24A, 24B, and 24C Super Sonic Sparks Robot Revealing

VEX V5 General Discussion VEX Robot Showcase
#1

This is a compilation of descriptions and pictures of our robots, that we have decided to share with you, the community. These three robots will be going to the VEX World Championship, and we hope to see you there! Please feel free to ask any questions you may have on any of the three robots in a comment, below. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy! :slight_smile:

24A
[ATTACH]3847[/ATTACH]

Claw, powered by one 3-wire motor, geared down 5:1.
Claws make for easy scoring and pickup of single tubes, as well as quick and easy descoring. Claws also allow for easy and quick pickup or stacks, so putting opponents’ tubes into the ladder is done very quickly.
Claw has small tabs to hold a single ring tightly, such that the robot will not lose the tube if scoring was not dead on, and you can try again.
Claw is lifted by a 4-bar, powered by four 269 motors, geared down 5:1.
4-bar uses algebra to apply constant power, to keep it from dropping due to gravity.
4-bar also has preset positions, (Floor, BottomBaseGoal, TopBaseGoal, etc.) which are switched between using buttons.
Tank style drive, with 4” high-traction wheels in the back, powered by four 393 motors, internally geared for torque and externally geared up 1:2. 4” omni-wheels are chain-driven in the front.
2 different autonomous programs (two different routines for every position on the field), switched between using a potentiometer on the back.
Highest scoring 20-second autonomous program scores 33 points.
Autonomous modes use a variety of sensors:
2 Quadrature Encoders are used on the drive (one on each side). Auto-straightening code is used, along with ramp-up and ramp-down code, for the most accurate and consistent results in autonomous.
5 Line Followers used for following the white tape lines. Line following code has been worked on a lot to get it perfected, and the robot can now follow the line very accurately, and fairly quickly, as well.
3 Potentiometers – one on the 4-bar, one on the claw, and one for the autonomous selector.
Preload tube-holders on each side, to hold the preload around the wall-goal if placed on the far side of the field. (known as the “prescore” or recently on the VEX Forum the “cheater tube”…)
Weight is ~16 pounds. (excluding any tubes)
5 experienced team members, all going to Worlds. (3 have been to Worlds twice, and 1 has been there once.)

24B
[ATTACH]3850[/ATTACH]

Claw, powered by one 3-wire motor, geared down 3:1.
Claws make for easy scoring and pickup of single tubes, as well as quick and easy descoring. Claws also allow for easy and quick pickup or stacks, so putting opponents’ tubes into the ladder is done very quickly.
Claw has descoring flaps on the top, used to easily descore the wall-goals.
Claw is lifted by a 4-bar, powered by two 393 motors, internally geared for torque, and two 269 motors, all externally geared down 5:1.
4-bar is pivoted by a turntable, which is powered by one 3-wire motor, geared down 7:1.
Tank style drive with 2-speed transmission, 4” high-traction wheels in the back powered by two 393 motors internally geared for torque, and two 269 motors. 4” omni-wheels are chain-driven in the front.
Transmission can switch between gearing down 5:3, to gearing up 3:5 in an instant, using pneumatics to do the shifting.
2 Quadrature Encoders on drive for maneuvering in autonomous mode.
2 Potentiometers, one on the 4-bar, and one on the claw.
2 different autonomous routines. (can run on any position on the field)
Highest scoring 20-second autonomous program scores 20 points.
Preload tube-holders on each side, to hold the preload around the wall-goal if placed on the far side of the field. (known as the “prescore” or recently on the VEX Forum the “cheater tube”…)
4 experienced team members, all going to Worlds. (3 have been to Worlds twice, and 1 has been there once.)

24C
[ATTACH]3853[/ATTACH]

