I would like to start by saying that FEAR will not be competing this year at the World Championships. I believe the New Zealand contingent at VEX-U level is strong enough regardless.
That being said the majority of this reveal is of our 15” robot, dubbed ‘Mako’. You will notice that it is a bit untidy, purely because we never tidied it up for competition. Parts were added as prototypes and kept rather than rebuilt. Wobbegong, our 24” robot, was already taken apart for another project by the time I was able to take photos. Some pictures were taken with slightly different designs. Both robots were last worked on about 2 months ago, before the decision to not compete at Worlds was made. Both robots are competition legal.
Mako: 15”
-8 motor drive, externally geared 1:2
-2 motor lift, externally geared 5:1
-1 motor intake
-Pneumatic Low hang
Mako was designed to be quick. However we left the drive ratio at 1:2 because no one felt they could competently drive a robot much faster than this. You may notice the size of the anti-tip bars hanging out the back. With speed, a short wheel base, and height, came great instability. This was also helped by reducing the drive speed once the arm was lifted past a certain point. We realised early that Large Balls were key in this game, so Mako was built to pick them up on the spot and to stash them. With a little more time the Low Hang with a Large Ball would have been perfected. As it was the Large Ball unfortunately fell out most of the time.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80165681/use/reveal/Mako.png
Wobbegong (Wobbe): 24”
-8 motor mecanum drive, internally geared 1:1.6
-2 motor lift, externally geared 7:1
-1 motor intake
-1 motor intake lift
-Winched High Hang
A Wobbegong is a type of carpet shark that lives on the depths of the ocean floor. This is honestly the best description of this Robot, as it is large and flat. Wobbe was specifically designed around manipulating large balls effectively, but was still quick when it needed to be.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80165681/use/reveal/Wobbe1.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80165681/use/reveal/Wobbe2.jpg
As the leaving president for FEAR, I would like to thank the team since you have all been a large part of my life the past couple of years. Also my sincere thanks to Massey University for putting up with us and giving us a place to work as well as helping with funding. Finally, thank you to all other sponsors, both on the competition side and the volunteering side.
Myself and StimpNZ are happy to answer any questions you might have about the robots, FEAR’s involvement in VEX or how VEX-U works. There are also some other pictures lying around that can be posted to help answer questions you may have.
See you all at Worlds as a Volunteer!