About
The Game
The game for 2023 was Charged Up, watch the game reveal here.
Scoring in this game was accomplished largely through placing cubes and cones on the grid, as well as balancing robots on the charge station at the end of the auto period and the end of the match. This was a very cycle-heavy game where much of a team’s performance was how quickly the robot can pick up a piece, travel across the field, then place the piece.
Team Abilities
The team had used swerve drive for the full 2022 season, and still have access to the same manufacturing resources. The team had a few more technical mentors come in who were alumni of other teams.
Robot Name
Like most years, the team paired up with Canadian Blood Services to name our robot after someone in need of a stem cell transplant. However this year, we got names of twins Misha and Zoey, marking the first year we name our robot after twins!
Fun Lore
- Misha-Zoey’s first match held the world record score at the time
- The arm went over itself in a qualification match at the Newmarket event, which broke every wire going into the wrist and intake :D The team did not send a robot to the field for the first time ever the next match as the pit crew worked on fixing the wires, and duct tape was used to secure the still-limp arm for 2 matches after that
- At both the Humber College event and the Ontario Provincial Championship, the team seeded 1st and won the industrial design award
- Misha-Zoey went 17-0-0 at the Humber event, which was the first time the team went undefeated at any event!
- The team’s longest ever win streak happened this season as Misha-Zoey won 17 matches in a row at Humber then 9 matches in a row at the Ontario District Championship, bringing the total winstreak up to a very respectable 26 matches
- A bolt used for mounting the intake motor got crossthreaded at an event, so as a quick fix the intake motor was half hot-glued on
The Robot
The robot used an arm to manipulate the intake so that it could pick up from all locations (including tipped cones from the ground) and score at all locations. It was also slim enough to easily balance with 2 other robots.
Mechanical Design
Drive Train
- 4x SDS Mk4i Swerve modules, powered by VEX Falcon 500 motors on an L1 ratio
- 24” x 34” chassis dimensions
Intake
- Able to pick up cones from all loading stations, and from the ground when the cone is tipped towards the robot
- Able to pick up cubes from anywhere
- Used flat polycord arranged in a V shape to pick up both cones and cubes
- Powered by a REV Neo 550 motor
- Was originally able to pass through the arms to pick up and score pieces on both sides of the robot, but was very narrow. This feature was scrapped later in favor of having a wider acquisition zone
Arm
- 3 jointed arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist)
- Shoulder was powered by 2 VEX Falcon 500 motors
- Elbow was powered by 2 VEX Falcon 500 motors
- Wrist was powered by 2 REV Neo 550 motors
- Used REV throughbore encoders at each joint
- The chain Center to Center Distances were off, so each run of chain at the base had lots of slop. A big, bulky, heavy, and hard to use chain tensioning system was used to mitigate this issue
Software
yes, probably
Electrical
- Wires were routed through the arm extrusions
Key Lessons Learned
- When powering both sides of a moving mechanism, ensure that the mechanism is rigid or that both sides are driven together and not independently. The 2 motors powering the shoulder directly powered the two sides of the first stage arm which was 2 unconnected extrusions, so there was a lot of side-to-side instability due to unbalanced forces
- REV electronics suck
Performance
Event Results
Newmarket Event
- Rank 5
- Captain of alliance 4
- 7th/8th alliance
- Impact award
Humber College Event
- Rank 1
- Captain of alliance 1
- Event Winner
- Industrial Design Award
Ontario Provincial Championship - Technology Division
- Rank 1
- Captain of alliance 1
- Event Finalist
- Industrial Design Award
FIRST Championship - Archimedes Division
- Rank 38
- 3rd pick of alliance 4
- 5th/6th alliance