After holding MROC, Team 930 further attended 2 other offseason competitions. The first, Indy RAGE, promoted women in STEM with an all-girls drive team. We ended up winning the event, providing learning opportunities for all members of the team. The final offseason competition, Roboteer Rumble, was a bonding opportunity for new and veteran team members to compete in an intense event. With our offseason robot, 9930, playing critical defense we also won the event! Following the completion of our preseason, we received our new game for the 2023 season, CHARGED UP, and are extremely excited to get to work!
On January 7th, Team 930 hosted a Kickoff event with teams #5418 New Berlin Blitz, #6421 Warriorbots, #6574 Ferradermis, and #8701 Graffiti. Here we watched the game reveal animation for the 2023 season, CHARGED UP.
The purpose of this year’s game is to create as many links as possible through placing of cones and cubes in their alliance grid. Robots will start in their alliance areas, also called communities, and have 15 seconds to run their autonomous path, uncontrolled by their human drivers. Following that 15 seconds, robots will be in the teleoperated period with the robots drivers aiming to score cones and cubes from on the field or from their substations where human players stand. Scoring more cones and cubes power the teams’ communities, gaining more points in the match. Having 3 cones or cubes in a row creates a link, getting teams closer to achieving a rank point.
In the last 30 seconds of the match, robots drive to their designated Charge Station in attempts to balance and engage to earn points.
For further information, click here to watch the official game animation for the 2023 season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zpflsYc4PA
Prototyping
A big part of our first week was spent prototyping various robot mechanics to complete set tasks within the game. A major focus followed how to pick up each game piece and the different orientations that would present. We experimented all over from claw intakes to roller intakes to figure out our big issue of how to orientate tipped cones.
While the prototyping has just begun it has given our new members a great opportunity to experience what the planning process is like. These prototypes have also helped us narrow down what our final mechanism will be like for our competition robot. The team will continue brainstorming within the next few weeks, but are already deciding on specific ideas, such as an angled elevator. While the ideas continue to grow, other aspects of the robot have made huge progress like our drivetrain. We can’t wait to show off the progress in the upcoming weeks!
