The First District Competition

With the amount of workload with school and the robot, our editors haven't been able to post. Anyway, Friday and Saturday (2/28/14 and 3/1/14) were the dates of our first district competition, over at Auburn Mountainview High School. After having the smoothest inspection 3781 as ever had, we actually had time to play a practice match! (which we found our autonomous code was too long). Going into Qualification Matches, we had a 6:6 win:loss ration, and had a 5 win streak on Friday. We kept burning out our Jaguars, and weren't sure why.

But, even with several issues on our robot causing us to opt out of two matches, we had some great accomplishments. One of our goals this year was to have a scoring robot: which we did. In several matches we scored in the low goal, and in a few matches helped gain assist points. Another goal was to have a working autonomous; which we did. In most matches [that the Jaguars weren't burned out in] we were able to drive forward and empty the ball into the low goal.

And although we didn't get into the Elimination Matches, 3781 got as close as they have ever came to it. 3781 was the first alternate to Elimination, meaning that if a robot in Elimination couldn't make it to a match, we would be moved in instead. Although no robot in Elimination broke down, it was still as close as we have ever come.

All together, the competition went well! We made our goals, and were as close to Elimination as we have ever been before. Out of 32 participating teams at the district, we ranked 19. Overall: best competition this team as seen yet!

We have took what we messed up on last competition, and are preparing for the next one in a few weeks (3/21/14 and 3/22/14). We plan on switching the Jaguars to Talon SR, and will add Omni-wheels for better turning. The shooter is also another goal for us, but our main focus is making a more competitive robot.

-- Philip Rader

    Hey my name is Michael and I'm the co-leader of the team 3871. Since our last update we have finished the bumpers, managed to get the loader attached to the robot and redesigned the shooter yet again. Sadly, we do not have pictures we can attach at this moment, but we will put them on as soon as possible.

     Today, we made progress on a few key areas.  First, we nearly completed the battery holder, where the battery will sit on the robot.  This part is essential, because FIRST will not let a robot with an unprotected battery compete.

     Next up was some organization.  Philip and I measured and recorded our entire inventory of 30-30 metal.  Moving forward, it will be important to know how much of each material we have.

     Finally, we had Michael call up someone who was interested in donating to our team.  Although early in the attempt, we believe we will be receiving a donation from the individual.  We are thankful for people like this, who contribute greatly to our ability to build the robot.

     Sorry about the lack of images.  Hopefully next post will be more colorful.

--Isaiah Tongedahl

First Visit Field Evaluation

Philip went over to the TRA (Tacoma Robotics Alliance), where 3781 used to be built in 2011 and 2012. The two teams that were there were way farther ahead. 3393, Puyallup High School Robotics Club, have a pick-up system almost identical to ours. Their shooting system is based on our failed "boot" shooter. They lift the ball to the top of their robot, and use a pneumatic piston to swing a arm towards the ball, with a weighted metal brick at the end. 2557, SOTABots (School of the Arts Robotics), pick up the ball like a vacuum cleaner (but with wheels instead of suction), and use a mini-catapult that is spring loaded. Both teams have great ideas, and gave 3781 tips on how we could improve systems on our robot.

In addition to visiting the teams, TRA builds a practice field every year of the year's game. They weren't completely finished, but they were done with a majority of it.

Doing a series of tests, we found that the low goals are quite difficult to simply roll the balls into the goal:

The same goes for pushing with bumpers; it isn't easy:

On the bright side of things, the high goals aren't that hard to get the ball into. It doesn't require much aim, you just have to have the mass to bump it into the goal:

From the looks of things, our shooter looks like it will work quite fine.

-- Philip Rader

Slingshot Shooter

We built a mockup of the slingshot-like shooter we designed, after realizing the catapult design was impossible. We built it fast, and tried it out. The results were promising:

Wanting to try yet another alternative, our mentor suggested trying a arm that "boots" the ball. We built it and tested it. It was a complete failure, and would not work at all. So, we decided that we would finalize and use the slingshot shooter. We created a "grocery list" of things we would need, so that our mentor could get the materials over the weekend.

In addition, our pick-up system is almost complete. All that is left is to attach the motor, chemical weld the wheels to the churro, and attach it to the chassis.

-- Philip Rader

Shooter Progress

    Sorry about the lack of posts in the last week. We plan on returning to more frequent updates from here on out.

    Over the last week, serious work went into the shooter. Unfortunately, we discovered our current shooter design wasn't functional. The "trackball method" we used was unable to launch the ball into the air at all. 

   

    However, after a bit of thought, and modifying a previous idea, we came up with the following idea: 

       The ball would come to rest between four pillars which would hold it in place, leaving up as the only escape.  At the bottom, there will be a pole attached to elastic.  When the pole is pulled back and let go, it would push the ball out, and with any luck, towards the goal.

--Isaiah Tongedahl

January 16th, 2014

     Today we made serious progress on the design of our robot's shooter.  To start off, we drew everyone's ideas on the shooter and listed the pros and cons of each.  After going through and determining which ideas were the most feasible in both space, efficiency and our ability to fabricate them, we ended up with the trackball method.

     Finishing this task, we began the process of developing the goals.  These would be used for testing the robot once completed.

--Isaiah Tongedahl

Welcome to the Team 3781 Blog!

Welcome to our blog! In here, we'll be updating our followers with news on the robot's construction and any other related information. When possible, we'll also include photos of our progress. Keep checking back on meeting days (which you can find to the right side of the screen) for updates. The blog will be updated as often as possible, so keep watching. Thanks.

--Isaiah Tongedahl