Week 4 of the Saline Singularity competitive robot build wrapped up with a working model, and ninety minutes to spare

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 5066 build week 4 for 2019
FRC Team 5066 makes final preparations for its robot to leave the bench and begin testing with program code. © 2019 d2 Saline, All Rights Reserved. USA

When the FIRST Robotics Team 5066 meeting got started yesterday per schedule at 6:00pm, everyone was keenly aware of their self imposed interim deadline of February 1, end of workday. [1]

That was the target for turning a fully functioning robot over to the programming team.

As the completed chassis and elevator framework awaited handling in another area, the CAD sub-team lead ran the numbers on maximum dimensions compliance, projecting visuals onto a screen before the nearly full complement of other Saline Singularity students and mentors.

However, any tentative approach to voicing challenges to design direction, however far along, was now gone. As mentor Ed Burgess anticipated during week 1, this was evidence of the team having gelled as a whole. Specifically, several weren’t sold on the approach being advanced for robot intake mechanism — and how it should handle “hatch” game pieces. [2,3]

Highlighting sections, then combining them and animating functions didn’t resolve the debate. One of the mentors then expressed doubt, going on to suggest that another drawing be put together for visualizing an alternative approach. Who could be redeployed to work on this? Who was still needed to keep things moving forward with marrying readied electronics to the robot, proper?

That, as Saline Journal learned later in the evening, wasn’t exactly the straightforward hand-in-glove fitting anticipated on paper. Just as one might imagine for any real world manufacturing operation almost anywhere else here in Saline, the two sub-teams hadn’t always been communicating with each other real-time.

At some of the points where dimensional changes seemed called for to move forward with things on the bench, specifications were adjusted. Critical tolerances were thus lost and electrical assemblies would no longer drop into those spaces as planned.

Yet even as everyone on the team rolled up sleeves to do their parts, on their parts, to press on, no one mentioned that three days of cancelled school this week might be argued a factor in slipping from Februay 1 deadline for physical robot.

Warm climate or cold, dry or wet: Bag day is the same for every team. [4]

“You know what you do when you’re missing a deadline?” mentor Kevin Aretha asked us as an aside at one point, with a hint of mischief in his eye. “You turn off your cell phone.”

We didn’t ask if he meant this to be taken as confession or accusation.

After completing their full shift as scheduled until 10:00pm last night, Saline Singularity was back at it this morning just before 9:00am.

With the Limelight vision system still attached to their old 2018 chassis, the programming team continued to present it with calibration tests. Using a plywood target mockup, it found direction and center. Paralleling industry discussions of fully autonomous modes for self-driving vehicles, Saline Journal was encouraged to appreciate the often greater importance of autonomy as an adjunct to human control of robot movement. [5-7]

The contribution of such systems in allowing operators to see otherwise obstructed field-of-play areas in point-of-view, and in some cases even provide for faster-than-human reaction times can make the difference prevailing in competition.

Electronics sub-team members now had gear box issues resolved for the seven necessary motors and taken the time to update firmware to address a reported bug issue. Mechanical was hopeful of meeting a now revised robot target of “lunchtime,” although that was admittedly optimistic.

By two o’clock today, all “departments” were on the same page with their individual contributsion to the combining whole.

More than half the Saline Singularity team was gathered in close proximity to the chassis and elevator assembly, each in fascinating coordination to end results notwithstanding the number of hands on deck. What was on the verge of becoming a functional robot was teathered to a laptop computer almost precariously balanced on workbench edge.

Commands issued, mechanisms responded accordingly. At one point, blocks of wood were placed underneith to lift wheels off the table in order to assure no command to roll forward or back was too eagerly followed — off the edge its temporary perch.

Just before 3:30pm, several from the group then moved their 72 pound robot to the floor. “Remember to lift with your legs, not your backs,” someone said. They’ll do well to remember that in anticipation of further weight to come when the finally agreed upon intake mechanism is added later. Finished FIRST Robotics Competition entries can weigh up to 125 pounds this year, not including their batteries.

Saturday schedules run until 6:00pm for weeks 2 through 6, leaving ninety minutes of opportunity for introduction of software to the mix. Look for updates on that to be included in our week 5 report here on Saline Journal.

References

  1. Saline Singularity FIRST Robotics Team moves through week 2 with CAD drawings, prototypes, and February 1 target date” Dell Deaton (January 17, 2019) Saline Journal.
  2. Saline Singularity FIRST Robotics Team week 1 progress report: Here’s what happened after the 2019 game was announced” Dell Deaton (January 9, 2019) Saline Journal.
  3. 2019 FIRST Robotics Competition: Destination: Deep Space Game Animation” FIRSTRoboticsCompetition (January 5, 2019) YouTube.
  4. Stop Build Day” (February 19, 2019) FIRST Inspires.
  5. Limelight (home page).
  6. Toyota leverages North American International Auto Show to display car with unique self-driving capabilities” Dell Deaton (January 14, 2019) Saline Journal.
  7. Behind the Lines S03E06: Designing for Controlability with Jared Russell from Team 254” RoboSports Network (December 14, 2016) YouTube.
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