DEWBOT X
The 2013 Einstein mis-scoring incident got the team riled (without blame to FIRST's handling of the situation, which was entirely fair and appropriate). Immediately after 2013 FRC Championships, and with fire in our bellies, the team set a single, hard goal: Go back to Einstein in 2014 and do it right. Strong words. Tough goal. While there is no way to guarantee that we will even qualify for Championships in 2014, no less find ourselves on Einstein again, this objective will determine our actions from the day it was made through the 2014 competition season.
Can it really be ten years?
DEWBOT X is designed and built to meet the unique challenges presented by FRC's 2014 game, Aerial Assist. Continuing our practice established with DEWBOT VII, we again built two twin robots, Prime and Deux.
Notable events & accomplishments:
- The Daily Planet, a Discovery Channel Canada science and technology program, featured team 1640's final build season weekend in a program aired on 27-Feb.
- 2nd seed and FINALIST at the Lenape-Seneca MAR Qualifying Event
- 4th seed and alliance captain at MAR Championship
- Qualified for FRC Championships!
- With alliance partners 1678 (Citrus Circuits - alliance captain), 1114 (Simbotics) and 5136 (Mechapirates - back-up), FRC 1640 were Newton Division Champions and Einstein Finalists at FRC Championships in St. Louis, thereby achieving the hard goal we had set for ourselves nearly a year earlier.
Contents
DEWBOT X Build
I love robotics competitions. Even so, 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 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.
Watch DEWBOT X's Reveal Video!
Design Details
- Strategic Objectives
- Primarily an offensive robot, designed to score points by accepting balls from alliance robots, passing possessed balls to alliance robots, shooting over the truss, (maybe catching from the truss) and scoring into either the high or low goals. Able to play aggressive, active defense as needed.
- Score 20 points reliably in autonomous (randomly in the hot goal)
- Shooter
- SAFETY: The stored energy intrinsic to this game makes it very easy and tempting to design a robot capable in inflicting serious injury. A primary design requirement is that DEWBOT X accidents should be incapable of breaking bones or causing serious crushing injuries
- Score in High Goal Reliably (and on the move)
- Truss shots
- Pass to other robots
- Ball control
- Rapid and reliable Ball pick-up from floor is essential
- Able to pass quickly to alliance partners without losing alliance possession
- Able to score quickly in low goal
- Must be able to retain secure possession of the ball while driving through a demolition derby
- Catching
- It should be easy and reliable to load from Human Player by tossing in a Ball
- Truss catch is an objective (a challenging one)
- Drive-train
- With a wide open field and no safe zones, we expect the field to look a lot like a demolition derby, but without the good manners.
- Pivot has a lot to offer this year
- Must drive straight for autonomous
- Stable; low CG
- Drive Train
- Due to the very strong expected defensive nature of Aeriel Assist, and serious bandwidth limitations on our design team, we made the decision on 5-January to utilize DEWBOT IX's Drive Train design (which has been published) with a couple important upgrades.
Official Events
- Kick-off - 4-January-2014
- Hatboro-Horsham - 1 & 2 March-2014
- Our performance was seriously compromised by an unanticipated Shooter Failure which was only diagnosed and corrected after the competition. We finished qualifications as 19th seed with a (6-6-0) record. We were the first pick of the 8th alliance, but did not advance past the quarterfinals. We earned just 21 MAR qualifying points at this event.
- Lenape - 22 & 23 March-2014
- Big turn-around from Hatboro-Horsham! Our detailed analysis of the shooter failure facilitated an effective correction. 1640 finished qualifications at 2nd seed with a (10-2-0) record. Joining the 1st alliance, we finished the event as FINALISTS. The 56 MAR qualifying points earned secured a spot for us a MAR Championships.
- MAR Championship - 10-12 April-2014
- Another strong performance. Sab-BOT-age completed qualifications as 4th seed with a (9-3-0) record. We lead the 4th alliance and while not advancing past quarterfinals, we earned a spot at the FRC Championship.
- FRC Championship - 24-26 April-2014
- Thanks to alliance partners 1678 (Citrus Circuits - alliance captain), 1114 (Simbotics) and 5136 (Mechapirates), we were Newton Division Champions and Einstein Finalists at FRC Championships.
Other Events
- DAR FLL Scrimmage
- The team hosted an FLL scrimmage on 23-November-2013 at the CCIU TCHS. 18 area teams participated.
- Downingtown Area Robotics-TCHS-Penn FLL Qualifying Event 2013 - 7-December-2013
- Downingtown's second annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Event was held 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, NATURE'S FURYSM.
- Congratulations to teams 763 (Robo Engineers), 1503 (Notre Dame) and 14042 (Ciberneticos), who qualified for the Penn FLL Championship Tournament.
Outreach
- B.S.A. Troop 9 Workshop
- In our first Merit Badge workshop, six members of Boy Scouts Troop 9 (Honey Brook) successfully fulfilled the requirements for Robotics Merit Badge on 7-December-2013.
- FIRST Demo in Exton Square Mall - 21-December-2013
- Together with the MASH family of FTC robots (4077 MASH, 4856 Minnie MASH and 7690 New Mash), FRC 1640 participated in a FIRST demonstration and display at the Exton Square Mall in front of JC Penny's.
Teams
People
Team Sab-BOT-age is what it is only due to the efforts of the people involved. DEWBOT VIII'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.
