Basic robot functions

This year, WildStang designed a robot that can do a variety of tasks. One of the tasks is that the robot can function in autonomous mode. In the beginning of each round, the robot gets a 15 second time period to make its first move without driver control. It is up to each team's strategy to decide what to do during autonomous mode. We built our robot to reach the top of the ramp and knock down stacks in the first 15 seconds without human control. This year WildStang also made a custom circuit to track the position of robot on the playing field during autonomous mode. Another important feature on the robot this year is the arm. The arm can stack bins on top of each other; thus gaining more multiplier points to WildStang's advantage. WildStang’s robot can stack up to 5 bins. It stacks by lifting individual bin or the whole stack and placing bins or the whole stack on top of another bin.

Robot movement

WildStang robot runs on crab drive system. It drives and can turn to face in any direction. The drive system on the robot this year is also able to make 90 degrees turn to change the orientation of the robot quickly. This proves very effective especially when the robot needs to move quickly or has to maneuver around obstacles without making a big turn. For autonomy our team keeps track of wheel direction and count number of turns; then use vector analysis to keep track of the position of the robot.
We also use the gyro to track our rotational drift which allows us to compensate.

Wheel dimension

The wire mesh on the ramp has a spacing of 1”, if our robot were to have wheels less than 1” wide, it would get stuck on the ramp. This year we chose the width of the wheel to be 1.6”. It’s big enough that it won’t get stuck on the ramp.

Robot Frame Structure

The robot this year is made mostly of formed aluminum sheet metal and aluminum extrusions and tubing. The robot is 29.5" x 35.5" x 32". This year the robot is very low to the ground and therefore has a very low center of gravity. Robot can fold down to fit under mid-field barrier.

Attachments

WildStang’s robot has 3 main attachments. It has 2 shields and 1 arm. We have 2 shields on two sides of the robot to deflect attacks from other robots trying to push us off the ramp. The shield's movements are similar to that of a bird's wing. The driver can control the wing so that it can be angled, parallel, or perpendicular to the ground.

The robot's arms have modular interface so we can install other attachments to them. The primary attachment is the deflector shields. Stacker is built in. Stacker uses Pneumatics cylinder to activate the hooks to grab the bins.

Skid pads and Pneumatics

Pneumatics are also used to lower a skid pad so we can convert from 4-wheel drive to 2-wheel drive to allow us to spin very quickly. In the instance that the robot has to make a quick radial turn, skid pads are added to make the robot turn on a pivotal point. Pneumatics may also be used to deploy a suction cup to hold the robot on top of the ramp.

Gyroscope

The gyroscope on the robot is used to find out which way the robot is facing. WildStang's custom circuit board does the calculation using the readings it takes from the gyroscope. Whenever the robot is in a tight bind, the gyroscope helps the robot keep its sense of direction.

Motors

We use 2 Drill motors and 2 Fisher price motors for the drive wheels.
We use 2 globe motors for crab direction.
We use 2 CIM for arm and wing control and 1 Window motor for stacker.