Projects:

Drivebase design and CAD

Arm design and CAD

Ball Manipulator design and CAD

Chomp has an 8 wheel drivebase, with the center 4 wheels dropped 1/8" to ease turning. I took inspiration from previous years to place the #25 roller link chain inside the 2" x 1.5" aluminum extrude for protection and cleanliness. I placed access holes above and below the wheel axles to allow for ease of access to the sprockets and chain. All aluminum extrude features a 0.5" hole grid for modularity and flexibility in the design and placement of future components.

Chomp has a large arm that raises and lowers most subassemblies on the robot. The arm is powered by 2 Falcon 500 motors mounted on VexPro bearing blocks which allow the #35 roller link chain tension to be adjusted, a lesson that I learned from previous years when arm chains became loose over time.

For the game, our robot had to climb up an elevated bar as well as shoot balls into an elevated target. This required the arm to be accurate, fast, and rigid. I used a bike disk brake with a pneumatic piston to allow the robot to lock its arm in place during shooting and after climping. I also placed a gas shock to counteract the moment of the arm around the pivot point.

Chomp has 3 distinct ball manipulator sections, the intake, indexer, and shooter, all 3 of which intersect together, creating a "triple point mechanism." After countless prototypes, we were able to design the system such that a ball in the intersection will always have contact with at least 2 rollers while minimizing the amount of ball compression needed. This allowed the system to manipulate the direction of the ball efficiently with only 3 degrees of rotational motion.

Projects:

Elevator design and CAD

Fathership has a 2 stage elevator, giving it a total of 59" of vertical extension. I took inspiration from the FRC team 1323 and designed our elevator such that the cabling for the elevator runs through and inbetween its extrudes. This is done with 3D printed blocks that hold the cable pulleys in place inside the extrude. This protected the elevator cabling, as well as gave the elevator a clean look. The elevator uses R4ZZ bearings that allows the extrudes to slide alongside each other.

Projects:

Arm design and CAD

Side ramps design and CAD

Achievements:

Central Valley Regional 2019 finalist alliance captain

Houston 2019 World Championship Winner 2nd pick

Mothership features an arm that raises and lowers the ball manipulator, allowing the robot to intake a ball from the front, and outtake it from either the front or the back. I designed it to be as simple as possible, which made it robust, easy to assemble, and easy to maintain.

Mothership's namesake is its side ramps, which allow it to lift up 2 other robots on either side. Our first design was completely passive and rigid, which did not score full points in the game because the ramps sagged down under the weight of the other robots. To improve this, the second iteration of the ramps (pictured on the left) had an active winching mechanism that lifted the other robots up at an angle. The second iteration was also designed to be much more modular, which allowed it to be easily mounted onto Fathership, the 2019 offseason robot.