The 2017 FRC challenge, Steamworks, had the theme of steam-powered game elements – alliances scored points by loading gears onto two airships in the playing field, shooting fuel into boilers located at opposite ends of the field, and climbing ropes hanging from the davits on the airships.
Our build strategy was to create a robot whose strengths lay in acquiring gears and climbing, since those two tasks typically yielded the most points. We also built prototypes of a shooting mechanism, but this did not make it onto the final robot because we lacked the necessary space for it.
In the end, our robot (Zoidberg) had a pneumatics-powered gear intake that acquired gears from the floor, a winch-based climber with velcro, and our signature swerve drive, of course.
*Fun fact… Our robot was named Zoidberg due to its use of crab-claw-like flippers to help take in gears, and some team members’ love of the TV series Futurama.
Hudson Valley Regional at Rockland Community College, Suffern, NY, March 24th-26th:
With our swerve drive and consistent gear-grabber, we made it to the Semifinals as captain of the #3 alliance and won the Innovation in Control Award! Our partners were team #20, the Rocketeers, and team #3314, the Mechanical Mustangs. Throughout Qualifiers we performed well, scoring 307 points in our highest-scoring match, but due to the emergence of several mechanical issues (brown outs, swerve drive overheating, pneumatics leaks) we lost during semifinals. However, this loss ultimately helped us identify problems with our robot that we were able to fix, allowing us to make a strong comeback in the New York City regional.
New York City Regional at Armory Track, New York, NY, April 7th-9th:
After a frantic few weeks of planning and repairs, we managed to re-assemble our robot at the New York City regional and bring it back to working condition! To solve the brown-out issues, we eliminated the need for an air compressor by adding four more air tanks to the robot; we remade and replaced several swerve drive parts to increase efficiency; and courtesy of Alex, we perfected the program that allowed the robot to score gears during autonomous mode. At this point, Zoidberg could consistently score ~5 gears per match and complete a climb within about 5 seconds.
Our efforts eventually paid off: after prelims we were the #2 team, and were chosen to join the #1 seated alliance with team #4613, the Barker Redbacks, and team #5891, the UASGC Robosquad! Aside from a few isolated mishaps (namely our robot’s RoboRio needing replacement, a bumper falling off 5891’s robot, and a peg getting stuck in a gear during one memorable finals match) our alliance had a stellar performance. We won the regional, and our team will be going to the St. Louis Championships!
Zoidberg’s reveal video:
Clip from one of the Finals matches at the New York City regional, courtesy of a team member’s parent: