FTC 2014-2015 Cascade Effect: A Robot in Three Days

Starting last Saturday, FTC teams across the country started on the race to build a robot that can compete at a high level in competitions throughout the season. One team accomplished this goal in a matter of three days, and uploaded videos to YouTube that described the process that they used to build the robot in such a short amount of time. The "team" that built the robot resides in Florida and is actually composed of members of two teams ( team 4997 "Masquerade" and team 5937 "Renaissance Robotics" ). They started the process of making their robot by analyzing the game and choosing the way that they wanted to play it. After they had figured out what they wanted the robot to do, they had brainstorming sessions where they would come up with designs for the robot that could achieve the tasks that they wanted it to do. After the brainstorming session the team narrowed down on the ideas that they wanted to implement on their robot and started prototyping and building!

Analyzing the Game

Prototyping

After the team had used prototyping to figure out how they would build the individual components of their robot they went on to build what would be there final robot. They documented their building days by live-streaming them and then posting them on YouTube. The videos really show the process that every team goes through when they build their robot. Often times things don't go the way teams think they will. Sometimes your measurements are off by a quarter of an inch or you have to completely redesign something. Nevertheless, teams make it through the process and come out with great, quality robots.

Live-Stream Video

After the team had finished the robot they made a demo video that displayed what their robot could do. Even after the team had made a successful robot they still admitted that there were problems with it. This is a crucial part of the process of building robots for FTC because the winning robots are the ones that have been tweaked so that they run efficiently and consistently. Overall, this robot is a great tool for many teams that are developing their own robots for this year's game, and it gives a great look into how the game will probably be played.

Demo Video

Robot Analysis Video

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