January 7th Meeting

Kickoff

Assembly

CAD

Claw Intake Group

Lift Mechanism Group

We made a Crayola sketch of the linear and linear, elevator and telescope. We wanted to see if it was possible to reach both height and length of the highest node. It was possible, but it would be very close.

We decided to make the elevator on the side. We took inspiration from this design, and I wanted to make it sideways for more point of contact in the telescope as shown below.

_images/cadLiftDay1.png

Arm Group

Manufacturing

Programming

We made a new repository for 2023 and began writing the Drivetrain subsystem, as well as the auto using tank drive.

Vision, Arm, and Elevator Group

We specifically aimed to setup testbenches to run Limelights to detect AprilTags and reflective tape. With the help of our mentors, we based the design of our testbench off the following diagram:

_images/visionTestbenchDiagram.png

Diagram of testbench setup

Then, we made several modifications to our testbenches such as supplying power to the RoboRIO after wires were disconnected, and updating RoboRIO firmware.

_images/roboRIOReimaging.png

RoboRIO re-imaging process

For AprilTag recognition, we decided on the PhotonVision Limelight image as it included built-in support. However, after installing drivers onto the Limelight and imaging the Limelight using Balena Etcher, we discovered the hardware we were using was stuck in a boot loop. As we would not have access to new Limelights until tomorrow, we moved on to developing baseline code for our subsystems.

Because we are currently split among two drive bases: swerve and west coast, we decided to use a repository with an arm and elevator subsystem (two subsystems in common among all versions of code) as our main branch. The latest commit can be found here.

Swerve Drive Group

Today, we decided to work on programming our swerve drive system to test its feasibility in competition. We were able to get our drivebase to work with the help of our mentors, and may be considering using a similar design for our competition robot this season, if we are able to find parts to repair the drivebase when necessary.

_images/swerve.png

Autonomous Pathing Group

  • First, our group came up with possible autonomous paths for our robot. The paths we came up with in order of development are:

  • Park on the charging station without it being level.

  • Park on the charging station and make it level.

  • Score a single preloaded cone and leave the community.

  • Score a single preloaded cone and park on the charging station to make it level.

  • Score a preloaded cone onto one of the side nodes, leave the community to pick up another cone from the playing field, and return to the community to score it in the hybrid node.

  • Score a preloaded cone onto one of the side nodes, leave the community to pick up another cone from the playing field, return to the community to score it in the hybrid node, and dock on the charging station to make it level.

We decided to focus on a path for docking and engaging on the charging station, as well as another path for scoring one preloaded cone onto one of the side nodes. We found the coordinates for these paths using the dimensions given on the drawings and game manual.