Contents

Index
Mechanical
01Drivetrain02Intake03Hopper04Indexer05Feeder + Shooter
Software
06Software
Old Designs
07Vibez
Mechanical · 01

Drivetrain.

A clean-sheet swerve base sized to package the rest of the robot. Low profile and an intake-friendly perimeter.

Features

  • SDS MK5N modules at all four corners
    • Off-the-shelf modules: full holonomic motion, proven mechanics, no custom-module risk in the build season
  • Geared 7.13:1 for acceleration
    • The higher reduction trades a little top speed for torque, so the robot gets moving faster out of every stop
  • Belly pan carries the electronics
    • roboRIO, PDP, CANivore, and battery mount low on a single pan inside the frame, keeping the center of gravity down
  • Eight quick-release nuts hold the bumpers
    • A thirty-second bumper swap between matches
Mechanical · 02

Intake.

A linear-sliding intake kept as straight as possible. The low tilt lets the front hopper squeeze fuel harder for more fuel per second.

Features

  • 2" polycarbonate roller driven by two Kraken X60s geared down 1.67:1
    • 3D-printed spacer registers a WCP stub-roller hub on a dead axle for low-friction, replaceable mounting
  • Churro kicker bar tensioned with surgical tubing
    • Churro shaft wrapped in cat-tongue tape hangs on a drop-down pivot
    • Fuel gets a positive nudge into the hopper without a second motor
  • Lexan rack-and-pinion drive
    • Half-inch laminated Lexan rack cut with 10DP teeth, driven by a Kraken X60 at 15:1
    • Through-shaft links 10T pinions on both sides so the intake cannot skew, with two unpowered 10T gears at the rear for extra constraint
    • 3D-printed spacer holds the intake at angle and keeps the plates from flexing
  • 2° tilt for a better intake squeeze
    • The low tilt lets the front hopper squeeze fuel harder for more fuel per second
Mechanical · 03

Hopper.

Lattice-cut walls with a net on top to maximize fuel capacity. Lightweight, rigid, and unmistakable on the field.

Features

  • Diamond-lattice cuts
    • Triangulated cutouts hit the strength-to-weight ratio without adding bend operations
  • Decal-ready rear panel
    • Single back face carries the team mark, no flat regions broken by hardware
  • Net on top
    • A net over the hopper walls adds capacity above the lattice, so we can go under the trench with an empty hopper and still expand into a bump robot that carries extra fuel
  • Four bolts to the chassis
    • The hopper comes off with four bolts, which gives very easy access to the rest of the robot in case of breakage anywhere
Mechanical · 04

Indexer.

Five grip-tape rollers driven by a single Kraken X60. Fast feed from hopper to shooter, one fuel at a time.

Features

  • Five rollers wrapped in grip tape, powered by one Kraken X60
    • Grip tape gives the rollers bite on the fuel so they feed fast without slipping
    • One motor drives the whole stack, so every roller runs at the same surface speed
  • Single-fuel release
    • Geometry guarantees one fuel at the shooter at any time; no double feeds, no jams
  • Tolerant entry geometry
    • Wide entry funnel, narrow exit. Handles bumped or tumbling pickups without stalling
  • Field-serviceable rollers
    • Each roller drops out independently; replace in under a minute on the cart
Mechanical · 05

Feeder + Shooter.

A drum shooter with a continuous feeder pinch, pre-spun for consistent launches.

Features

  • Drum four fuel wide
    • Four fuel fit across the drum side by side, so the feeder never has to queue them single file
  • Custom-cut 1/2" thick, 4" steel flywheel
    • Keeps the moment of inertia up for a more consistent shot
    • Geared 3:1 from the drum to the flywheel
  • Four Kraken X60s on the drum, two on the feeder
    • The drum is driven 1:1 by four Kraken X60s
    • The feeder rollers are driven at 12:20 by two Kraken X60s
  • Drum geared 1.56:1 to the back hood rollers
    • Matches the surface speed of the hood rollers to the drum, so the fuel leaves with minimum spin
  • Adjustable hood with 26° of travel
    • Flat, fast shots up close and lobbed shots from range
  • Agitation roller
    • Powered off the main feeder roller through a 1.5:1 reduction
    • Keeps fuel moving in the hopper and pushes it down into the feeder
Software · 06

Software.

A tuned lookup table instead of physics at runtime, and an AI-agent dev loop.

  1. 01PoseOdometry fused with two Limelights
  2. 02RangeDistance and heading to the hub
  3. 03LookupHood angle and flywheel speed from the table
  4. 04ShootFlywheel already at speed, feeder releases
Lookup table
DistanceHoodFlywheel
6 ft10°2800 rpm
8 ft14°3000 rpm
9 ftinterpolated16°3100 rpm
10 ft18°3200 rpm
12 ft22°3450 rpm
14 ft26°3700 rpm
Measured rows come from test shots. At runtime the robot interpolates between the two nearest rows. Example values shown.
Vision
  • Front Limelight aligns the robot to the hub for shooting
  • Side Limelight, added after autos proved inconsistent on one camera

Features

  • Shot lookup table
    • We shot from measured distances and recorded the hood angle, flywheel speed, and robot heading that scored at each one
    • At runtime the code looks up the distance to the goal and interpolates between the nearest entries, so there is no ballistics math on the robot
    • Adding a distance is one more row in the lookup table, not a retune
  • Pre-spun flywheel
    • The flywheel is held at the lookup table's speed while the robot moves, so a shot only waits on the feeder, never on spin-up
    • The feeder releases only once the flywheel reports it is at speed
  • Aiming from pose
    • Odometry fused with vision gives the robot its position on the field
    • Distance and heading to the goal fall out of that pose and drive the lookup and the turn
  • Two Limelights
    • We started with one Limelight on the front so the robot could align to the hub for shooting
    • Autos were inconsistent on one camera, so we added a second Limelight on the side, which raised auto accuracy and success rate
  • AI-agent development
    • Features are drafted by AI agents and reviewed by students before they reach the robot
    • Robot logs go in as context when debugging, so the agent works from what actually happened in the match
Old Designs · 07

Vibez.

Our first architecture: a turreted robot featuring a linear intake, spindexer, and L1 hang. Shelved when we realized this archetype could not reach the level of play we wanted.

Features

  • Linear intake
    • Sliding intake at the front of the robot
  • Spindexer and turret
    • Corner-mounted turret with a spindexer underneath to feed it
    • The turret aimed at the hub while the drivetrain was free to move
  • L1 hang
    • A simple level-one climb at the end of the match
  • Why we moved on
    • The ceiling of this archetype was below the level of play we were aiming for, so we stopped iterating on it and started clean