Hello, all to our team’s season reveal! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to actually film a reveal, so we instead chose to showcase all 5 of our designs which we utilized throughout the season of Tower Takeover as well as our early season 3D designs. If you have any questions, please post them below!
Prior 3D Designs to Mk. I
Vertical Roller Stacker
The first design type that came into our minds when we viewed the Tower Takeover Game Reveal was a vertical stacking robot utilizing a linear lift and rollers. The 3D design consisted of a traditional 4m 200rpm 4” Omni-Wheel drive driven directly as well as a 2m 200rpm 1:7 DR4B. The interesting part of this design was our roller system. This was done with only one motor in order to preserve the other motor for any new function we may have planned.
"Recycle-Rush" Style Stacker
This design concept was actually based on a prior FRC game known as Recycle Rush. These robots utilized a reverse stacking system where the stack would be increased in height based on additional game elements added from the bottom compared to the top. This carried over into our Tower Takeover version with an internal roller system and a linear slide lift and claw. The claw would allow the whole stack to be gripped and lifted up over the cube below it for the reverse stacking functionality. However, an issue with this design is that moving the finished stack from inside the robot to the scoring zones was a difficult challenge, so this design was dropped.
Traditional Vertical Claw Stacker
This 3D design consisted of a similar design to the first one with a base and DR4B. However, the base this time was sped up with a 5:3 200rpm gear ratio for added mobility on the field. The DR4B maintained the same ratio of 1:7 200RPM for increased lift speed in stacking. For the cube manipulation system, we utilized a single motor claw in order to firmly grip the cubes as well as to have the “reverse stacker” system from the previous iteration. This way, there was no need for another subsystem to move the finished stack from inside the robot to the scoring zones.
Vertical Stacker with Double Stack Capacity
This next design concept was much more ambitious from the last one as we noticed we could potentially fit two vertical stacker systems side by side to stack two segments at the same time. In order for greater mobility, we chose to design a 4m 200rpm 4” X-Drive for lateral movement across the field. This would make the action of aligning the cubes for reverse stacking easier on the driver. The lift would require more torque compared to the other ones, so we chose to make the lift speed 2m 1:7 100rpm to better allow consistent stack lifting. As for the claw, it would have been a 2m 1:3 single claw system with a central beam that did not move. The motors would only power one side of the claw which would clamp down onto the cubes. This design was made simultaneously with another team (6007R).
Mk. I
This was actually our first attempt at a traditional “tray stacker” which utilized side rollers and an angled plane to gather cubes diagonally and then tilt the whole plane to place the stack vertically. Both our team and 1727G worked together on the first publicly posted tray-bot design.
Our design had a 1:1 200rpm 3.25” Omni base which was directly driven. We chose to keep this speed in order to better our defensive capabilities in a match as well as to maintain a higher load of cubes with an increased tray length. As for the tilter, it was a 1:7 100rpm tilter with a 4b linkage to the tray for movement. The rollers were a 2m 200rpm 24t roller system with flaps and grip-tread to better allow compression. The tray had a 30-long bottom tray length with a 35 long top tray length to fit its 6 cube capacity. The joint for the tray was done with hinges as it was designed to be folded backward compared to forwards.
One thing which was different from our design compared to the one in 1727G’s early-season reveal was that our rollers were directly hard mounted to the tray with no joints or movement. Instead, we relied on proper fine-tuned compression in order to simply outtake and back away from the stack.
Mk. II
The second iteration of our tray-bot was actually around the same time that 448X released their RI3D. However, we wanted to try something different compared to a lift that was mounted to the base itself. Instead, we chose to try and incorporate the lift into the tray itself to allow as much room as possible in keeping the tray folded backwards (we didn’t realize until Mk. III that folding forwards might be a better option). Almost everything was kept the same from Mk. I except that the extra motor that was leftover was used in a 1:5 100rpm 2b with the intakes mounted to the end of the lift compared to the tray.
This design was actually one of our best ones in the early season as it could hold nearly 8 cubes and have fairly decent tower play. However, we chose to move away from this design as we realized that our tilter gearbox was taking a much higher load compared to before. Thus, this was scrapped and instead moved over to a traditional base-mounted 2b.
Mk. III
This is probably one of the better known early season robots as we actually made a reveal on it! This robot can be seen in our 1961Z Early Season Reveal. As for its design, it was our team’s version of a modified “Goofy” which tried to fix the issues of the 448X RI3D design. Ours had a non-flipout intake system as well as a much more consistent stacking system which relied on the intakes being mounted on hinges to push them away from the stack when in an upright position.
The base was an odd choice for us as we chose a 4m 3:5 600rpm on 3.25” Omni base which gave us close to 360rpm in speed. We originally chose this speed over a directly driven base as we wanted to primarily focus it on skills in order to put up a high enough score so that we can “fall back” on it in the case that we do not qualify through awards at the GA State Championship. Thus, the intake speed was also much faster than the RI3D variant as it was 2m 200rpm 24t with a mix of flaps and grip chain. The intake was swapped over to 100rpm through the early season as we wanted to increase our stacking capacity.