Claw, powered by one 3-wire motor, geared down 3:1.
Claws make for easy scoring and pickup of single tubes, as well as quick and easy descoring. Claws also allow for easy and quick pickup or stacks, so putting opponents’ tubes into the ladder is done very quickly.
Claw has descoring flaps on the back, which are motorized by one 3-wire motor, also geared down 3:1. These are used for quickly and easily descoring the wall-goals.
Claw is lifted by a 4-bar, powered by two 393 motors, internally geared for torque, and two 3-wire motors, all externally geared down 5:1.
Tank style drive, with 2.75” wheels in the back powered by two 393 motors internally geared for torque, and two 3-wire motors, all geared up 1:3. 2.75” omni-wheels are chain-driven in the front. (Using small wheels allows us to reach into the ladder, which makes it possible to descore/score on goals dropped into it.)
6 different autonomous programs (6 different routines for every position on the field), switched between using a potentiometer on the back.
Highest scoring 20-second autonomous program scores 33 points.
Autonomous modes use a variety of sensors:
2 Quadrature Encoders are used on the drive (one on each side). Auto-straightening code is used, along with ramp-up and ramp-down code, for the most accurate and consistent results in autonomous.
5 Line Followers used for following the white tape lines. Line following code has been worked on a lot to get it perfected, and the robot can now follow the line very accurately, and fairly quickly, as well. (It is possible to follow the line at a full 127. It is not as accurate as going slower, but it’s been proven possible.)
3 Potentiometers – one on the 4-bar, one on the claw, and one for the autonomous selector.
2 Jumpers are used to tell the robot it’s alliance color (Red/Blue) and position on the field (Near/Far) for knowing which direction to turn (in autonomous)/which autonomous routine to run.
Preload tube-holders on each side, to hold the preload around the wall-goal if placed on the far side of the field. (known as the “prescore” or recently on the VEX Forum the “cheater tube”…)
Weight is ~7 pounds. (Excluding any tubes – with 4 tubes it’s ~8.)
5 experienced team members, 4 going to Worlds. (All 4 have been to Worlds twice.)

Thank you for reading, and feel very free to leave comments or questions! They would be much appreciated. :slight_smile:

~Jordan
24A Complete.jpg
24B Complete.jpg
24C Complete.jpg

Is this really the VEX community we know and love?
#2

for 24B, what are the wheels on your claw for?

#3

24C looks like it could be an Exothermic team robot. Nice work on all three.

#4

Wow, thanks for the descriptions,
they are a good example for others to follow, and cover almost everything I would ask in about the right amount of detail.

Looks like lots of nice programming. “6 routines for each of 4 positions!”
Interesting variation in weight 16 to ?? to 7 pounds.

Other standard questions:
Cortex or Pic? Power expanders?
Battery type: 2AH old, 2AHnew or 3AHnew?)
EasyC or RobotC?
Hang? (looks like not)
Carry goals?
Any elastic for 4 bar support? If not, why not?
Any alternate wall goal preload? (looks like not, I haven’t seen any)

24B questions:
What is weight?
Pneumatics, shifter, turntable ( helps compensate for lack of slide-drive)

24C (and others):
Not perfectly clear if the 4 motor drive is on back, with chains to front,
or 2 motors on back and an independent 2 motors chained to front.

Do you have one programmer shared to all teams, or all independent code development, or a mix of independent coders with a shared best practices modules?

#5

These all look like very solid robots. Just wondering, did you get the idea of putting tread rollers on the edge of the descore from our robot video?

#6

This is not my bot but my team experimented with this idea, the wheels are to roll up the wall under a high post, descore the ring, and then come back down on the goal with a ring in the claw.

#7

This is not my bot but my team experimented with this idea, the wheels are to roll up the wall under a high post, descore the ring, and then come back down on the goal with a ring in the claw.

#8

Rollers are on the descoring flaps on top of the claw. Just like the rollers on 24C, 24B has them to allow them to easily descore the wall-goals, and the rollers just make the process smoother. (Just metal would usually get caught on the walls/goals.)

I remember watching many videos of your speedy robots back in Elevation, and ever since I’ve wanted to make a fast, light robot like that. After 2 redesigns, we ended up doing this! Thank you for the compliment. :slight_smile:

Glad I could answer most of your questions! I tried, but it seems you still found some things I left out, which is good haha. Let me try to answer them for you:

Yes, for our team we really tried to focus on programming this year, and after learning ROBOTC last year, I was very prepared. Also thank you. :slight_smile:

Unfortunately yes, I’m unsure of the weight of 24B. I’m sure it’s quite a bit heavier than 24A, so probably close to 20 pounds. 24A and 24B have stayed about the same weight all year, however with 3 redesigns on 24C, it’s gone down from about the weight of 24A to it’s weight currently.

All three robots use the CORTEX. (Which is good because my code takes up over twice the space that the PIC can handle…)

24A and 24B both utilize the Power Expander. However 24C kept it out of the equation to save weight. (~1 pound shaved off.)

We have many of the 2AH old batteries, however have started throwing out the bad (old) ones, and just restocked with a bunch of the new 3AH batteries. We have ~6/7 of the new 2AH batteries, but don’t like the current drop on those. We usually try to use the new 3AH batteries, for the best performance.

