We had two weeks between competitions to debrief, enact fixes, and try to improve our competitiveness. Our main hurdle was the issue with our climbing mechanism. We had some thoughts and plans for how we might fix it and make it more stable and reliable. Or - we could take a Dremel to the top half of the robot, design a brand new system, and walk into our second competition with a pretty different looking robot.
2022-03-12
Yep, we scrapped the old one and in 8 days designed, manufactured, tested, and fully automated a brand new climbing mechanism.
It sounds like a major ordeal, and somewhat was - but we followed one of the golden rules of FRC: Steal from the best, invent the rest. By this time, many other teams across the world had started competing and showing of their mechanisms to wrangle game pieces and climb. We looked at a climbing mechanism used by team #125 out of Boston, MA, and realized we could make it fit on our robot, and would likely provide us a lower center of gravity as well, to improve our general driving characteristics! Win-win.
On top of this major redesign challenge, we spent several nights working with the drive team - practicing drills, re-watching matches, and practicing some more.
No-Bag Pictures!
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| The original structure and configuration. We removed the uppermost structure to make room for the new mechanism. |
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| New climbing arms mounted - currently in their "sprung" position. Most of the time, these would be held down by a winch strap until we go for the climb. |
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| Testing the geometry in real life with the new arms and position. Looks good! |
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| Our surrogate puppy River is very happy with the results. And her stick. |
-B
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