QLD Pineapples - FRC Team 6063
Project Ezra
The 2017 FIRST Robotics Competition was FIRST STEAMWORKS. This game was Steampunk themed featuring an Airship for each alliance in the middle of the field where teams had to deliver gears that were used to operate the rotors at the top of the Airship. Teams also had to collect 'Fuel', represented by small, yellow plastic balls, and deliver them to their team's Boiler in the corner of the field.
The Airship:
Two airships were situated in the middle of the field - one for each of the alliances. Up to two human players per alliance stand atop the airship to retrieve the gears delivered by the robots and to release the ropes for climbing in Endgame. The human players then place the gears to be able to operate the rotors once enough gears had been delivered to the airship.
As the gears were collected from a delivery chute on the opposite side of the field, Ezra had a basket shaped and sized to fit the gears perfectly. When delivering the gears to the airship, there was a peg at the end of a cable on which the robot would have to place the gears to be lifted into the airship by the human player. Therefore, Ezra's collection basket had a cutout in the middle to allow the gear to be placed on the peg.
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The airship was also the main focus in endgame - in the last 30 seconds of the match, the robots would be able to commence the 'climb'. Once endgame started, the human player on the airship was to release the rope for the robots to attempt to climb. Each team provided their own rope for their robot to climb which was attached to the touchpad prior to their match. The robot had to climb the rope and make contact with the touchpad, lighting it up and keeping it lit until the match ended. Ezra had a winch system that would catch the rope and wind it around, lifting the robot off the ground. The team managed to successfully climb in one match, however just prior to the end of the match, the rope snapped and the robot fell to the ground (luckily landing on it's wheels).
The Boiler:
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Around the edges of the field, there were hoppers containing fuel that could be emptied by pushing down on a bar at the front of the hopper. There were also Return Loading Stations and Overflow Loading Stations on the alliance wall where human players could feed fuel to the robots on the field. This fuel then had to be delivered to a boiler in the corner beside the team's alliance station.
Ezra's deign consisted of a mesh basket to collect fuel, with one side of the basket connected to a metal rod that was connected to a motor that would turn to pull the mesh taut and deposit the fuel into the boiler out of the front of the robot.
