Team paradox
Brief Overview:Team Paradox Robotics (TPR) is a FIRST robotics team from San Dieguito Academy in Encinitas, California. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), was founded in 1989 to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. They do this by having students work together with professional engineers and scientists to build a robot. Every year there is a new game with new tasks for the robots to accomplish. The game is revealed early each January - then we have six weeks to design, build and test our robot before it is shipped away for competition. 2007 was our rookie year, and 2008 is shaping up to be a great second run.
Team History
Team 2102 started in Fall 2006 as a group of students in Mr. Jason Berend’s homeroom who were interested in computer tech and engineering. One thing we all had in common was we liked to build things – rockets, forts, computers … anything. They learned about the FIRST Robotics Competition from student Matthew Golman's parents, and formed a team with Mr. Berend and a physics teacher, Mr. George Stimson, as advisers. The teachers went to a couple of the Team San Diego meetings at Madison High School, where they learned about some mentor opportunities for our team.
We spent afternoons in the Fall learning how to build small-scale Vex robots with two UCSD engineering students as our mentors. When other students started hearing about it, the team began to grow. Now Team Paradox isn't just a group of builders but a team of students with all kinds of interests and skills.
FRC is rather expensive, but parents helped raise money and find corporate sponsors. The team was lucky to get $17,000 in grants and two engineers from the community who agreed to mentor us. The Devil Duckies of Madison High School also offered to mentor. We were on our way.
Team Paradox took their first robot to the San Diego Regional and did a respectable job. Since then they have continued growing and learning, getting more and more organized, and gaining more and more support from our school and community. Now they have four corporate sponsors and eight engineer mentors. This season they will compete in two regionals – San Diego and Los Angeles – and hopefully go on to the championships in Atlanta.
2007 Season Robot
Nickname: Fritts
Purpose: Rack-and-Roll
Mechanical Design: The Mast: comes out the top of the robot, and unfolds from five feet at the start of a match to almost nine feet (during the 20 second autonomous period) so it can score on any elevation. It is made of 45x90mm Bosch extruded aluminum, milled out to save weight.
The Carriage: The carriage consists of a large chunk of extruded aluminum, with two motors (one driving a pinion to move the carriage up and down, the other pushing a lead screw to open and close the grabber.
The Drive System: The drive system of the '07 bot consisted of 4 front-mounted drive wheels (2 per side) and two rear mounted casters. The drive wheels were powered by two CIM motors, with no gear reduction, and no transmission.
Electronics: 1x IFI Microcontroller 1x large power distribution block 1x small power distribution block 3x Victor speed controllers 1x Spike Assorted fusses
Game Strategy: In out initial design, we stressed the ability to reach all three levels of racks, and high maneuverability. In the end, we accomplished this, but did not take into effect how important speed would be in the final game. Another thing we failed to think about was that although the higher legs are harder to get to, they are still worth the same amount of points, making them really not worth the effort.
Performance: The performance in the competition was exactly as we had expected, the four drive wheels arranged around the mast gave us huge maneuverability, and made us a formidable defensive robot. However, the carriage moved up and down the mast painfully slow, and the casters made it easy to push us around. The mast also made us top heavy, and easy to knock over.
What we learned: Speed is a key factor, especially in a two-minute game.
Tighten bolts.
Strategize first.
Memorable Quote:
"Plan your work, and work your plan." -Andree Pyfer
2008 Off-Season Practice Robot
Name:
Purpose: Driving and building practice
Mechanical Design:
The Frame: Pretty simple, .75 x 1.5" hollow aluminum, welded together.
The Drive System: The drive system of the '08 practice bot consists of six driven wheels, three on each side. Each side is powered by two CIM motors, running through Andy Mark SuperShifter two-speed transmissions.
Strategy: Last year, we learned that no matter how hard it is to build something, it's much easier to build something a second time. We are making this chassis so that we can make one again during build season twice as fast, and probably better. Additionally, once we have shipped off the robot, this one will be used for driving practice until the competition.
What we learned: Offset center wheels need to be offset more than 1/16".
Transmissions are heavy.
Planning the design fully before building makes everything easier.
Memorable Quote:
"Here we go again..." -Nick Foote
Sponsors
Asymtek/Nordson (Founder)
ViaSat
Bottle Rocket Entertainment
Qualcomm (Founder)
NASA (Not current sponsor, but Founder)