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FRC 2023 Game Overview
FRC 2023 Game Overview
In the game Charged Up, teams scored points by maneuvering cones and cubes across the field to be placed on a grid and balancing the alliance's robots on a seesaw at the end. See game video.
Team 4817 CADed two designs that year, but unfortunately due to confidence issues in other sub teams, we decided to only build and compete with the simpler of the two designs. As the team co-captain responsible for design, CAD & mechanical, I had successfully trained the team during the off-season. For competition season, I slipped back into a hands-on deep in the trenches role that I have always enjoyed.
The More Advanced Design
The More Advanced Design
The Final CAD of the More Advanced Design
For this more advanced design, I settled on making a design that had a rotating arm on an elevator. This would allow for the a lot of different movements that if optimized would be able to smoothly manipulate the game elements. This design had enough reach to comfortable get to the highest row of the grid where there were a lot of points to be scored.
The Final Version of the Multi-Tool Claw
I oversaw the creation of the multi-tool claw, pushing my CAD member through 8 iterations of it. The point of the tool was to make something that could easily pick up both cubes and cones, which have signficantly different profiles.
The Final Version of the Elevator and Arm
I personally CADed the elevator and arms for this design. With our new waterjet, it was possible to make plates out of aluminum (instead of only plastics like Delrin). This allowed me to take the design to a new level of complexity while being confident that specific plates would not break. With only myself designing these two sections, it was possible to make the parts integrate seamlessly. The design included slot holes and CAM for one set of chain tensioning, and a nut and bolt pushing against a 3D print for another set of chain tensioning. Encoders were placed at key positions so that E&P would be able to accurately check the position of the arm. Energy chain was used to guide the wiring in all the different potential positions of the arm. The plates were nicely rounded and aesthetically pleasing.
This was also the first time I thought seriously about how to organize a Fusion 360 file to optimize for the end user (which is basically the mechanical subteam). Mechanical likes to know what stock pieces and Thunderhex lengths have to be fabricated, which is why they are the top two components. Then Delrin, Spacers, Markforged (3D Prints), and Aluminium are all parts that CAD fabricates using more advanced machines. Finally the motion, hardware, and other (in this case energy chain) components are at the bottom.
The CAD seemed pretty good, but when reviewing the design with the E&P team later on in the season, they reported that they were not confident in programming a multi-axis arm. This was frustrating after all of our work so far, but we had been simultaneously making a simpler design, so we choose to refine that one and make it the final robot.
This taught me that it is important to focus on developing the other sub teams, so that whatever CAD can create, the rest of the team can support.
The Simpler Design
The Simpler Design
The Final CAD of the Simpler Design
The CAD team designed the drive base and intake to be adaptable enough between the two different designs, so the only significantly different section is the arm and tower. Unfortunately, this arm was not capable of reaching the third highest level of the grid to score points. This ended up limiting our performance at regional events, but it was a robot that more of the team was confident could be made.
Last Minute Plate CAD
The CAD members I trained had a good learning experience. As this was the first robot they had designed that was actually being made, they learned about the problems mechanical faces when making certain annoying parts and the failure points of poorly designed plates. This resulted in a bit of trouble shooting on mechanical's part and a few plates being reCADed last minute, but the robot was ultimately able to compete.
The Final Product
The Final Product
The Robot on the Field and Competing
We sent the robot to compete at the Southern Cross and Hawaii regionals. These were the first regionals the team had been to in person since the 2019 competition season (due to COVID-19), so it was a very valuable learning experience. We expanded our social network with teams we met at the competition and made some good memories.
The Team With Other Teams We Met
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