User:Ajacobputt/FtcRobochargers

4507 RoboChargers

About
An FTC [FIRST Tech Challenge] team based in Grand Rapids Michigan, associated with Covenant Christian High School. The team works with a local FFL team based out of Heritage Christian School, as well as practices with teams from Allendale Public School, and West Catholic High School.

History
The team was first registered in 2010, and has participated in "Get Over It", "Bowled Over", "Ring It Up", "Block Party", and is currently in "Cascade Effect."

Block Party
2013-2014 was an exemplary season for the robochargers, they leveraged their previous years robot modifying it which provided a substantial jumpstart and a solid base to work from. Their core design used a belt of tape to adhere to the blocks. The machine was built to align blocks into a row when driven into the block zone, then the carriage with the adhesive unit would drop down and for a moment press the blocks into the tape. The team reported to use gaffers tape at all the competitions, which they claimed had the best properties at the correct temperature ranges for the robot. The team also incorporated latex tubing to suspend their NXT and SAMANTHA module which provided shock and electrostatic discharge protection. The team's design proved to be very competitive, although failing to advance from both Ohio and Pennsylvania qualifiers they were able to get an advanced to North Super Regional. At the regional they made it to the elimination rounds and received finalist innovate award. They were invited to the FTC World Championship where whey they were consistent and achieved a perfect autonomous period in every one of their matches, they were the 1st chosen partner of the second seeded team in the Franklin division. The team had an extremely successful and reliable double hang system, which helped them claim the 3rd highest score of the World Championship. The teams machine was also very heavy approximately 40lbm and had 6 drive motors, which made it effective at shutting down the opposite alliance when they engaged in defense.

Ring It Up
The veteran team benefited from the additional parts allowed, they took full advantage raw extruded aluminum. The team competed in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. At the Illinois qualifier they progressed as the winning alliance and earned many awards. The machine they used, violently unfolded from the 18" cube at the start of the tele-operation period with the assistance of large industrial rubber bands, then a long chain pulled the ring manipulator up and down the tower. The design proved to be very fast at moving the rings vertically, but it was unreliable, often the tower unit failed to fully deploy forcing the team to play defense. The team competed at the Illinois Championship, it appears they attempted to over extend themselves, because in many matches the machine did not move. The team was ranked 28th of 30 teams. The Ohio qualifier event went much better for the team. They appeared to have winkled out many of the issues and performed well. They joined an alliance with team Terabytes together became the winning alliance. The team arrived at the Ohio Championship with a completely different machine, made almost entirely of extruded aluminum, the machine was according to a team member capable of lifting almost any robot at the competition, but they never substantiated this claim. The team did not qualify for the world competition.

Bowled Over
The RoboChargers competed and excelled as a rookie team, the previous team of students re-registered as team 5256, also out of Covenant Christian. The team competed in Illinois and Michigan. At the Illinois Batavia qualifier they earned an invitation to the Illinois State Championship at Illinois Institute of Technology. The team became winning alliance captain after being ranked number 1 in the qualifying matches. The RoboChargers were the alliance captain and choose Got Robot, and Spare Parts (5256) to join them, the Spare parts assisted the Robochargers in a semifinal match and together achieved the high score for the event. The robot won with a 6 foot tall hi-low style lift using standard Tetrix U-cannel. By using the tetrix u-channel the team managed to construct, test, and deploy in weeks what took many other teams months, ideal for the early December Illinois Championship. The team also attended the Michigan Championship, after a poor competition the team undertook a major redesign of the critical lifting system. Their new system was designed to make each stage of the lift extend simultaneously, the team reported breaking cables rated at 300lbm, ultimately using a stranded variant of the cable. The design was made possible by using bearings provided in a tetrix part. There new lift was capable of lifting in 9 seconds, to about 8 feet, the team reported that the design could easily be extended to 12 feet but ran out of time. Ultimately at the World Championship the team performed consistently and did well benefiting from good alliance partners for most of the qualifications rounds, at one point ranked 2nd with a final rank as 13 in the franklin division. They failed to be selected to join an alliance.

Get Over It
The RoboChargers first year in FTC, only starting in late September the team competed in Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa.