Post WPI / Pre RI - changes, repairs, replacements & improvements

[Louis L]

We met on Tuesday and outlined some thing we can do after our WPI event.

Keep in mind:

   
• At WPI (week 2) there were only 2 teams who had competed in prior Events (in week 1). At RI, most teams will have competed. The level of competition is likely to rise considerably as drive teams get better, defenses get more aggressive, and teams adjustments to their game plan.

Things we talked about in the hardware:

   
• Intake - Rebuild / repair the intake mechanism in the allotted time (which is not a lot). At the very least we need to fix it since it got beat up in the finals.
• Intake - look at adding a low-shot capability. We currently use the intake flush action to deliver the Boulder into the low goal. This is slow and not accurate due to the width of the intake - by design the intake is meant to collect Boulders that are off-center but to score in the low goal the Boulder needs to be lined up just right. That's two competing goals. The current method also requires that we back the intake into the tower and in the process we hit the intake against the side wall where the intake is weakest. All-in-all it's not a good way to score points while keeping the hardware in top shape.
• Intake - being able to lift the intake out of harm's way is the best way to prevent damage. But when down, we also want to keep the current floating position where the intake roller just rolls right over the ball to suck it in. So we want to avoid a rigid intake deployment device. Most importantly we want to retain the existing geometry of parts that works so well.
• Reinforce the front end wedge. Going over the defenses (in particular the Rock Wall, Rampart and Moat) really beats up the wedge plate. It did its job. Now it needs a little TLC. We'll bolt-on a steel plate.
• Remove the climber. Since we didn't use it, and the climb is only worth 10 points, let's shed the weight of the climber and use that weight budget elsewhere (such as in above steel plate).
• Rebuild and relocate the autonomous selection box. This got crushed (presumably by another 'bot). It can now go somewhere safe near where the climber currently sits.
• Low bar protection. After we remove the climber, we need to make sure there is nothing that will be a problem against the new Low Bar flaps. The flaps offer much less of a problem than the original bar but let's be sure we don't have any issues.
• Cheval-de-fris and Portcullis handler. A front mounted device to goes just up and down can handle these 2 defenses. It could even be a low-goal pusher.
• Add something to keep the Boulder from falling into the shooting cradle spot when the shooter is up. Prevention is a good thing.
• Add walls to the side of the cradle to keep the Boulder in when robot movement tries to dislodge it.
• Re-mount the 2nd camera to give a better view.

From the software side:

   
• Update the code to handle any new operations. This might include the Intake and handling the new front-end device
• Work on vision automation. One option is to auto-shoot in autonomous from the low-bar crossing. Another is to have a auto-shot when ready so the operator does not shoot, the robot does whenever it feels it has a shot.
• Fix ball-pinch if we still have this on the new and improved intake.
• Recalibrate the shooter. We should also test and verify that tire pressure is the root cause of the change in shooting arc. To do this we need to put the robot on blocks and compare the trajectory against the robot on properly inflated tires.

Other things of note:

   
• We need to define the desired tire pressure and make sure it's right for every match. If tire pressure become a determining factor for our shooter than we must make sure it's what we want it to be in order to get the best confidence in our shooter.
• Likewise we need to have a setup that allows us to easily calibrate the shooter. Use a target and align it with the robot in a fixed setup on the robot cart. This allows us to do the calibration in the pits.
• Scouting - do we do pre-scouting on Day0?
• How about a name plate (Lepus Interfector) or some other decoration?

Parts:

   
• Ordered 4 new batteries. Make sure we fully charge these before first use.
• Refill safety glasses box. A lot of safety glasses vanished.
• Safety give-aways - restock, print more flyers
• Make more buttons

Pit:

   
• Convert the projection slide show into a movie it can be looped automatically. Add more content, fix content, add icons, etc.
• Make Arcadia work as intended. Install MAME on Toughbook. Install Apache. Go with a web interface.