuss shooters and herders along with how to suspend the robot from the towers. We came up with a number of ideas that we will discuss on Monday.
- Monday - Drive base decisions - The three hour session was mostly around drive base issues and ideas so we could lock into a drive base decision. To help the discussion we made Paper Dolls of the bumps in the field, 4WD and 6WD with a variety of wheel sizes and a mock up of the tumbler.
- There was lots of good discussion around what could work well and what the problem areas would be. At the end we decided to move forward with the pivot drive base. Clem is going to look at what the gearing will look like for 6" and 8" wheels.
- We also got a demo of Google Sketchup a drawing tool that can be used to make quick drawings. We also got to see how SketchyPhysics (a physics plugin for Google Sketchup. It combines a simple and easy to use interface with the power of a fast and accurate physics library) works. It will allow the students to create some interactive (and accurate) models. A small team was started on creating models for:
- Flipper (two flippers that will act like pinball flippers to move the ball.
- Sweeper (Rolling tube with vanes that will roll the ball)
- Kicker (Foot on a leg to kick the ball, along with guide plates)
- Pusher (Flat plate with two pneumatic cylinders)
- Cory Foot - a foot on a rotating arm that extends as it rotates
- Meanwhile, down in the shop, the construction of the bumps started. Matt, Alex and Faith got things underway by getting the first few sheets of plywood cut. The goal is to have all field components complete by the 19th.
- Tuesday - No meeting on Tuesday
- Wednesday - Field Build and more design
- More progress on getting the field components cut out and assembled. The bump is looking good, we can start to see how interesting this will make the game
- Thursday - We have a Bump!
- The bump got completed and the field team started cutting parts for the goal. Kicker prototypes have been drawn in Sketchup/Shetchy Physics and some ideas will move from the simulation to the prototype process.
- Friday - Rest for the weary, no meeting
- Saturday - our first all day build
- Lots of activity with lots of people working is the best description of the day.
- Programming made great progress. After a kick off meeting the team set about doing a number of different projects.
- With the robot still in the design phase the Electrical team is not ready to do any major work. They did some work on testing battery systems and doing some minor repairs.
- The largest amount of progress was made with the Field Components. casters and a large handle were added to the bump to make it super easy to move. The tower supports were completed and a test of some lighter weight pipe showed that we need to use the Schedule 40 pipe (or find lighter roboteers). Progress on the goal continues.
- There were lots of flying soccer balls with the kicker prototypes in full swing.
- Thanks to Anne and Rita for feeding us great pizza with garden salads for lunch along with chicken and Mac/Cheese for dinner. The oranges made a great mid-day snack.
Week Two (1/17-1/23)
- Sunday - Jumping into week two
- We started week two off with a bang with the sounds of balls hitting the wall. All of the teams made good progress towards their goals.
- Accomplishments:
- We've got a pretty good kicker prototype. Made the ball fly (but didn't break any clocks).
- Pivot parts drawings completed for transfer to Machinist.
- Field Equipment is proceeding well. The goal is very big and voluminous
- Programming is moving forward with the vision system.
- Electrical parts have been sorted and reorganized for easy access.
- Thanks to Andrea for homemade meatball sandwiches and pasta salad.
- Monday - moving the ball
- The air spring kicker didn't turn out the way we thought it would
- But the latex tubing kicker is a trooper
- it's all about kicker momentum at the time/point of impact
- the depleted Uranium kicker (Rizzo test) made no difference - heavier kicker is slower to accelerate - hits ball at slower velocity - same momentum - same travel
- The CAD team got a CAD workout
- Field equipment getting close to complete
- Saturday - cutting the frame
- Cut almost all frame elements
- Dry-assembled and tested all steering motors
- More kicker testing and detailed design
- Bumpers started
- The final field element - the tunnel/platform - is finished
Week Three (1/24-1/30)
- Sunday - Welding day
- We've got a chassis frame (excluding gussets). Matt did a great job welding this in a day.
- Steering motors epoxy-bonded to steering drive sprockets w/ encoder magnets
- First magnetic encoder mounted on steering motor and tested. Excellent linearity.
- All chains broken to right lengths
- dxf of Pivot Plate Top completed
- Demonstrated proof-of-concept for line-rider
- Camera working and acquiring target
- Tuesday
- Most of Tuesday was spent in a team meeting going over where we are in the design process and making sure our strategy / plans are on track and understood by everyone on the team.
- Wednesday - full build ahead!
- Had 16 students show up tonight- Brianna, Amanda, Carly, Christine, Selina, Ben R., Nicole,Sasha, Cole, Andrew,Doug, Alex, DJ. Paul, Preveen and Zain.
- Jon worked with programmers, David helped Jon with game stratergy.Praveen ,Sasha, Paul,Ben R., Zain, Nicole,DJ got the inhouse chat working but needs to be put on a server..... Now he will be learning Labview to use it. Paul is making a Labview disc for both DJ and Alex-will be ready tomorrow-Ben R. to help DJ learn Labview.
