FRC Team PyroTech at the 2014 Palmetto FRC Regional

We recently arrived back at The Forge from an awesome competition at the Palmetto FRC Regional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where 67 FRC teams competed in Aerial Assist. We met a lot of great teams and had tons of fun.

Our robot passed inspection at 10:30am the first day - a new record!  As our team was getting ready to test the robot functions in a practice match, we found a few things amiss.  We seemed to have an electrical problem.  Troubleshooting for several hours and then several more hours led to replacing multiple victors, testing lots of connections and eventually replacing the digital sidecar which controls the signals for the motor controllers.  

Friday morning we were able to compete in our first qualification match.  There were a few mechanical issues through the day however we fully participated in each of our scheduled matches.

We practiced scouting in the pits and in the stands, talked to all the other teams and connected with as many people as we could and had lots of fun being a part of the competition.

The Palmetto Regional was a fabulous prototype competition for our team.  We even brought home another Hard Hat Award for the safety in outreaches that Team PyroTech does!  We hopefully got all the bugs out of the robot and team scheduling so we should be good to go at the NC FRC Regional on March 14-15, 2014.  

Woodie Flowers!

Robot judges at the PyroPit

Scouting other drive teams

Fixing mechanical issues

Earning Safety Hat Award!

Less than 3 sec bumper change week 5!

Warning from bumper crew

PyroTech at Paragon Application Systems for Demo - End of Week 4 2014

FRC Team PyroTech visited one of their sponsors, Paragon Application Systems, at the end of week 4 to show off what had been accomplished.  

There was a little snow just to make things interesting....

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PT 2014 Paragon Demonstration Photo Album

Thank you Paragon Application Systems!

First time driving and attempting to control the ball...

Halfway Through The PyroTech Build Season

It all started at kick off on January 4th... We went to East Carolina University and worked with Team 2642, the Pitt Pirates to run a Human Player Game (HPG) based on the new game “Aerial Assist.”  We used office chairs, pool noodles, and exercise balls for our HPG. This was the first time we had ever done the HPG away from Dorton Arena and assisted another team.

After Kick Off we had very intense strategy meetings then moved on to our first proof of concepts.  We spent most of our time during Week 1 trying out new ideas to see what worked or didn’t.  We were holding off on true prototypes until we had more ideas of what the materials actually could do.

Our team is using an Agile approach to build season this year with the hope that we will have a more finished robot earlier in the build season.  Given that, each Saturday the team gets together to set all the goals we wish to accomplish for each week looking ahead at the overall goals for build season.  The thought is to ‘fail faster’.  Find out what doesn’t work quickly so we don’t spend extra time on something that we won’t use later.

We worked on:

• The Plow
• The Plow is sort of a bulldozer type thing for moving the ball around the field and pushing it into the low goal
• Here is an early version, but it’s already really improved
• Electrical
• We worked on putting together our electrical board
• Pneumatic Shooter
• Baskets for catching
• The “WIS”  or Wheel Intake System
• Our picker upper type prototype

Week two we mostly turned proofs of concepts that were working into prototypes and continued to work on more Chairmans documentation. Items due before bag and tag.

 

We have:

• Team Essay
• Short Answers
• Business Plan

 

We must finish all of these while building a robot to compete with that isn’t just a toaster (a robot that can move around but can’t do anything else)!

Week three we worked on:

WIS (Wheel Intake System)

• CIS (Chopstick Intake System)
• Plow
• Electrical
• Chassis
• Mecanum wheels
• Pneumatics

  

It is now week four and we are starting to hit our panic button, or at least we should be! We have a demo at Paragon this upcoming Friday which we hope to bring a functioning robot to. (the snow is interfering with our building time!)

Pneumatics

Reconfiguring the WIS

Chassis build

V ball pusher

Not to clear a shot.

Week 2, robot

Robot prototype
Ball pusher- getting ball into 1 point goal

Proof of Concepts Week 1 Video 3 - multiple tests

From PT 2014 Build Season Week 1

Proof of Concept Week 1 Video 2

From PT 2014 Build Season Week 1

Week 1 Proof of Concept Video 1

From PT 2014 Build Season Week 1

Fwd: Connecting electrical to prototype chassis

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Karen Mellendorf <kmel90@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 12:07 PM
Subject: Connecting electrical to prototype chassis
To: PT Build Blog <wakerobotics.org.flamingrobots@gmail.com>

Our first iteration electrical board is coming together!

Rob and Larry doing a safety inspection before testing throwing the ball

2014 Build Season Week 1 Proof of Concepts

Kit of Parts (KOP) Exploration

Some of the favorite items:  bubble wrap, 4” wheels, new chassis material,

24” game ball, lead screws, electrical components, and 4’ zipties

Proof of Concepts during Week 1 of PyroTech’s 2014 Build Season

   

Ball catchers

  

Pneumatic kicker and electrical discussions

   

Testing kicking options, Clark thinking his way through another concept

   

Ball picker upper and a ball holder

   

Ball catcher and popper and LEGO concept of grabber 

       

Slingshot ramp using bands to push and tool use in action.