8059A Robot in 1 Day: Singapore VEX Edition (Reveal) & More

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > Nothing But Net (15/16)
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Since Singapore VEX is now over, and there are nine months to World VEX, we would reveal some of our robots that took part in the competition. We will go through 8059A, 8059F and 8059K,

These 3 robots have a similar single flywheel concept, inspired by some of the FRC Rebound Rumble 2012 robots. However, the intake and transfer mechanisms for ball to the flywheel are different for all robots.

8059A:

Specifications:
(Built in 1 Day)

Drivetrain
6 motors with internal turbo gearing (2.4), sprocketed 1:1
2 4" Wheels (Rear) to prevent getting pushed sideways
2 4" Omni-Wheels (Front)

Flywheel
4 motors with internal turbo gearing (2.4), geared 11 2/3:1 (7:3 x 5:1), for a total of 28:1
Single 5" wheel flywheel

Intake
Tank tread conveyor
2 motors with internal speed gearing (1.6)
C-Channel funnel to align the balls to the intake

Autonomous
20 pts (4 preloads in high goal)

Results
Tournament Champion (with 8059F and 8068C)
Watch Finals Match 2 here: - YouTube
1st Seed; 9-0-0; Almost 500 SP
1st Robot Skills (118 pts)
1st Programming Skills (140 pts)
Watch here: https://youtu.be/AJrpLetYBrk

8059F:

Specifications:

Drivetrain
6 motors with internal turbo gearing (2.4), geared and sprocketed 1:1
4 3.25" Omni-Wheels
Total ratio 1.95:1

Flywheel
4 motors with internal turbo gearing (2.4), geared 11 2/3:1 (7:3 x 5:1), for a total of 28:1
Single 5" wheel flywheel

Intake
Pneumatic actuated scoop
Custom rubberband activated C-Channel mechanism to transfer the balls from the scoop into the flywheel

Autonomous
15 pts (3 preloads in high goal)

Results
Tournament Champion (with 8059A and 8068C)
8th Seed; 6-3-0; 378 SP
Watch a qualifier here: [

Specifications:

Drivetrain
4 motors transmission; 1.67:1 or 0.6:1
4 4" Omni-Wheels

Flywheel
2 motors with internal turbo gearing (2.4), geared 11 2/3:1 (7:3 x 5:1), for a total of 28:1
Single 5" wheel flywheel

Intake
2 motor top roller and funnel to collect balls
2 motor tank tread mechanism to transfer the balls from the funnel into the flywheel

Autonomous
15 pts (3 preloads in high goal)

Results
Tournament Finalist (with 8059D and 8068F)
9th Seed; 6-3-0; 374 SP

Thank you very much for reading our reveal and feel free to ask us any questions!! We would try our best to answer.8059K:http://i.imgur.com/OGJXOID.jpg](- YouTube)

2 Likes
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8059A and 8059F/8059K are designed to complement each other.

8059A main role is what we called the base shooter - to shoot all the match loads from the base.
But of course, it can more than handle itself when it moved out of the starting tiles.

8059F and 8059K are what we called the outfielder. The main role is to dash out fast, intake balls fast and score from outside the starting tiles.

Another point that the team didn’t mention is how fast and accurate is 8059A base shooting.
If you look at the programming skills video, it scored 28 out of 32 balls into the high goal in about 42 seconds.
There is still a lot more potential to improve.

1 Like
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From the video, it looked like the guy was reaching over the wall into the field to place the balls on the robot. I am not sure this is allowed based on the rules.

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Please read the update of rules on 15 June 2015.

http://https://vexforum.com/t/answered-updated-plane-of-the-field/29437/1

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Did you know the reason why the 4 balls wasn’t shot into the net? I’m guessing it’s because of the inconsistency in ball density.

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Have you thought about using a direct shot is instead of an alley-hoop shot?

And do you have any plans for elevation?

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We think there are several reasons for this

  1. The ball density is really inconsistent and affects our range a lot.

  2. The battery level drops enough to affect the distance of the ball even during the 1 minute itself.

These small differences make a much bigger impact than normal since the wheel is spinning so fast, thus causing us to miss occasionally.

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Wow great job! All the robots have very simple and clean designs. It is really interesting to see the the top 4 alliances were solely comprised of 8059 and 8068, great job, that truly shows how good both teams are. HAHA do you think your placing would have changed if the all mighty and formidable 3 time world champions 8065/66 were here? haha I’m just joking. Really love your designs though.

It is interesting to see the concept of having a robot specialise in shooting from the base and the strategy seems to be very effective. I believe such a strategy will be prevalent in world’s, where the focus would be on one robot that can accurately score the preloads and elevate, while another robot that is fast and can quickly clear the field of balls.

Do you guys have any plans on elevating… Perhaps something like 8068 as you have mentioned that they can do similar to your robots while still being able to elevate! Hope 8068 decides to do a reveal too, I’m really interested to see their 2 flywheel shooters. The videos don’t really show them as they are focused on the 8059 robots, but there was a glimpse of a really bulky looking robot (I think it was 8068F? based on the match number)

Amazing robot for such a short amount of time into the season… Singapore teams never fail to impress!