- Metal cut for bumpers / screws bought to install them-Faith, Doug, Cole
- Kicker mounts marked and cut-Selina & Carly
- Trident built- Julie, Christine,Alex, Amanda Brianna
- Scott and Garry Andrew ,Sasha, Carly started electrical
- Rizzo and Cole fit and marked gusset positions
- Friday
- Tuffak Polycarbonate cut for Battery Mount (put in oven for conditioning prior to forming)
- Tuffak Polycarbonate rough-cut for Jajuar & cRIO epanels
- Compressor mounts and front gussets cut
- Saturday - Drive-train push
- Machined pivot parts received from sponsor Wamac (Thanks!!)
- Pivot assembly team went into action, directed by Gary Deaver
- A set of bumpers (the blue ones) were completed (Mike Rizzo leading team)
- Chassis frame modified to accommodate kicker and gussetts welded in (Matt welding with Siri mentoring)
- Programming math worked out for the Pivot Drive
- Kicker design approaching completion
Week Four (1/31-2/6)
Sunday - drive-train focus
- The shop was alive with activity around the drive train. Getting the pivot assemblies complete, getting drive chains cut to length, getting the motor mounting plates riveted in place.
Monday - last minute chassis items
- Now that the chassis is complete, things that attach are moving through the construction pipeline. Side panels that hold Jaguar speed controls were cut out and drilled. Same for the rear panel that holds the cRio and digital side car. Tension adjustment holes for the chains were added.
Tuesday - is Punxsutawney Phil right, only three weeks to go?
- Today starts the big push, only 21 days before the robot ships. Tonight four teams worked on different components.
- Metal for the second set of bumpers (red ones) arrived today. The bumper team got it cut to the proper lengths and drilled the holes for attachment. Their task for Wednesday is to complete the red bumpers. This is the earliest we've ever had bumpers, a new DEWBOT record.
- Over in Electronics another new record was set. All of the Jaguars and the cRio were mounted and wired in under an hour. Having the panels on the bench rather on the robot helped, but having 4 people work on the wiring helped the most. Everything was cut, crimped, labeled and attached in record time.
- Welding of the kicker assembly was completed and the frame is now considered to be 100% complete. From this point on it's attaching components to make the robot move and score.
- Programming team worked on trials and tests with different IR sensors to see how well they can find the balls for autonomous mode.
Wednesday - Chassis assembly night
- The focus of the team was to get all the pivots, drive and steering motors and electronics mounted on the frame. It was a long build session with lots of components coming together.
- The control team went home, so Foster fired up a VEX controller to make DEWBOT VI roll. A few lines of C code and we were set to test it out. (Thursday should have it under cRio power)
- The loud screams you heard at 10:10 PM were from team Sab-bot-age watching DEWBOT VI take its first roll around the shop. The pivot drives work very well, the robot moves forward and back and can strafe side to side. Clem drove it over the bump four times, so it was a major milestone evening!
Thursday - Kicker, Bumper, Cleanup and cRio
- Tonights activity focused on four areas, Kicker, Bumper, Cleanup and cRio.
- Ken and Foster spent most of the night working on the robot trying to get the electronics running. All of the wiring is complete (needs zip tied) but is reading for testing. Ken struggled with getting all the components to talk to each other. Some subsystems like the camera work, others like the drive train does not.
- Mark, Cole and a few others worked on getting a duplicate frame made for the kicker. The idea is that the electronics and drive teams can work on the drive base getting it to work and for driver practice. At the same time the kicker team can use the duplicate base to improve the design. It's a little extra work, but it will be worth it in the long run.
- Rizzo and his team did some minor modifications on his bumper design. The blue set is complete, the red set has all the materials here. The metal angles for the edges has been cut, we need a few more feet of pool noodle material to start assembly.
- Matt and Faith lead the teams to do the mid-season shop clean. With the large amount of materials that comes in there is a ton of boxes, wrapping, etc. They put tools away, threw trash out, and did a complete reorganize. The shop looks much better, is easier to find things and looks a lot less crowded.
- Hopefully we will close out week four with a working kicker and a robot that really moves.
Friday - Who the heck scheduled a blizzard during build season?
- Blizzard? What blizzard? The snow didn't start until after 5PM so we're here anyway.
- We've become programming-centric. Mechanical & Electrical teams are supporting the Programming team. Nicole, Ben and Ken worked on Labview code for the drive train. Jon was able to fabricate a mounting for the motion sensors while Scott, Nicole and Carly wired power to the daughter cards on the cRio. (And Carly did some shop electrical repairs).
- To facilitate workflow, we are building a proxy chassis to allow us to build and further test the kicker (and develop centering & possession systems) without taking the chassis from the programming team (and subsequently, the field team). Clem McKown churned out part and assembly drawings while Faith McKown, Matt & Gary Deaver cut metal. Foster cleaned the shop in preparation for welding. We'll weld tomorrow if we can get in (not quite all of us got home!).
Saturday - The Snowpocalypse!
- Downingtown and the surrounding area got 16-18" of snow over night. So the shop was closed and we will start Week 6 on Sunday.
