Madera South’s gym transformed once more into the stage for the annual central valley regional this last weekend. Robotics teams from across the state and beyond flocked to Madera to share in the excitement of the event.

On Friday, the doors to the pit opened and teams poured in to prep robots and run practice matches so they would be ready for Saturday’s qualification rounds. Team 1323 was unable to run any practice matches as it took the entire day to fully prepare the competition robot. While several team members finished the robot, the drive team stayed at North to get some practice with the second robot. However, time was split between coding and practicing, so the drivers could not get enough practice to reach the equivalent of practicing at the competition.

The competition is organized by sets of qualification matches, followed by alliance selection, and finally elimination rounds. Random teams of three compete all day Saturday and some of Sunday in order to achieve the highest rank possible. After these matches end, the top eight teams select two permanent teammates for eliminations. Then, a tournament bracket is created and teams play to move on by winning two out of three matches in quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals.

Team 1323 was not as strong as expected this year as a result of coding issues and inexperienced drivers. Seeding thirtieth out of forty-nine teams, 1323 was unable to operate at its full potential for any of the qualifications. However, in the spirit of gracious professionalism, 1323 received assistance from other teams to fix their issues and was ultimately selected by team 254 and 1678 to join their alliance and enter eliminations. 1323 was not present until finals, because they were adding a mechanism to improve team synergy with the alliance. Ultimately, the alliance succeeded and all three teams earned their tickets to the world championships.

Pre-Competition Preparations.

With the Competition Robot bagged, work on parts required planning on how to quickly add final items to the robot during the regional. The week was primarily consumed by testing final alterations and creating a finished robot. To do this, the team tested different tweaks and add-ons to the robot. The reverse carriage, which holds the totes and recycling bin in place, required the most testing, and needed three versions to be tested before a final design could be selected. While parts were being put together, mounted, tested, unmounted and changed, some students were busy machining parts for pieces which had been tested, as well as parts to test later.

                The intake was changed to be faster and more efficient by adding longer arms and a second set of rollers. The reverse carriage had separate components for the totes and recycling container finalized. Because there is a gap between the reverse carriage and carriage, the recycling bin has the issue of being loosely held in the robot until more totes are added to bring it into the grip of the reverse carriage. Until then, the can has the potential to fall out of the robot. To fix this, pistons were put onto the powered carriage to pin the bin in place until it reaches the appropriate height.

Week 5 Update

Manufacturing went  into full swing this week, which required the effort of each team member. Machining, polishing, bolting, riveting, wiring, and  zip tying filled the entire week's schedule.

With the belly pans in from Treat Enterprises, assembly began for both the practice bot and the competition robot. With the ultimate goal of assembling the practice bot by the end of the week, work was hectic and fast-paced. By the end of the Wednesday meeting, much of the practice bot's base was assembled, and wiring of the motor controllers to the power distribution board was under way. The first set of powder coated parts came in from Star Finishes, so the competition bot was in the same state.

By the end of the week, many parts had been milled out, but many still had to be machined. Swerve modules on the practice bot were finally fully assembled, and the mast for the robot's elevator was further supported by the addition of front and back supports. The carriage, which is raised and lowered on the mast, was completed and put on the robot.

This week of all-out manufacturing was not without delays and issues. Several orders of parts were delayed, such as gears for the swerve and roborio (the control system of the robot). Though nothing could be done to work around the missing control system, the team did 3-D print gears to use until the shipment of swerve gears arrived.

System Spotlight: Human Player

Totes can be picked up in only two ways: from the field or from the human player. The human player will place totes in a closed chute before raising a door which will allow the tote to fall out onto the field.

In order to quickly get totes from the chute and ready for pickup, the team created an entire subsystem for this method of intaking totes. The human loader component is perhaps the simplest design on the bot. A ramp with guides is mounted on the back of the robot, which matches the inclined angle of the chute. Sets of wheels on the ramp pull the chute forward and down into the correct position for holding. To make the degree of incline correct, the ramp had to extend beyond the maximum dimensions of the robot. This issue was resolved by rotating the back end of the ramp up to fit within the allowed dimensions. A small gearbox mounted on the frame is powered to raise and lower the ramp.