Don’t you think revealing such an amazing robot so early into the season would give others an advantage? Unless you have an even better design? :wink:

HAHA but none the less, good job. I see you guys are maintaining the trend of rushing robots I see, I recall last year there was a robot also built the day before? haha

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Since we have a single wheel shooter, we put a lot of back-spin on the ball. This is intentional to achieve the alley-hoop shot which we thought would be more suitable. The high goal is angled and we thought letting the ball hit a max height before going into the net would increase our accuracy.

As for lifting we didn’t want to focus that much on it during Singapore VEX, but we are definitely going to test new ideas now that there is more time.

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Thanks!

We are very sure that we are going to do something different later in the season so we can be open with you guys about our current designs.

Just wondering whats your team number?

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8062 fellow Singapore team :slight_smile:

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Extremely awesome job yet again from our Singapore friends! The high bar for the programming skills has been set once again so early in the season from Singapore.

Do you have a sense of the distribution of designs you saw at the tournament? Mostly flywheels?

With 120 matches, how did the schedule go? Any lessons learned for the rest of us? Were runaway balls a problem? Was set up time really long? Any help for the rest of the world would be appreciated.

With more matches how well did robots hold up to the fast RPM and prolonged motor stress? Any burn outs or other catastrophes to watch out for (e.g. flying parts)?

I noticed you had a fence. Was it for crowd control or safety inspired? Either way a smart move!

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Thanks!

Most of the robots at the competition were flywheels. However, many robot used two wheels to shoot the ball. Only the robots from the 8059 series and maybe one or two of the middle school teams used single wheel flywheels. For intakes its usually a variation of some sort of tractor or roller.

For match schedules, we were slightly delayed on the first day, but we were back on track on the seconds day. Runaway balls and field setting was not a big issue because there were many volunteers to help out.

Our senior team’s flywheels performed well throughout the competition. Battery level and build quality both affect performance significantly since the motor have to work extra with the high gear ratios. There were no big incidents but they were really strict when it came to wearing protective eye wear in the field.

The fence is only there for crowd control.

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I have a question about 8059F. Have you guys ever tried lowering the power of the flywheel and shooting from directly in front of the goal(propped up to the pipe)? Was the angle of the flywheel vertical enough for this to work, or was it angled too much? Is there a reason you guys favored shooting from mid-field instead?

Great robots by the way!

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8059K can shoot directly in front of the pipe. In fact, the accuracy is pretty good.
In fact, the autonomous is to go straight to the pipe and shoot into the high goal.

As for 8059F, the angle is a bit off to shoot directly from the pipe. Might just need to tilt the angle sightly up. Maybe just adding a small spacer.
At the moment, there are times that the balls will hit the lower bar of the entrance to the high goal.

Another reason why the team prefers to shoot from the mid-field is really so that they can use the white tape for alignment.

16

I will add on to what my students have mentioned.

I thought the schedule went on well. Very well organised, teams reported in advance and waited for their turns.
Setting up the field was not an issue.
They had students volunteers standing around the fields to catch balls that flew out of the field and once the “catchers” got hold of any stray balls, they will immediately placed them into the cardboard boxes (yes… the one that Vex used to shipped the balls over).

The match loads were neatly arranged in the boxes when it was passed to the teams before matches. It made counting easy for the teams.

One issue was really the facing of the fields.
For Singapore Vex, due to safety issues, they made the teams shoot away from the crowds (i.e. back facing the crowds, and the goals at the far side from the crowds).

This layout didnt give a good view to the crowds.
In fact, I hardly have a nice video of any matches.
Think any organisers will need to consider the safety and also the viewers’ experience for the competition.

The 8059 series generally have no problem with the motors.
Except for 8059B, which we noticed that the motors was kind of dying towards the end of 1st day. We changed them in the night, and it was ok for Day 2. But 8059B was only using 2 motor for the flywheel.

But our flywheels are generally not spinning as fast as some other teams.
There are quite a number of teams that were running at about 49:1.
So I am not sure if it will be worse off for them.

End of the day, teams will need to take note of many other variables that will affect the accuracy of their shooting… friction of the flywheels and also while transferring balls, voltage level, momentum of the balls, etc.

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As for 8059A, are all the 4 motors set to full speed(127)? just curious, and why you use zip-ties on the flywheel?

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Definitely not.
But I will need my students to get back to you on the exact speed setting they were using.
My gut feel is that it was only running at about 70%.

As for the zip-ties… again, only they will be able to give you a good answer.

There are lots of stuff that my kids are doing that made me wonder too… :stuck_out_tongue:

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For the motor speeds we have two pre-programmed speeds on our controller 80 and 100. We usually use 80, but if the ball still misses when the speed is 80 or if the battery is weaker late into the match, we would switch to 100.

Also, the zip ties were because the 5" traction wheel we used was quite old and the rubber tire was a bit too loose for the wheel causing an inconsistent spin. The zipties were just to tighten the rubber casing to fit the wheel tightly.

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Is 8059K still able to shoot from the middle of the field?

How well does the 1:28(or 28:1) ratio work with only 2 motors? Recovery time, reliability etc?

Thanks for answering all the questions :smiley: