2018-2019

ROVER RUCKUS

Rover Ruckus was an exciting challenge for our team. Having a good working knowledge of linear slides from the previous season, our initial focus was on building a lift assembly for lifting/lowering the robot and latching to the lander until the game starts. After evaluating the various options, we finalized on a linear slide assembly using extrusions and a latch operated by a servo to hold the robot to the lander. We made efficient use of worm gear which allowed us to hold the robot in place without sliding down. We worked on the grabber assembly which has the ability to pick up gold (a cube) or a silver (a ball) and sort it before placing in the lander. We designed a custom sorter and successfully deposited the minerals in the right depot. We competed in many scrimmages, qualifier, league and state competitions and won many awards throughout the season.

Engineering Design: Engineering Design

Code Repository : FTC2018-RoverRuckus.git

Rover Ruckus Challenge

In the Rover Ruckus Challenge, teams have landed on an unknown planet and must race to gather gold and silver minerals and climb back onto the landing ship before the end of the match.

See the Rover Ruckus Introduction Video here

For detailed information about the Rover Ruckus Challenge, see the Game Manual

Autonomous Period

Lower robot from the lander to the playing field - 30 pt
Place Team Marker (custom made by team) in alliance depot - 15 pt
Move Gold sampling mineral (without moving the two silvers) - 25 pt
Park in Crater - 10 pt

Driver-Controlled Period

Deliver a mineral to Alliance Depot - 2 pt / mineral
Place Gold mineral in Gold Compartment of Lander - 5 pt
Place Silver mineral in Silver Compartment of Lander - 5pt

Endgame

Latch onto lander and lift robot off the floor - 50 pt
Park partially in Crater - 15 pt
Park Completely in Crater - 25 pt

Season Awards

Think Award

Deep South League

Autonomous

Jersey Shore Meet

Think Award

Fall Harvest Meet

Evolution of the Intake Assembly

Design 1

Folding Arm with Foam Wheels

This is the quick version of the intake made for the October meet. We made a folding arm with a pair of foam wheels driven by continuous rotation servos. The minerals are then placed in the platform behind the wheels for transferring to delivery bins

Design 2

Drawer Slides Extender with Wood Intake

We wanted to extend our intake system into the crater so we could pick up minerals from anywhere in the crater so we added drawer sliders horizontally. We also created a new intake system made of wood which rotated surgical tubing to slap minerals into the robot. We also added some polycarbonate panels to help grab the minerals.

Design 3 (Final)

X-Rail Slide Extender with Foam Intake

We remade the intake system out of foam so that it was much lighter and didn't droop while extending the intake system to collect minerals in the crater. After the drawer slide system broke, we implemented the X-rail slides to extend the intake system to the side of the robot which lighter and more smooth although it is higher on the robot and occupies more space

Evolution of the Delivery Assembly

Design 1

Original Sorted deliver lift

Rack and Pinion Linear Slides with minerals that are sorted in to separate bins for depositing the minerals to the lander. The minerals are sorted by height. The silver minerals which are larger hit the barrier and are redirected to the left bin whereas the smaller gold minerals go straight into the right bin

Design 2 (Final)

X-rail slide vertical lift with foam sorter

Sort and delivery assembly build using plastic foam board and polycarbonate. The sorting works like a coin sorter, based on the shape and size of the minerals. The sorting assembly is really light. They are lifted vertically with an X-rail slide kit.

Autonomous Path

Mineral Detection

Move backwards away from the lander
Turn left so that the robot is now facing the center mineral straight on.
Sense the mineral, if it is the gold mineral move forward. iIf not move sideways first to the left mineral, then the right mineral (if the left mineral was not gold either). When thegold mineral is found, the robot should move forward.

Depot Side

Robot turns 45 degrees to the right so that the front of the robot is facing the depot.
Robot moves to the left until it is just about to touch the wall
Wall Align (use two distance sensors on the side of the robot to sense the wall and make sure that the robot is straight)
Robot moves forward into the depot and releases the marker
Robot moves backwards into the crater on the opposing crater side of the playing field

Crater Side

Robot moves backwards the same distance it moved forward to displace the mineral
Robot turns 90 degrees to the left so that it is parallel with the line of the minerals
Robot moves forward toward the depot wall
Robot turns 45 degrees to the left so that the robot is facing the depot
Wall Align (use two distance sensors on the side of the robot to sense the wall and make sure that the robot is straight)
Robot moves forward into the depot and releases the marker
Robot moves backwards into the crater

Autonomous Period Flowchart

Driver-Controlled Period Flowchart

Videos

IMG_2936.MOV

Sorting Mechanism in Action

IMG_1350.mov

Robot intakes minerals and sorts them into the lander

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