Team 6832

Iron Reign

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Engineering Portfolio

Beyond the Bot, Beyond the Game

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Hello Judges!

This portfolio is a hard distillation of our Open Online Journal📓. Links to the journal and supporting videos are embedded throughout. We tried to keep each page themed for specific award consideration. We hope this makes your job easier. Happy reading!

Ringevator

RingSlinger on Turret

Turntable

Flywheel

Flywheel Drive Motor

Elevation Control�(Elbow)

Elbow Motor

Left Drive

Motor

Right Drive Motor

Guide wall

Pondering Personal Goals

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Look for these symbols! 📓 Link to our journal 🎥 Link to a video

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Proteus

The culmination of all our subsystems

Ringevator

(Vertical External Intake)

RingSlinger 🎥 on Turret

Turret 🎥

(Allows for 360° motion)

Flywheel

(Launches ring)

Flywheel Drive Motor

Elbow (Elevation Control)

Elbow Motor

Left Drive

Motor

Right Drive

Motor

Guide wall

(Feeds ring into flywheel)

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3

6-9

Think Accurate Trajectories

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Goal: Build a trajectory simulator 📓 from ballistics models 📓 to analyze requirements of targeting from anywhere on the field.

Analysis Takeaways:

• Aligning trajectory apex with goal results in the least vertical error
• Requires controlling ring speed to create uniform travel time across distances
• Requires optimizing elevation at each distance

Height (m)

Distance (m)

Legal Boundary

Height (m)

Distance (m)

Box area = Ring error zone

Our Studies of Ballistic Variability

Lead to Optimized Trajectories

Automated Continuous Targeting From Anywhere Requirements

Launcher:

• Dynamically Adjust Elevation (Elbow),
• Velocity (PID Flywheel),
• Bearing (Turret)

Intake:

• Rings have to flow Over the launcher
• Extreme 18” vertical ascent

Control:

• Real-time trajectory calculator
• Localization: �always know where we are with respect to the target (odometry)
• Driverless targeting

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Think Accuracy at all Distances

Reach and Reliability - Score the high goal from any position on the field

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1st concept:

• Semi-circular
• Simple
• Design centered around the flywheel
• Large

2nd concept:

• Quadrant-like
• Smaller

CAD Model:

• Fleshed-out
• Ready to manufacture
• More Developed features

RingSlinger 📓:

• 6 Custom CNC plates
• 8 Custom 3D printed components
• Finned flywheel in NinjaFlex

Materials:

• Aluminium
• Nylon (White or Black)
• NinjaFlex (Red)
• Polycarbonate (Clear)

6” Custom Flywheel 📓

Top Plate

Wall Extension

1:1 REV Ultraplanetary Motor

Guide Wall

Bottom Plate

Ring Trigger

Slotted Motor Mount

Breech

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Innovate Through Intake Iterations

Archimedes Intake: Iteration #1

Roller + Lift Intake: Iteration #2

Belt Intakes: Progression to final

Ringevator v1 📓: Iteration #5

• Custom belt
• Does not misalign or derail
• A combination of both belt intakes
• Reverse Pickup discovered
• Built-in ring guide
• Mostly custom
• Flexible
• Big
• Heavy

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Early Iterations:

• Elevates Rings
• Simple

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• Simple
• Easy to manufacture
• Can pick up rings

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The above designs were abandoned after the development of the following intakes which have less problems

5 Failures Uncover Path to Success

Notice how the red bullets diminish as we progress

• Potential curved path
• Fast cycle time
• Fairly simple
• Belt alignment issues
• Bulky

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Ringevator v2: Iteration #6

It has all of the advantages of Ringevator v1 +

• Fully custom
• 4 degrees of freedom
• More Versatile (see next page)
• Lightweight
• Less efficient than

internal intake

• Can’t pick up rings
• Difficult to manufacture
• Too big

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• Grips rings well
• Can pick rings up
• Fast cycle time
• Bands get caught
• Bulky

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Rubber Band Caterpillar: Iteration #3

Belt sander intake: Iteration #4

CNC Redesign!

Combine!

Combine!

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Combine!

CNC

Redesign!

• Bulky
• Mishandles transfer/pickup
• Slow cycle time

Innovate the Intake: Ringevator Versatility

Start Intake

“Walk” the ring

Reverse Ring Pickup

Elevate ring and tilt back

Rolling RingTake Mode - Auto cycle from Tent, Ring-detect, Auto Intake, back to Tent

Must watch the Control video to understand this.

Automatic Intake Sequence

Features:

• Custom designed and printed Ninjaflex belt (red). Acts as a ring gripper/lifter, conveyor, and drives across the field
• Assembly deploys on ball bearing linear slides
• Dual servos articulate the Ringevator forwards and backwards through 90 degrees of motion
• Multiple ring centering guides on each side
• Rolling ring stopper
• Laser distance sensor to detect rolling rings
• Fully automated behaviors

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Deposit ring onto tray

Deploy Ringevator

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Think Gator Gripper 🐊

Thinking Transfer System

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Reliably grab and hold the wobble goal without slipping

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5th Version:

• Attached to turret elbow for strong lift
• Has to rotate 230°
• Weak grip strength
• Reach issues

6th Version:

• Wobble slipped less
• Design could damage Ringevator
• Sizing concerns

7th Version:

• Put on linear slide
• Better reach & fit
• Wobble would dangle & fall

V8 - Alligator Gripper:

• Custom designed
• Legal sizing fit
• Wobble falls into place
• Supersized Catch Zone

Materials:

• Aluminium
• Nylon (white or black)

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Notice how the red bullets diminish as we progress

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The flipper moves the ring from the plush landing pad into the breach, ready to launch

The Ringslinger tilts back

The Ringevator tilts backward to angle the ring through the deflector into the Ringslinger

landing pad

Deflector

Control a Code Progression Timeline

12/11/20

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Initial Setup Of New Repository

Created Trajectory Calculator Class

For more information, see Page 6

1/29/21

Created OpenCV Vision Pipeline for Ring Stack Height Detection

Highlights the ring stack in image using an HSV threshold, and uses contours for dimensions of stack

2/6/21

Odometry/Localization Working

Location of the robot is known at all times to be used with the trajectory calculator.

2/10/21

2/17/21

Continuous Targeting Working

Combines the position information of odometry + calculations of the trajectory calculator to aim the robot continuously

2/19/21

FTC Dashboard visualization of position

Add Muzzle Position And Counter-Lead Target

2/22/21

Allowed for launching in motion, and improved accuracy of automatic launcher.

Autonomous Working With Ring Launching

2/27/21

“Danger Zone” Mode Created

4/30/21

Danger Zone mode uses avoidance code to prevent a deployed gripper from hitting the intake as the turret rotates.

Rolling Ringtake Working

5/12/21

Robot picks up rings fully automatically as they are rolled by a human player.

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Autonomous Double Wobble

Autonomous Red Alliance

3 Wobble paths in Autonomous

Auton Reflected for Blue

Think Key Decisions Timeline

Mecanum Chassis

• Easy to control
• Omni direction movement easily impresses casual observers
• Game-effective position adjustments
• Our initial concept CAD was mecanum
• Almost never found in the real world - requires artificial conditions
• Been there, done that
• Vulnerabile to opponent contact

Differential Drive with Turret

• Diff-drive leading form of mobile robots (20,000,000+ sold)
• Works resiliently on more surfaces
• Allows round chassis resistant to opponent disturbances
• Turret creates angular independence for targeting
• More complex path planning and harder to use for this game
• Turret interactions very complex

Continuous Targeting Extreme Stretch Goal:

• Shoot from Anywhere legal
• At any time in the match, not needing to turn the robot
• Fully autonomous - drivers select targets but do not aim
• Automatically computes lowest energy and lowest error trajectory on every loop
• Precise-enough control for high accuracy probably beyond our reach - requires pro manufacturing and faster controller

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✔

December

February

Go / No Go

March/April

Change up to Follow the Pack

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• Points-leading teams converge on common design by March:
• Mecanum chassis, low or underbot intake, fixed angle shooter, high-speed (often illegal) shooting, preferred shooting location, optimized for remote play
• Simple, efficient
• Best choice for game performance
• Completely doable by this team
• Requires proficiency but not innovation.

Blazing our Path to Innovation

• Unexplored potential� in last year’s Worlds-advanced bot
• Unusual: Very few teams with turrets and no other teams with outside-the-bot intake.
• Ringevator Intake has all sorts of interesting modes of operation to be explored.
• Complex interactions between turret and chassis are an interesting problem to tackle.
• Next up - carbon fiber rebuild
• Growth strategy, not a game performance strategy
• High Risk, game failure likely

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Thinking about Competition Takeaways

12/6/2020 - 2/13/2020

Series of 3 scrimmages

• Highest score: 60
• Lowest score: 0
• Key reflection: Settled on using a circular chassis and a travelling intake to reduce the need for robot mobility when cycling rings - Started our extensive use of custom parts this season

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02/27/2021

UTD Qualifier #1

• Highest score: 5
• Lowest score: 0 (Teleop parts of robot were illegal + only auton navigation was working)
• Key Reflection: 1st qualifier = 1st time we experimented with continuous targeting in order to:
• 1) improve degrees of freedom associated with robot
• 2) increase intake-launcher interactions
• Increased complex interactions ---> increased last minute programming workload
• Takeway: More frequent team meetings ---> more consistent drive practice ---> complex interactions don't burden software at the last minute

03/20/2021

Hedrick Qualifier

• Highest/Lowest score: 0 - no scores submitted because robot was illegal. We focused on Ringevator development instead of game play.
• Key Reflection: DPRG input (see page 13), helped optimize trajectory calculations (see page 5) for scoring rings into the highest target from any location without traveling more than 16ft in distance and 5ft in height
• Calculations enhanced ring-flow efficiency from the Ringevator to the Ringslinger (significantly improved by 2nd qualifier)
• Takeaway: Despite eased height/distance constraints for launched rings, we used the original constraints to improve programming + creative build methods although our robot is capable of shooting further

04/28/2021

May day Mech Madness Hybrid Qualifier

• First in-person event
• Highest score: 65
• Lowest score: 17
• Key Reflection: Most successful event for robot:
• Completely custom intake,
• Plush launching pad
• Turret-based launcher
• Because of simplified subsystem interactions, despite using complex materials and subsystems, we still found the best approach to the game challenge. Like professional robotic companies, we aim to make adaptable mobile robots that though complex, are simplified for use. We still have a ways to go.

