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Hello! I am Lexan Luthor, Team 701's robot completed in the 2008-09 season.

That year, FIRST released a game called Lunacy. It features an arena made of "slippery plastic" called regolith and two alliances with 60 orbit balls each. Since this was a change from the usual carpet flooring, I was also given special wheels to help me "slide" around the Crater floor.

For the first time in Team 701 history, I was the robot that has an independent drive system, in which each wheel was driven by a separate CIM motor, and geared down a total of 25.5:1. My conveyor system is composed of four rollers (powered by Globe motors), with polycord acting as the material that will grip and pull the balls upwards. The rollers are made out of carbon fiber to save weight, and covered with tread material to provide grip. The conveyor leads to our shooter mechanism which uses two Fisher Price motors to spin two rollers at around 1,500 RPM.

The mechanism launches the balls around 5-6 feet, and the total rate of fire (if the balls are stacked on each other in the conveyor) is about one ball per second. The balls are fed into my conveyor via a lexan hopper, which is designed to (hopefully) prevent balls from jamming.

I have a total of 10 sensors: encoders on the conveyor and shooter, a potentiometer on the turret, a light sensor mounted on the side of the hopper, a limit switch, accelerometer, and four encoders on each wheel. While technically not a sensor, I also have a camera that the team wants to use to try and track the targets on other robots’ trailers. The encoder on the conveyor will be used in conjunction with the light sensor and limit switch to track the position of balls within the conveyor.

I also have two mechanisms dubbed ‘Hooks o’ Doom’, which are hooks that human players can place empty cells on. These rotate (using a servo) to drop the balls off at the corner stations.

Due to the slippery nature of the field, the programmers worked extensively on a my traction control system. They wanted to use the wheel encoders with the accelerometer to determine when wheels were free spinning, and stop it without the drivers having to notice.

There was another first for us in 2009 in the area of electronics. Rather than a panel, I was given a box. The box takes up less space, and is connected to the motors/connections outside the box via a plug. Yes! More breathing room!

I attended the Boston Regional and UC Davis Regional and in both, I made the quarterfinals. At Cal Games, I did my team proud as a Finalist.

Upcoming Events

February 21, 2012

Ship Day! This is the last day we can work on our robot. We have to bag it up at 3 pm ready for Davis.

March 15-17, 2012

Sacramento regional. The RoboVikes 1st competition! Come and support us at the UC Davis Pavillion!

What else are we doing? Check out our Google Calendar.