Preliminary Design Review Presented By: Ken Stafford, Team Advisor Colleen Shaver, Director of Support Chris Werner, Director of Operations WPI / Mass Academy FIRST Team 190: Gompei and the HERD

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD What is FIRST? Organization designed to inspire students in math, science, and engineering Brings engineers and students together to work on a common problem Introduces students to real world engineering challenges Over 1000 teams around the world

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Our Team One of only 6 teams involved continuously since the program began in Recipient of the WPI University Ambassador Award for our community outreach, including over 40 demos per year Called “the highlight of their WPI engineering education” by past alums WPI’s “#1 women and minority outreach program”

Operations 2006 Game Introduction Brainstorming Mechanical Controls

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD The Game Game Animation

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Brainstorming Discussed strategies as a team Established an ordered list for gameplay –Score balls –Collect/Contain Balls –Score on platform –Defense-specific –Push Balls

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Brainstorming Met in three groups to develop initial robot designs After three days, groups convened to present ideas 2 groups designed conveyor systems to a single shooter with an omni-wheel drive 1 group designed a track system with revolver using a standard drive system

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Final Design Six-wheel drive with two speeds Ability to get balls from the floor and human player Controlled delivery to shooter Ability to shoot balls into center goal on-the- fly from our side of the field Many offensive and defensive autonomous options

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Mechanical – Driveline/Chassis Driven by 4 CIM Motors through a two stage reduction Six 5” rubber caster wheels Provides both traction and shortened wheel base Speeds up to 14 ft/s Ludicrous Speed Drive –Four 3” rubber caster wheels –Powered from main wheels –Pneumatically raised and lowered –Provide velocities up to 16 ft/s

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Mechanical – Ball Collection Series of 2” PVC rollers with rubber –Spins at 3000 rpm –Powered by mini-bike motor Balls lifted into storage area (hopper or directly into single-file tracks)

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Mechanical – Ball Sorting/Storage Balls jam themselves very easily Hopper design is the most advantageous –Quick loading, high capacity –Most difficult to extract single balls from Sorting balls into single-file as they are received is most efficient –Decreases capacity –Delays floor-to-air time

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Mechanical – Ball Launching Ball pitcher on turret to allow for 360 degree shooting Launch balls in parabolic trajectory from the top of the robot Ability to score from 6 to 21 feet using same release angle

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Mechanical – Ball Launching Contain pitcher mechanism at bottom Pneumatic cylinder to lift ball into pitcher Two 4” rubber wheels in series Second roller geared faster than first roller Fixed deflector angle allows wide shooting range due to ‘flat’ trajectory

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Controls Controls challenge: –Continuously keep the turret/pitcher aimed at the center goal even while the robot is moving –Operate all the other robot mechanisms to ease the human operator workload –Multiple autonomous strategies including scoring balls on the center target during initial 10 sec period Provide many operator automated operations Many controls functions have already been prototyped on VEX Robots

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Controls – Navigation Distance Measurement –CMU Camera Computes distance to target using color tracking and calculating based on y-axis Computes horizontal offset using x-axis position –Wheel Encoders Provide velocity information for shoot-while-driving function Robot Orientation –Compass Provides coarse heading information necessary for robot orientation

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Autonomous Requirements No additional programming complexities –Everything prototyped except shooting while moving –Based on our last years’ autonomous engine Very similar to driver-operated periods –Vision camera tracks light and determines when to shoot Ability to select delays and different paths to drive for unpredictability and compatibility with alliance partners

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Controls – Operator Interface Driver controls both driveline and ball collector Additional operator station to control ball launching –Switch to indicate offensive/defensive periods –Ability to fine tune the shooting vector –Fully automated or fully manual shooting modes Robot sensor feedback to operator –Indicator lights to show target acquisition –Considering heads up display to indicate ball locations and accuracy of acquired target (audial tones)

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Timeline Milestones Jan. 7 th – Kickoff Jan. 11 th – Strategy decision Jan. 15 th – Overall configuration Jan. 27 th – Preliminary Design Review Jan. 30 th – Chassis built Feb. 5 th – Driver try-outs Feb. 7 th – Mechanical subsystems built Feb. 11 th – Systems integrated Feb. 17 th – Critical Design Review Feb. 18 th – UTC Scrimmage Feb. 21 nd – Ship robot

Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Team 190: Gompei and the HERD Competition Schedule UTC Scrimmage (Suffield, CT) –February 18 th, 2006 Granite State Regional (Manchester, NH) –March 2 nd – 4 th, 2006 Florida Regional (Orlando, FL) –March 10 th – 12 th, 2006 Championship Event (Atlanta, GA) –April 27 th – 29 th, 2006

Questions? For more information visit our website at Anyone is welcome to visit us in the HL005 weekdays after 1600, Saturdays after 1000, and Sundays after 1200.