Robot Drivetrain

Our Drivetrain System is a modified GoBilda Strafer chassis with more space at the front so that our linear slides can be centered and have better weight distribution. We have been using Mecanum wheels for several years now and they are still our preferred way of driving. Our robot is capable of both Robot-Oriented Drive (which we call Point-Of-View or POV), as well a Field-Oriented Drive using a NavX-micro sensor. For this year, most of our drivers prefer Robot-Oriented Drive.

Vision System

This year, we decided to use OpenCV with webcam color detection. EasyOpenCV is in our opinion, the most powerful form of computer vision, but it is also the hardest to use, especially since it’s not built into the SDK. After tinkering with the custom OpenCV library, we were able to create a code and a pipeline that can detect different RGB colors for running and getting pipeline results, If the pipeline is not detecting the correct color (such as being in different lighting environments), we can easily change the existing range values for the lower and upper RGB boundaries for the desired color. When tuned correctly, this system is preferred by our team. With a simple RGB Table, we were able to detect yellow and cyan quite accurately, where Yellow is at (255, 255, 0); Cyan is at (0, 255, 255); and Magenta is at (255, 0, 255). This detection method ends up being highly accurate and we have been using this system ever since. The only thing we have to do to improve accuracy is to run some test detections when we arrive at a certain League Meet location to slightly modify lower & upper bounds to match different lighting situations.

Team Scoring Element Build

Our final beacons (Team Scoring Elements) combine the look of a waffles-looking object but allows us to easily drop a beacon on top of a cone. This system made our endgame scoring very efficient and faster than most teams’ beacons we’ve seen across different League Meets, as it is essentially the same as picking up a cone, which our robot is really good at.

Intake System

We created a reliable claw system that allows our drivers to easily pick up and drop cones. We decided to go with a claw design over intake due to wanting an efficient autonomous system.

To prevent wires from being tangled/stuck this year, we also custom-ordered coiled wires with the correct gauge unit that is legal to use. We soldered servo connectors onto a 22 gauge (AWG) with 3 conductors and made sure everything was safe enough to be used. Our claws can now go up and down without the worry of it getting tangled.

Linear System

Our Linear System is a combination of cascading slides with a chain system. The chain allows us to hold the height position in place without gravity pulling our linear system down and affecting the system. It also allows us to have a fast system that goes up and down with only two rotations from our motors.

Our Linear System is capable of reaching from ground junctions all the way to high junctions. We also replaced our initial strings with steel wires so that we do not have to worry about the strings snapping. We are also not the best at knot-tying, so this solves that problem.

We are extremely happy with the end product of our Linear System. We used two linear slides together to help with weight distribution, as well as for symmetry. (Our coach, Mr. Han, loves symmetry.) This also helps in the event that one linear slide becomes loose or starts falling apart; we still have a second system in place to make sure we still have a system that works.

Other Miscellaneous Build Elements

Robots Hall of Fame