2022-23 Powerplay

the robot

The team

THe Task 

In POWERPLAY, teams and their robots must score points by placing one cone at a time on different heights, all the while attempting to strategize to prevent the opponents completing circuits and trying to complete your own.

Key game elements

design considerations

The Solutions

Intake

We started out the season using a claw design, however the claw often didn't grip the cones fully, causing them to fall while we were trying to move the cone to the scoring junction.

We tested multiple different designs by multiple people and decided on the one shown on the left. We implemented the poker design before meet 3, the poker only required power to release the cone. The poker always gripped the cone, so we fully solved our previous issue.

Autonomous strategy

We use Roadrunner as our autonomous pathing program, which allows us to program robot positions on the field as coordinates on a coordinate grid. This allows us to better visualize the path the robot takes during autonomous.

The current autonomous path that we are utilizing allows us to build towards a circuit without hindering other teams in their autonomous. This is achieved through staying within our corner of the field throughout autonomous. We also use vision software to park in the correct parking area at the end of the autonomous period.

Cone Alignment

The poker requires the cone to be lined up under itself. We added a funnel on the front of the robot to move the cone into position with minimal forward travel. We also added a limit switch to detect and provide haptic feedback to the drive team when a cone is in position since the lift obscures the driver’s view of the far side of the robot. The switch is actuated by a lever so that the force needed to push the switch is less than the friction force of the cone sliding on the field.