Throughout middle school, I discovered that I have a great sense of love for science and math, especially physics. Due to this, I joined a VEX robotics club in middle school, where I built a clawbot. I really enjoyed it. Fast forward two years and now I’m a sophomore in high school. I’m now starting a robotics team. We had one, but the teacher who ran it was so busy that it was canceled. I’m going to start up the robotics club with another teacher, next year, that agreed to do it with me. However, I have several questions on where I should begin. Where did you all begin when you first started VEX (maybe by building a clawbot, etc.)? How did you learn the complex lifts or whatever, is it from experience? How do I learn how to build the cool bases to the robot? How do I learn what the function of the different types of wheels?
I’d really like to know because I’m so very interested in robotics but I’m lost on where my starting point should be. Also note that it is going to be the new club coordinator’s first year in robotics. We’ll be sharing the experience together and hopefully he can continue the robotics club after I leave high school!
I guess your question should be more specific. There are a lot of common sense to know about VEX and it would be impossible to put all of them in one response.
I guess the best way to learn is to go into the competition and get your hands wet. Or start on some engineering projects using VEX. Always remember to research before you do something, and every failure will teach you a lot.
Like, my first lift was in toss up, 4 motor 1:5 8 bar with no protection whatsoever. So the driver stalls the motor all the time. Which caused a major cortex PTC trip that took us out in the state quarterfinals. Cost me one year of world championship to learn about motor and cortex PTC.
My first working scissor lift was Skyrise, built completely out of the thinnest metal bar and standoff. The entire thing is cool but bent into a miserable mess under the rubber band and load of 2 cubes at the end of season. Cost our team couple pounds of metal bar to learn that they are flimsy and should not be used on a 3 stage scissor lift.
Things like this will happen and you will learn very fast this way. Focusing on specific topics, like motor, base ratio choice, lift gearing, or programming, will get you started even faster.
If you can, I would highly recommend finding a mentor or team in your area that would be willing to mentor and help you in the first year, especially to show you some basics and answer your questions. In our first year we were lucky to have 5225A help us out, and I don’t think we could have done as well without them.
The clawbot arm and the 4 bar lift are the two most basic types of lifts, but Scissor and Danny (double reverse 4 bar) tend to be the most dominant lifts, with elevator close behind.
explains Danny in great detail, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD1KKpNMSwk&
demonstrates how absurdly dominant it was last year in skyrise. (That robot, build by team 62, got into the semifinals of worlds last year. Walking around the highschool division at worlds, almost every team had a Danny lift.)
I couldn’t find any good videos on elevator lifts, but team 1131 Currahee
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHCCKLZsvY&
used the elevator lift to achieve a 98 point programming skills several years ago.
Intakes and drive bases are pretty strait forward, and the scoring mechanism varies tremendously from year to year. Good luck this year!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHCCKLZsvY&)
explains Danny in great detail, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD1KKpNMSwk&
demonstrates how absurdly dominant it was last year in skyrise. (That robot, build by team 62, got into the semifinals of worlds last year. Walking around the highschool division at worlds, almost every team had a Danny lift.)
I couldn’t find any good videos on elevator lifts, but team 1131 Currahee
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHCCKLZsvY&
used the elevator lift to achieve a 98 point programming skills several years ago.
Intakes and drive bases are pretty strait forward, and the scoring mechanism varies tremendously from year to year. Good luck this year!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHCCKLZsvY&)
I don’t think a single one of the teams you refer to would call their lift a danny lift.
Please stop
Inspector Gadget has already pointed out that the “Danny Lift” is different from the double reverse four bars that everyone else was using because of the hole spacing
That’s what Tabor is referring to
and back to the original topic,
Start with a challenge in mind, and try to build a robot to meet that challenge.
The first time, you’ll probably come up with something far from optimal, but it’ll get better over time and with more challenges and learning.
P.S Building an omnibot that could play every game competitively would be interesting. Someone make it happen.
Just do your research.
I can’t tell you how many countless hours I’ve spent staring at pictures, watching and rewatching videos, and browsing these forums to learn what I’ve learned. I know what you’re asking and it’s all about the subtleties that you pick up from working with the system. Also pay attention to the things that may seem insignificant, because that’s where the magic happens. If you are willing to commit and spend every waking moment on this, then you can be just as good as any other team.
I learned best by taking things apart. I always would study how a mechanism was put together and remember what was essential. Also I would spend so much time watching videos of concepts, robot reveals, and tutorials. I would look at the innovative ideas team 44 always had and hoped I could achieve that. Of course I started when I was in 7th grade (senior now) so I have a lot of experience since I first started. It takes time to learn and your first robot won’t be the world champion.
Well to my design process, I always look at how the game should be played and think about what goals I want to reach. Like high lifting a robot or building a full skyrise tower. For s base design I go by how much space is available on the field. For example this year I built a transmission so my robot could go around really quick to score or push to play defense. Or last year I built an X drive so I could perfectly line up with everything.
Now depending on what I want to accomplish, I’ll choose what I want my main mechanism be. Now I say if you want to do one thing, you should do it well. So if your robot can only score one ball at a time, make it good at shooting the bonus ball with %110 accuracy. Or always have a reliable lifting system that is almost guaranteed to never fail.
So in conclusion I think you should sit down with who is on your team and just talk about every idea that comes to mind. Think of each pro and con. Now events have happened, look at other teams. Then start drawing where you imagine every going. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!
