Week 1
Week One Overview
Guided by the leadership of project manager Owen, our team enthusiastically embraced the project theme "FIRST in Show." Owen's kickoff infused energy into the field build, involving meticulous organization of drawings, part labeling, and the anticipation of additional materials. The exploration of the FRC 2024 game manual delved into key elements such as ranking points, scoring analysis, strategy priorities, auton, teleop, and endgame. Subsequent work sessions witnessed progress in field layout, kitbot base development, and strategic planning. Prioritizing design features propelled us through the field build, stage component assembly, and CAD model completion. Prototyping efforts encompassed shooter, intake, and climb concepts, with rigorous testing ensuring innovative solutions. An Open House Event attracted prospective students, while subgroups engaged in testing mechanisms and discussing cohesive concepts. The design team's creation of rough animations for two concepts aptly reflects our collective progress, marking a significant milestone in our journey.
Jan 6 2024:
Owen, our team's project manager, reviewed the daily agenda with the entire team before the kickoff video played. He made an entrance that was fit for this year's theme "FIRST in Show" & Roller coaster hype to get the team pumped up.
Game Animation
Our team started our field build. Our field build team printed published field drawings, organized the drawings into a binder, separated raw materials, and labeled cut parts alongside the drawings as they were completed. Additional materials needed to be cut.
As we waited for additional materials to be purchased from our local hardware store, we started our field layout. We measured and added tape lines around our field to label where completed field elements will be placed.
Analysis
Students lead subgroups and created shared documentation to review the frc 2024 game manual. The emphasis was centered around identifying how we accomplish the following tasks:
Ranking Points
Scoring Analysis
Strategy / Priorities
Auton
Teleop
Endgame
Tasks to accomplish strategies
Jan 8 2024:
Our team came in on Sunday to continue working on our field build. We cut parts to length, labeled them, and placed them in designated areas. We also made good headway on our kitbot base. We expect to have the robot completed within the next two build sessions. The next session will be mechanism completion and the following session will complete the wiring & code. Our student project management team also worked to summarize our ideas from kickoff. They came up with a list of features we need to design in order to play that best aligns with our strategy we outlined.
Robot Concept.pdfJan 9 2024:
We nearly completed our field build. We assembled our 3 stage assemblies to made the full stage. We assembled our speaker, amplifier, & source. With each of these assemblies completed, our design teams can now use them for prototyping and concept development. Each subteam worked on manufacturing their prototype. By the end of the work session we had a functioning intake prototype, shooter prototype, and climb concept roughly outlined.
Our base team has completed their CAD model of the base, and are awaiting feedback for changes they need to consider such as frame perimeter updates. The students enjoy practicing their end game tosses with the recently completed stage in place.
Jan 10 2024:
Our subteams worked hard on their individual sub assemblies creating laser cut parts, and quickly assembling frames with t-slot aluminum. Prototypes were tested with drill motors to test functionality feasibility. The shooter prototype made the most headway and test shots were taken. The assembly was taken apart and reassembled repeatedly to test various shooting wheel materials and compression. Other theories surfaced about a top driven wheel set vs a side driven wheel set.
The intake assembly investigated under the base intake vs over the bumper intake. The modeled the side profile using Solidworks Blocks to see the movement of their sketch to scale with other design constraints. They took inspiration from the 2020 FTC game where teams picked discs up off the ground and shot them toward a target.
Jan 11 2024:
20240110_164054.mp4Our lab hosted an Open House Event for our incoming juniors. Our students had to balance working in their subgroups and answering parents questions about the program. We currently have about 40 students that have applied to the 30 openings with more to follow tonight.
In our subgroups we were able to test shooting mechanisms, creating orange confetti. The field build team continued to refine some of the assemblies and calibrated the trap door on each of the three sections of the stage.
Our subgroups discussed how to create a cohesive concept that blends each of the subteams ideas together. As they discuss the details they identified points of concern they needed to investigate further before reconnecting. We have three concepts that have a reasonable likelihood to be considered for our final design. Our design team was able to create a rough animation of how two of the three concepts were intended to function.
Trap Goal Calibration.pdf