All three robots are programmed using ROBOTC.

You are correct. After many tries with High-Hanging 24C unfortunately had to decide against it to improve other things. (such as autonomous) All other robots never really made an attempt. (Although at one point 24A did try a little, though quickly decided against it due to their weight.)

24B has tried and succeeded with picking up a goal, however I doubt it would be able to pick up more than one in a single match, so it’s not really in their strategy book.

24A and 24B do have surgical tubing to help with lifting. 24C never added any, due to us trying to hang. We haven’t had any problems with the 4-bar, with the amount of power we have on it, so we never felt the need to add any.

I’m not sure exactly what you mean, but I’m guessing you mean if the robot is placed on the near side? If so, no. None of our teams have any presore-method for the near side.

Unfortunately, I don’t know the weight of 24B. Like I said probably around 20 pounds, I’m guessing. (maybe a little under that)

4 motor drive on all robots are powered on the back drive wheels, and chain is run to the front omni-wheels.

Originally I was the main programmer for 24A and 24C. Recently my father and I have been helping my sister learn a lot about programming with ROBOTC, so she has taken that over. 24B has always had it’s own programmer, although I help on any of the teams when it’s needed. (I’ve always been the programmer for 24C.)

Thanks for the compliment! And no, we actually put those rollers on the descoring mechanisms around two weeks ago.

Thank you all for the comments and questions! Feel free to keep them coming, I’m very happy to answer any more questions you may have.

~Jordan

#9

Nice robots! I’m looking forward to playing you at worlds (well after seeing these maybe not :eek:). Hopefully I’ll have a chance to get some pics of our robot on here before worlds.

#10

Haha, thanks! And yeah I hope so too! I’d love to see your robot. :slight_smile:

~Jordan

#11

“33 points in 20 seconds”

YOU STINK! :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

i still think the tubing would help the battery
because having your motors “trim” the arm will drain down the batts bit by bit
also good job on the “descore rollers”!
our original (metal) descore got caught on the walls as well
but our LEXAN descore made everything better =D

is there also a way to make your descore non-motor powered? (elastic powered?)
it seems that the motor can be used better elsewhere

still an excellent bot!
hope were in the same divs this year again ^^

#13

In your opinion which one of your bots is best?

#14

isnt the answer obvious?
its obviously 24C!
:wink:

#15

well my eye is not as keen and developed as yours, becuase i can not tell. my question still goes out to 24 teams!

#16

Jordan, you are NOT, I repeat, NOT an unbiased opinion in this case!

That being said, 24C does have the best autonomous… And again, I repeat my previous comment:

“YOU STINK!”

#17

now all the ram bots will know who’s the best :wink:
but you have 6x4 24 autos to choose from, so that wont be a problem!

#18

:smiley:

Yeah, we’ve thought about it… Although I’d rather not make any changed to our robot at the moment, as it’s worked fine at every tournament we’ve been to. :stuck_out_tongue: Still may think about it.

I saw in the videos of your robot! I liked that, they seemed to be more flexible, so that would definitely help.

It could have been. However it seems as if it may have the possibility of getting in the way if kept down the entire time. We tried building other things to utilize that last motor, but never ended up actually finding something that worked, until we decided to add this.

Thank you! And I hope so too! It was really fun being on the same alliance with you last year. Hopefully we can do that again, and do much better!

… Lol, I loved reading all that. XD Like Joe said I wouldn’t be able to tell you that. I’m on 24C. If I really thought 24A was better than 24C, I’d have to do something about that, and make mine better. :stuck_out_tongue: We have a small sort of friendly rivalry in our sub-teams. We’ll help each other out a lot, but once we get on the field against each other, we definitely play our hardest. :wink: 24C is a very light, speedy robot. 24A is almost as fast, but being heavier has more of their motor power on the drive. 24B is a total beast. With their transmission they can go from an okay speed across the field to super-power for pushing anyone out of their way. (Believe me, I watched them push our entire steel scrap-metal bucket across a floor…) Each of our robots has it’s own unique abilities, and they may have some similarities from things learned by our other sub-teams, but they are all pretty different.

~Jordan

#19

can 24B get at the tubes if they are by the wall, because of the descorer being in the way is why i am wondering

#20

Yes, they can. I believe that have to grab it twice, though. Once to pull it away from the wall, and again to grab it correctly.

~Jordan