Figure 1: Team 1241 Robot
On January 3rd 2013 FIRST Robotics in collaboration with NASA released the 2013 FRC game challenge, teams were given 6 weeks to prototype, design, manufacture, program, and iterate their designs. After this time teams are forced to stop working on their robot and lock it away until competitions begin.
During 2013 FIRST released a game called Ultimate Accent, the goal of this challenge was to score regulation sized Frisbees and attempt to climb up a pyramid for additional points.
Video 1: 2013 FRC Game Animation
I completed this project in my final year of high school. As team Captain I led a group of students through solving the complex challenge placed before us. The project took a total of 4 months from initial game launch to competing in the final match at the World Championship. Our dedication and constant aim to create the most efficient design ultimately paid off. We attended the World Championship and brought home Gold!
We competed with over 4000 teams from across the world and through a series of qualification and playoff matches, we made it onto the main stage at the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis Missouri. Below is a highlight video of our team competing at the World Championship.
Video 2: 2013 FRC Team 1241 Highlight Video
After reading the detailed game rules placed on FIRSTs' website, we began to brainstorm possible strategies to acquire the most points. We immediately determined these criteria:
• Fast agile robot able to travel at 16ft/s
• Must be able to score Frisbees as fast as possible from the protected area
• Must be able to pick up Frisbees from the floor
• Must be able to quickly acquire Frisbees from the human feeder zone
• Must climb to level 1 of the pyramid, if extra weight was left over we would attempt to climb higher
After another set of brainstorming and initial concept sketches we began to create our design using Autodesk Inventor. Here are pictures of our final design:
Figure 2: Top View of 2013 Robot
Figure 3: Iso View of 2013 Robot
During this year our school was forced to shut down extracurricular activities due a teacher’s union strike. We decided early on that we were not going to let this get in our way. We reached out to many sponsors and they were more than happy to help us out.
Templeton and Sons was one of our main sponsors, they manufactured 80% of our robot free of charge. Templeton and Sons was predominately a sheet metal fabrication shop, so we designed our robot according to this. It was a lot more challenging but allowed us to create a lighter more efficient design.
Another one of our main sponsors was Sheridan Collage a local manufacturing collage that allowed us to use their school after hours to machine and assemble our robot.
Figure 4: Sheet Metal Parts Manufactured by our Wonderful Sponsor
During the final week of the 6 week build season we were hit with very large snowstorm and Sheridan was forced to close down. I did not want this lack of facilities to jeopardize our season, so I took it upon myself to make sure we had a space to work. I made a few phone calls and arranged for the robot and all the parts to brought to my basement. We than worked around the clock to finish the project.
Figure 5: Robot Being Assembled in my Basement due to the School Shutting Down
Figure 6: Initial Wiring layout
Figure 7: Intake Mechanism Mounted
Figure 8: Shooter mounted and Final Wiring Beginning
Figure 9: Completed Wiring of the Robot
Figure 10: Completed Robot After the 6 Week Build Season
After 6 long sleepless weeks the build season was finally over and the robot was locked away in a giant zip lock bag.
We than waited patiently for the competitions to start. At our first competition we placed 2nd and were amazed. We had not done this well in years.
We also won the Engineering inspiration award for outstanding community outreach. This granted us a position in the 2013 FRC World Championship held in St. Louis Missouri!
Figure 11: 2013 Robot at its First Ever Competition
Figure 12: Minor Iteration Were done to the Robot after its Initial Competition
After our final Regional we noticed or drive base was giving us a lot of problems. We would often stall our motors when we tried to turn. We did not want to give up the speed we had so gearing the drivetrain down was not an option. Instead we swapped out or wheels, we used new wheels with a much smaller coefficient of friction and turning was no longer a problem.
Figure 13: A Large Iteration was Done to the Drive Before the World Championship
Figure 14: 2013 FRC Robot at the World Championship
At the World Championship we unveiled our new and improved robot and placed 5th in our division. This granted us the privilege to choose 2 robots to be our partners for the rest of the playoffs. After a stressful strategy meeting we chose to pick our partners based on how they performed at their own regionals as opposed to how they were doing at the World Championship. Many very good teams did not perform very well due to minor complications, however this did not harm our confidence in these teams. We decided to pick a team from Texas, 1477, and a local Canadian team 610 from Toronto.
Our strategy was to have 3 robots that would all sprint back to the feeder station and score points with 100% accuracy. This strategy was slightly slower but ensured that we would get a constant amount of points. Almost every other team’s decision was to pick robots that had 80% accuracy climbing to the top of the pyramid and 80% accuracy at shooting full court shots.
This meant that there was only a 20% chance that we would be able to beat every other alliance at the World Championship.
With the data and the odds stacked against us we marched into the playoffs.
Figure 15: 2013 FRC World Championship Galileo Alliance
The decision ended up working for the best. We won our division and were headed off to the Einstein Finals field! We ended up losing 1 match out of every 3 round set during the playoffs. This was expected as the data said we would lose 80% of the time.
With the pressure of the entire robotics community watching us we began our climb to the Championship title.
Video 3: FInals Match Video at the 2013 FRC World Chamiponship
Figure 16: Aftermath of the World Championship
We did it! We were the new Champions of the World! A challenging rollercoaster ride ended off with a fairy tale ending.