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05/22/2021

North Texas Regional Championship

• Highest score: 142
• Lowest score: 48
• Key Reflection: Although conceptualization for Proteus Carbonite started after the 3rd qualifier, it was nowhere near finished as we hoped for the Regional Championship.
• Decided that it would have to be an off-season project so to prioritize optimizing our current robot for the State Championship.
• Takeaway: Optimization included developing a quicker transfer system: we settled on the idea of a deflector-based system to “flick” rings (page 5)

Designing Proteus for Fabrication

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Design Proteus Carbonite

The next version - a carbon fiber Proteus rebuild

Improvements for Proteus Carbonite

Proteus’ chassis is into the second season of its intended one season lifetime so it has problems with:

• Dust
• Cracks
• Messiness
• Poor wire management

• Part prototypes
• Bad motors
• Worn out gears
• General inaccuracies

And much more..

Each year, we prototype and create our robot. Whenever the robot becomes difficult to manage due to regular use, we make a new, cleaner version.

Proteus Carbonite will be constructed after the State championship - it’s main focus is not to improve our game strategy but to further our engineering capabilities

(Proteus Carbonite)

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Webcam

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• Custom OpenCV vision pipelines
• Enable rotation to adapt to different alliance sides

General improvements

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• Remove all REV rails
• Replace plates with carbon fiber versions
• Replace any cracked polycarbonate
• Reprint and replace every 3D-printed part

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RingSlinger

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• More compact iteration
• Improve flywheel balance
• Update the 3D model for post-modifications

Gator Gripper

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• Secure the belt to prevent it from slipping or falling off

Ringevator

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• Improve control of ring flow
• Refine size
• Remove unnecessary holes

Turret

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• Improve the elbow to reduce skipping
• Reduce ring gear slippage
• Improve wire management

Base

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• Reinforce with carbon fiber for more rigidity, stability, and lightness
• Reinforce motor attachments for more reliability
• Improve wire management
• Smoothen the outer ring

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Connect with Engineers

Collaborate on Mobile Learning Lab V2

�early season work with Big Thought Designers and Winnebago Engineers

Team worked on floor plans and 3D models

Stopped by COVID 2 weeks before vehicle purchase

Iron Reign presents three times to Dallas Personal Robotics Group (DPRG)

Takeaways: THINK

• Increase precision of trajectory calculations by halving time
• Use a Design of Experiments to improve launcher testing

Feb 2: Follow-up on Calculations, Launcher performance (60 min)

Takeaways: Innovate + Connect

• Launcher damage prevention
• Finalize intake selection
• Contact a professor to fine-tune calculations

Mar 13: Headliner for Monthly Meeting (80 min)

Takeaways: THINK

• Feedback on judging presentation, portfolio, codebase, robot demos

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Jan 26: Virtual Ringslinger 9000 Presentation 📓 (80 min)

• 22 adult robotics enthusiasts attending

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COVID

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Connect with COVID Budget Reality

CNC+3D Printing

• Saves $ on custom-machined parts vs third-party sources

Received ~$1850 in parts & equipment from school & FIT grants

Reusing Chassis from the Skystone season

• Saves ~$1600

Annual Townview Qualifier (Virtual):

• Loss of the usual in-person fundraising.
• But supported 20 teams without direct costs

Merging Feeder Teams 📓:

• Saves ~$2k on fees & parts

How we save money during the pandemic

Toronto, ON

• Biomechanical company
• Advice from marketing leads on portfolio

Big Thought

• Education non-profit
• Mobile Learning Lab
• Mentoring on brand guidelines

• Luxury goods
• Mentoring for documentational graphic design

Detroit, MI

Dallas Personal Robotics Group

• Feedback on documenting trajectory calculations and organizing portfolio

Connect with Communicators

Dallas, TX

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Team Plan for Financial Conservation while Connecting with new funders has been restricted

6832 Iron Reign Portfolio

Motivating the FIRST Community

Online Outreach == Our Live + Public Journal 📓 + Youtube📓

• Full details of our progress available to all teams last 5 years
• Website viewed by over 4,000 people this season
• Teams connect with us through site - JNEST, Igutech, Vectron, W.A.F.F.L.E.S, Circuit Breakers
• Our source code for last 5 years is Open Source, published on Github

Team Plan for Sustainability

Dealey Middle School feeds into our School of Science and Engineering

Former Dealey FTC members & other students are recruited to a feeder team as Freshmen

Dealey’s 3 rookie teams receive help from 6832

Teams 18797, 18798, 19025

Combined 3 teams into 3734 Pandemonium 📓, whose members are later recruited onto 6832

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Season Views

9,924

Watch Time

153.5 hours

Iron Reign Channel

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