Preliminary Design Review
WPI / Mass Academy
FIRST Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
Presented By:
Ken Stafford, Team Advisor
Colleen Shaver, Director of Support
Chris Werner, Director of Operations
What is FIRST?
• Organization designed to inspire students
in math, science, and engineering
• Brings engineers and students together to
work on a common problem
• Introduces students to real world
engineering challenges
• Over 1000 teams around the world
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Our Team
• One of only 6 teams involved continuously
since the program began in 1992
• 2005 Recipient of the WPI University
Ambassador Award for our community
outreach, including over 40 demos per year
• Called “the highlight of their WPI engineering
education” by past alums
• WPI’s “#1 women and minority
outreach program”
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Operations
• 2006 Game Introduction
• Brainstorming
• Mechanical
• Controls
The Game
Game Animation
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Brainstorming
• Discussed strategies as a team
• Established an ordered list for gameplay
– Score balls
– Collect/Contain Balls
– Score on platform
– Defense-specific
– Push Balls
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Brainstorming
• Met in three groups to develop initial
robot designs
• After three days, groups convened to
present ideas
• 2 groups designed conveyor systems to a single
shooter with an omni-wheel drive
• 1 group designed a track system with revolver
using a standard drive system
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Final Design
• Six-wheel drive with two speeds
• Ability to get balls from the floor and human
player
• Controlled delivery to shooter
• Ability to shoot balls into center goal on-thefly from our side of the field
• Many offensive and defensive autonomous
options
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Mechanical – Driveline/Chassis
• Driven by 4 CIM Motors through a two stage
reduction
• Six 5” rubber caster wheels
• Provides both traction and shortened wheel
base
• Speeds up to 14 ft/s
• Ludicrous Speed Drive
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Four 3” rubber caster wheels
Powered from main wheels
Pneumatically raised and lowered
Provide velocities up to 16 ft/s
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Mechanical – Ball Collection
• Series of 2” PVC rollers with rubber
– Spins at 3000 rpm
– Powered by mini-bike motor
• Balls lifted into storage area (hopper or
directly into single-file tracks)
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Mechanical – Ball Sorting/Storage
• Balls jam themselves very easily
• Hopper design is the most advantageous
– Quick loading, high capacity
– Most difficult to extract single balls from
• Sorting balls into single-file as they are
received is most efficient
– Decreases capacity
– Delays floor-to-air time
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Mechanical – Ball Launching
• Ball pitcher on turret to allow for 360
degree shooting
• Launch balls in parabolic trajectory from
the top of the robot
• Ability to score from 6 to 21 feet using
same release angle
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Mechanical – Ball Launching
• Contain pitcher mechanism at bottom
• Pneumatic cylinder to lift ball into
pitcher
• Two 4” rubber wheels in series
• Second roller geared faster than first
roller
• Fixed deflector angle allows wide
shooting range due to ‘flat’ trajectory
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Controls
• Controls challenge:
– Continuously keep the turret/pitcher aimed at the
center goal even while the robot is moving
– Operate all the other robot mechanisms to ease the
human operator workload
– Multiple autonomous strategies including scoring
balls on the center target during initial 10 sec
period
• Provide many operator automated operations
• Many controls functions have already been
prototyped on VEX Robots
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Controls – Navigation
• Distance Measurement
– CMU Camera
• Computes distance to target using color tracking and
calculating based on y-axis
• Computes horizontal offset using x-axis position
– Wheel Encoders
• Provide velocity information for shoot-while-driving
function
• Robot Orientation
– Compass
• Provides coarse heading information necessary for robot
orientation
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Autonomous Requirements
• No additional programming complexities
– Everything prototyped except shooting while
moving
– Based on our last years’ autonomous engine
• Very similar to driver-operated periods
– Vision camera tracks light and determines when to
shoot
• Ability to select delays and different paths to
drive for unpredictability and compatibility
with alliance partners
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Controls – Operator Interface
• Driver controls both driveline and ball
collector
• Additional operator station to control ball
launching
– Switch to indicate offensive/defensive periods
– Ability to fine tune the shooting vector
– Fully automated or fully manual shooting modes
• Robot sensor feedback to operator
– Indicator lights to show target acquisition
– Considering heads up display to indicate ball
locations and accuracy of acquired target (audial
tones)
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Timeline Milestones
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Jan. 7th – Kickoff
Jan. 11th – Strategy decision
Jan. 15th – Overall configuration
Jan. 27th – Preliminary Design Review
Jan. 30th – Chassis built
Feb. 5th – Driver try-outs
Feb. 7th – Mechanical subsystems built
Feb. 11th – Systems integrated
Feb. 17th – Critical Design Review
Feb. 18th – UTC Scrimmage
Feb. 21nd – Ship robot
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Competition Schedule
• UTC Scrimmage (Suffield, CT)
– February 18th, 2006
• Granite State Regional (Manchester, NH)
– March 2nd – 4th, 2006
• Florida Regional (Orlando, FL)
– March 10th – 12th, 2006
• Championship Event (Atlanta, GA)
– April 27th – 29th, 2006
Team 190: Gompei and the HERD
http://users.wpi.edu/~first/
Questions?
• For more information visit our
website at http://www.wpi.edu/~first/
•Anyone is welcome to visit us in the
HL005 weekdays after 1600,
Saturdays after 1000, and Sundays
after 1200.