Meetings

Pretty much continuous meeting now every day after school.

Also Sat. Feb. 6. 10 am - 4 pm

Kicker assembly

Congratulations on getting a basic kicker going.

As you saw from the slider mechanism, more mass requires more impulse power to get it started. That requires either more elastic band tension or more distance to act on it (larger disk). We need the lightest possible but still widest "foot" we can make.

Still to do:
Build 1/4 field
repair mechanum wheels (Sorry, Andymark is out of stock on these)
add wheel extenders to the chassis and mount wheels and motors
design kicker to go on chassis
Programming - we can test the "new" targeting code on the old robot.

Kick-Off

Please meet after school Monday Jan. 11 in the Robotics room for our kickoff meeting. We need to brainstorm design ideas and talk about how the game will be played.

If you haven't seen the game rules yet check them here:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=452

The video is here:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=16209

Also check Chief Delphi for robot buzz:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums

Finger Lakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUdy03pt_PY


Here are some video highlights from Finger Lakes Regional. Kevin mentioned that he felt the robot was not going as fast as others. I think our top speed is OK. (See the start of the video where we run away from getting dumped in.) I think in the pressure of competition it's difficult to slow throttle to maintain traction. Wobourn have their wheels pulse. I think it's like 5 pulses before going to normal drive to maintain traction. Maybe think about it. Also I'm not 100% sure we can't be running the drive and conveyor at the same time. Other years we've had 4 CIM's on the wheels and never had other motors stall. We may be still a bit tight with new balls versus used ones. If we can work that out, maybe we can add a feed chute to the ball conveyor so we can pop out 3 or 4 balls quickly. We'd add some offset rollers connected to the ball harvester to fill the feed chute. Remember to take a candle to make more green belting loops.


Maybe try adding weight to see if it improves traction or handling. Probably need to get a practice field slot ASAP to try some of these things.


As a core strategy for our own team we should try to keep 3-4 balls in our robot even when we are handling empty cells. We need to show off our shooter even if we might not be at a perfect range. If you listen to the announcer he mentioned our "powerful shooter" then we never use it in the match. Teams scouting would be looking to see it operate. Also in the last 20 seconds the best thing to do is shoot the last few balls. It's too late to deliver another empty cell and the robots are clustered to avoid the super cells and often easy targets. Also keep sweeping any balls that are in front. Don't let them drag. That just adds more friction and reduces wheel traction. If it starts to get too full, just shoot the balls out toward any target (trailers, in front of our alliance robots or our airlocks).


There's a part in the middle of video where we shoot and miss 3 balls against a sitting duck but then score easily on one in the middle of the field. I have a feeling that the camera was picking up a reflection off the glass. The best thing would be to manually adjust for this one.


Also watch out to try to not get pinned in a corner. Deliver and get out of there.


Thanks to Yashoda for getting this on video.

I have to go to Ottawa this week. We'll meet right after March Break. Mon. - Wed. Let me know if you think we need to buy anything to take to GTR.

Regional Videos

Just a reminder that competitions start this week. There should be streamed live video here Friday and Saturday:

http://gameday.soap108.com/

Sunday or later there should be archived video:
http://www.thebluealliance.net/tbatv/#week10

Have a look for successful game strategies the we can use. We should have a robot features brochure to give out at the competitions. Let me know if you would like to put this together. Thanks.

Robot Shipped

The Robot is safely in the Rochester Warehouse. We did some last minute changes and it will make a deadly accurate fast, short range shooter.

Finger Lakes Regional - Rochester is March 4-7
For those going to Rochester. Please make sure you hand in all the forms.

Greater Toronto regional at the Hershey Center is March 26-28.
Pit Crew and Practice March 26.
Competition and Spectators March 27.
Finals March 28.