The tilter stayed at its 1m 1:7 100rpm as it was more than fast enough to handle the 8 cube load. However, as the early season went on in GA, we chose to increase our stacking capabilities by adding a third flipout stage and a slider on that to accommodate a 10 cube capacity. The tray this time around had different joints that were similar to the RI3D one. This allowed the tray to start in its resting position compared to a vertical one which made autonomous easier.
Mk. IV
This was a slight refresh to our Mk. III design as it focused more on its speed and tower capabilities compared to a high stacking capacity. The robot was partially taken apart to the point that only the base was kept the same.
The tilter stuck at its 1:7 100rpm gearbox except that its 4b geometry was much more optimized to handle its load of 8 cubes without the help of banding. It also had a different style of a powered bar. Compared to the traditional C-channel attached to a gear, we instead used standoffs and spacers for the arm. (This did not really help in any way, but it did look cooler :D)
The 2b also got a major redesign. Compared to having a cross brace in front of the pivot joint, we added it behind the joint to better allow towering. This was much easier as we did not have to rely on the tray moving forwards while the lift did. This cut downtime and made it generally easier when scoring in towers.
The tray and intake went through many different variants throughout the lifespan of Mk. IV. Originally, the tray was a normal full-length bottom stage and full-length top stage with slider. However, we noticed that the point where the intakes would let go of the stack was much farther away from 90 degrees compared to the old Mk. III. Therefore, we fixed this by utilizing a pass-through tray. This allows the intakes to pass through the tray and not touch the walls at all. This allowed the intakes to maintain constant grip with the stack and better increase consistency. Our joints had also changed from the previous flat-plate system over to a 45-degree gusset system. This kept the joints at a lower profile and made the tray fold in easier.
The intakes had also gone through many different changes throughout the lifespan of Mk. IV. We had gone from full 24t, to 24t driven and 18t front, to all 18t, and many more. All of these were to serve different purposes whether it be increased range, greater torque, or greater speed. By the time of GA States, we had settled on a 24t driven and 12t front setup to allow a large intaking range as well as still keep enough compression to pick up cubes from the front.
Another neat thing that Mk. IV had was a “cube lock” system to allow refined tower scoring while still keeping a stack within the tray. This was done by a basic lever system mounted to the base of the tray which was actuated by the 2b arms. The overall mechanism was fairly basic to build, but the majority of the work was done by a macro system. This relied on a line sensor near the base of the intake which detected when a cube was out-taked to a specific point. This paired with the 2b raising up at the same time allowed the cube lock to function efficiently.
Mk. V
Mk. V was actually supposed to serve as our Worlds robot. Everything was redesigned from the ground up. The prime goal of this robot was close to the goal of our States robot: try to score stacks as fast as possible and focus on defense/towering for the rest of the match. To make it more efficient, we wanted the whole tray to hold 10 cubes with a one flip and slide system. This would be something similar to the original tray setup on Mk. III except on a much larger scale.
The base was increased in length from 25 long to 30 long as well as a different ratio. This time around, we chose a 600rpm 3:7 gear ratio on a 4” Omni wheelbase. This kept the mobility of our previous base but had enough torque to allow defensive tactics as well as to hold up the load of 10 cubes. We also kept COG in mind when trying to determine the 2b tower placement, so we kept the towers near the front end of the back wheels to prevent any tipping hazards and to reduce the overall length of our anti-tips.
The tilter stayed the same at 1:7 100rpm, but this time it had improved geometry in order to handle its 10 cube capacity. The build was effectively the same as before.
The lift was a 1:7 200rpm 2b with a back brace system to keep the same towering capability as our State robot. The arm had better bracing with full-length channel boxing as well as a HS shaft running across to power the whole lift.
The tray was the most unique aspect of our Worlds robot. It featured a 10 cube (almost 11!) capacity tray that folded up into an insanely small space. This was done with a close to 41 hole long bottom segment, a 35 long top segment, and a 40 long slide system. If fully folded up, the whole tray assembly was close to the width of a 5 wide. This was done with modified tray joints that allowed the tray to fold into itself. By forcing the tray into the corners of its braces, we were able to create enough space to allow the tray to easily slot into itself (thanks to BCUZ for giving us this idea). This paired with a 40 long slide gave us the 10 cube capacity we needed. However, we had issues with our slide being too heavy and potentially taking down our stack when backing up, so we instead changed over to a lightweight third stage and a string-based side guard system for our upcoming TSA competition.
Our intakes were also vastly different from any of our previous intakes. We chose to utilize the same intake sprocket system as 2114X with angled 45-degree gussets in the front to better allow cube intaking range. This proved extremely helpful when trying to intake cubes that may be bunched up or in odd spots to reach. They were also in a flip-down orientation with a screw joint and banding to keep them in the downward position.
We hope you enjoyed our team’s progression throughout the Tower Takeover season and we hope everyone to have a great next season!