Week 4 Update

The largest shift in team dynamics always occurs when prototyping ends, and manufacturing begins. Instead of testing an idea, students build a final model and tweak its fully fleshed out design. Instead of making runs to General Builder's Supply for screws and rivets, students unpack metal deliveries. And instead of discussing concepts and goals, students are hard at work cutting, drilling, and smoothing out parts for the robot. Madera's robots are constructed mostly of parts created within the school shop, so team members must be precise. Most pieces can only be off by five thousandths of an inch, and some must be even closer.

With the first set of parts finished, primarily for the swerve system, the team began to clean up and send out pieces to be anodized. Anodizing is a finishing process in which electric current is passed through a conductive water-based current which the part is submerged in. Oxygen forms on the part, which creates a thin layer of aluminum oxide which covers the surface. This new layer can be easily dyed, and prevents corrosion of the part. It also has the added benefit of creating a fashionable sleek black or blue finish.

Larger parts were also produced this week. Some students spent the week cutting and shaving down 2 inch by 1 inch aluminum tubing to the perfect length for the robots frame. These parts will be powder coated, where a dry powder is charged electrically to form a thicker layer of paint on a part. Some larger parts Are made by team sponsors, including the belly pan which was generously cut out for 1323 by Treat Enterprises, among other parts.

Despite the team's move from prototyping to manufacturing, several changes still had to be made to the robot. The intake for the tote box, which initially picked up only boxes, now had to be modified to pick up recycling containers as well. Even though not much had to be added to make it work, this addition took the team quite some time to figure out how to keep added parts from inhibiting other functions of the bot.

System Spotlight: Swerve Drive

Each robot is designed and built from the ground up. This year the team decided to try something new with the bot's drive system. Every year the robots designed by team 1323 were driven by a tank style drive system, with two sets of three wheels which would spin at different speeds to turn, then at the same speed to move forward.

Instead of using this traditional design, 1323 is using a swerve system. Swerve drives operate like creepers that mechanics use to get underneath cars, in that each wheel can roll in any direction. Using this system, the robot can face forward, but move in any direction easily, which will help it to effectively grab boxes from the field and deposit full stacks in scoring zones.

This new drive system requires two motors per wheel to rotate and drive. One motor rolls the wheel forward or backward, while a small motor pivots the wheel to oriented in the desired direction. This is achieved by having a gear on the shaft that holds the wheel, and a gear above the wheel casing. The gear on the wheel shaft is spun to drive it, while the gear that moves with the casing is driven to reorient each wheel. Four of these swerve gearboxes will be mounted on the corners of the robot, which widens the supportive base and prevents tipping.

Gearbox plates, shafts, and wheel mounts were made in house while gears were shaved down using the team's equipment to reduce weight.

Week 3 Update

Last week team 1323 designed the human loader on the back of the robot. With the loader complete, all that remained in design was creating a method to hold the recycling bin, and updating the tote holder. With many components in the final stages, a mentor was able to work with students to begin writing code for the robot's human operation, and many basic processes were prepared. Having code made it easy to see problems that the robot had, which were not visible when systems were operated manually, and adjustments were made to fix these issues. Nearly every system on the robot was modified slightly, but in the end it functioned better than anticipated at performing the tasks set out for it.

With design almost completed preparations were made for manufacturing as soon as the team was ready. Supplies were ordered and either shipped in or picked up. Modeling design was almost completely finished and plans were made for parts would be produced. Some team members would be able to use the near fully functional prototype to practice operating it, while others coded, and yet another set of students observed to see what modifications had to be made. 

(An assembled elevator for the prototype)

Pictures and a detailed explanation of this years robot will be posted soon as build season comes to a close.