Our 2022 offseason was filled with learning and strategizing, and we were able to make a lot of significant progress that we’d normally not have time for during the season. Rather than going to an offseason competition like CalGames, our team, led by new captains Megan and Amartya, decided to focus on learning and practicing new skills so that we can do more during the season. We started off in the summer with CAD workshops for the entire team. This year we’re using a new tool, Onshape, which is easy to learn and completely browser-based, allowing us to collaborate from our own computers. CAD is an integral part of the robot-building process, and it’s helpful to have everyone familiar with it.
In the fall, our student leads ran three workshop tracks to introduce students to various robotics skills and get them ready for the season. Megan and Sophia led the build and design workshops and guided students as they built a ping pong ball catapult. In small groups, students designed and prototyped their idea from scratch, then ordered specific parts to properly execute their designs. The second track was split between code and electronics. In the first half of the workshops, led by Ananya and Sharanya, students wired the robot’s electrical system and ran the motors to test their completed circuits. In the second half led by Jay, Ishansh, and Logan, they set up code tools on their computer and did some vision testing on game pieces from last year. Finally, in the marketing and business track led by Sita, Varin, and Timo, students practiced writing sponsorship request letters and submitting grant applications. We’ve been able to raise a lot more money this season thanks to our offseason work!
We started kickoff by watching the game-revealing livestream, after which we got a basic grasp of the game. With two main game pieces—cones and inflatable cubes—the objective of this year’s challenge is to place these game pieces onto the nodes (placed on the grids located on both sides of the field). This year's unique endgame challenge is the charging station: a large, seesaw-like structure, located roughly in the middle of the field, that robots must balance themselves on to score extra points. The first obvious design necessity was a mechanism that could move both cones and cubes to their respective scoring targets. Other components of the game include the alliance substations, which allow human players to drop cones and cubes onto the field, and are crucial to our overall game strategy. Keeping this in mind, we started strategizing about the task at hand. First, we did a deep dive into the game manual: we split into groups and created presentations on parts of the manual. After that, we broke into groups again, but for a different reason: brainstorming robot mechanisms.
Some groups digitized their entire thinking process, others stuck to paper and whiteboards, but all of the groups ended up with around three ideas they wanted to explore by prototype or research. Some of the more popular ideas we had (those which multiple groups developed independently of each other) included a claw with tendons that functioned almost like a hand, a hook to catch the hole on the top of the cone, and pneumatics. The claw especially had many variations, including clapping arms (2 bars that came together to pick up game pieces), and an indentation in the robot to enclose the game piece. A number of the groups finished brainstorming before the time was up and started to CAD their ideas. Once the groups finished, we rejoined in Arena to present our ideas and wrapped up the first meeting of the year!
We jumped into Week 1 excited and ready to start creating! This year, we decided to explore the use of pneumatics, something we’ve historically been unsuccessful with. Our pneumatics subgroup didn’t let us down, and by the end of the week, they were able to demo a working prototype of what a clapping arm would look like! We also saw potential in a Z-bar concept—three bars connected to the robot with the ability to move along the Z and Y axis. As for the claw itself, a group decided to model it after a hand, using three tendons and a swiveling wrist to ensure a full range of movement. The auto-leveling group, which focused on making sure the robot can balance on the charging station, ordered key parts—an IMU sensor and compatible cables for the roboRIO. An IMU consists of a gyroscope (which measures pitch, roll, yaw), accelerometer (force and change in speed), and a magnetometer (direction). We can use the data the IMU collects through these three devices to code the robot to balance autonomously.
However, we didn’t just work on the robot: a group worked on building key components of the game arena/field for robot testing. This week, they completed their measurements and started cutting the wood pieces for the grid and charging station! We also began the process of stripping the previous season’s robot. The more parts we can reuse, the better, right? This effort worked closely with the inventory subteam, who started completely reorganizing the storage rooms and ordering much-needed tools online. All in all, it was a productive week for all teams—let’s keep up the good work!
The field construction team spent the week constructing a replica of the ‘grid,’ the area where game pieces are scored. The auto-leveling group began the process of familiarizing themselves with the NavX2 Java library while they waited for the IMU to arrive.
A few students started using Onshape, the CAD software, to model the parts of the design they were prototyping. As an arm mechanism alternative to the Z-bar, one of the groups focused on making a detailed CAD for a 4-bar linkage, similar to a design we used in 2019. For picking up the game pieces, groups used CAD for the “wrist” of the robot, serving as an extra way to increase the robot’s dexterity.
The pneumatics subgroup, while mostly successful, has been facing a lot of challenges. Through issues ranging from needing new pistons to breaking inexplicably, the subteam has persevered. Our team has not been able to get it to work in the past, but this year it’s a viable idea!
Week 3 was an exciting week for the team! As directed by the timeline group, it was our last week to finalize our prototypes. Early in the week, we worked hard to finalize all materials required for our key designs. We finished up the CAD designs for all the proposed elements of the robot, including the fingers, claw, and arm ideas.
The auto-leveling team started testing their code with the newly arrived IMU, as the field construction group focused on finishing the charging station platform this week. By Saturday, the robot chassis could autonomously balance itself on the charging station.
Another thing we’ve made progress on this week is organizing the inventory. The subteam is almost done with creating a functional management system and writing guides to help people find the right items. The vision group worked on adapting their code for this season’s challenge and they fabricated a digital mask to identify the yellow color of the cone. They’ve started working on how to identify the purple cube as well as how to determine the position of the cube on the field.