As A New Year Starts, So Does A New Robotics Season

By Aditi J. & Sita V.

February 11, 2022

FRC Team 6962 had a great start to their fifth season competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition on Kickoff Day back in January. Now in person, the team is excited to be working hands-on with the robot and getting dinner downtown during late nights. Ainsel, a student mentor and Moral Support Secretary,™ has started a catalog of the restaurants at Castro!

The team started their Castro visits in January, after the so-called “Kickoff” on January 8. During Kickoff, they were introduced to this season’s FRC challenge. The first objective in this game is to launch balls into the two connected hoops, the lower hub and the upper hub, at the center of the field. The second is the hangar, a series of ascending rungs that the robot must hang on to, something akin to monkey bars. Excited about these new challenges and how they  could approach them, the team  split into groups to start brainstorming mechanisms: Intake, led by Megan, the Design & Prototyping Lead; output, led by Sylvan; hang design, led by Vivek; and finally, strategy, led by Sophia, the  Build & Testing Lead.

Some of the ideas the intake design group came up with included a giant vacuum, which sucks up balls and stores them until they are ready to shoot. They also thought of a garbage truck, a contraption that picks up balls and launches them from the back of the robot. And  lastly, they brainstormed a tennis ball collector, essentially a large cage that is attached to a stick that the robot can use to pick up the balls.

The output group brainstormed different ideas for launching the balls into the hubs, like a tennis racket, revolver, or coil gun.

In the third subgroup, hang design, some of the ideas were the “Chopstick Bot:” a wheel with two rods connected to the robot that will be pushed forward by a spring, and the “Elevator Ramp:” a combination of a winch and conveyor belt mechanisms.

The strategy team looked at the different point values for each task in this year’s game. They focused on whether it was more efficient to aim for the lower or upper hubs. We also used graphing calculators to model the trajectories of different types of output mechanisms.

While most of the team was brainstorming in these groups, Pooja, the  Operations Lead, and a few other students got to work on the timeline for this season. They made a list of tasks and set deadlines for each one. This timeline will make sure they finish the robot on time and don’t have to do any big tasks last-minute. 

In the marketing subteam, RobotX made a lot of progress on updating and revising the sponsor packet. We also had productive discussions about other outreach opportunities and sponsorship ideas. Soren, our web development manager, is in the midst of updating the team’s website.

The CAD (Computer-Aided Design) subteam, led by Simon, has been working tirelessly as well. Many of its members have been working on practicing CAD and integrating robot parts, such as a model of the tough box in a model of the chassis.

A small group of team members led by Inventory Manager Alisha looked through the Kit of Parts given to us by FRC on Kickoff day. She said they “made sure everything was accounted for and then [we] started organizing and listing down all the parts we currently have so we can figure out what we need to buy.” It’s been a bit of a challenge so far with all the different materials and tools, but they’re working hard!

The season has just started and RobotX is off to a great start! The team hopes to reach further this year than ever before, in terms of competition, outreach, and more! KLS is excited to see what the team achieves this season through teamwork and dedication.