Design

Base:

• Is a West Coast Drive
• Uses 6 Falcon 500 motors
• Has 8 wheels for stability and balance
• Battery mount placed in an easy-to-access location for quick, easy switches between matches.

Intake:

• Efficiently pick up cones and cubes from different angles
• Uses 1 Neo 550 motor for intake
• Uses 1 Falcon 500 motor for wrist and 1 Can Coder
• Uses shafts with coulsons and flex wheels for flexible intake
• Two pneumatic cylinders that define two defined intake orientations

Arm:

• 1 Falcon 500 motor for extending the arm, and 1 Falcon 500 for rotating the arm
• Utilizes chain to avoid belt skipping issues
• Uses 3D printed bearing blocks
• Telescoping Design that extends 31 inches
• Uses a custom manufactured gear for shoulder rotation

A-Frame:

• Holds RSL, Limelight, and Radio
• Uses limit switches to help protect the arm from pivoting too much
• Uses an absolute sensor to measure shoulder rotation
• Has outriggers for stability
• In an “A” shape for stability
• Holds other key components such as pneumatics

Competition Overview:

Channelview District Event

Chips competed in the FIT Channelview District event from March 10 to March 12. Chips had a qualification record of 10-2-0 which earned us a seeding rank of 2nd. As the second alliance captain we invited teams 3035 (Droid Rage) and 8591 (Angels1) to join our alliance. Our alliance advanced through the double-elimination competition with 4 wins and 1 loss before losing 2 close matches to the 1st alliance in the finals. We finished the competition as the captain of the finalist alliance with an overall record of 14-5-0

Chips also won the Excellence in Engineering Award for describing our professional approach to the design process as it applied to the design of our three jointed arm. 

Space City District Event

From March 31 to April 2, Chips competed in the FIT Channelview District Event. Chips had a qualification record of 11-1-0 which earned us a seeding rank of 2nd. The 1st seed 118 (The Robonauts) invited Chips to join the first alliance. Team 2966 (Tiger Tech) also joined the alliance. As part of the first alliance we advanced through the double-elimination competition by winning three straight matches. We won the first finals match. In the second finals match one of our alliance members had some robot problems and we fell a little short. In the third finals match we played very well but the other alliance out performed us and won with a narrow margin. We finished the competition as a member of the finalist alliance with an overall record of 15-3-0.

Chips also won the Creativity Award for describing how the design of our arm allowed us to pick up and score game pieces on both sides of the robot, thus enhancing our ability to play the game.

FIT  District Championships

Chips’ performance in the two district events gave us a Texas District Rank of 8th, thus qualifying us for the District Championships.

The FIT District Championship was from April 5 to April 8. Chips had a very difficult seeding match schedule, we finished seeding with a record of 5-7-0 and a seeding rank of 19th. Team 9128 (ITKAN Robotics), the sixth alliance captain, invited us to join their alliance. We were also joined by team 8019 (Patriot Engineering). We won our first two matches in the double-elimination bracket before losing to the first seeded alliance. In the lower bracket we won another match putting us in the finals against the 1st seeded alliance. In the first finals match our robot had a mechanical failure which led to us losing the match. We were unable to repair the robot in time for the second finals match so our alliance had to call in team 4219 (RED!) to play the next match, which our alliance lost. We finished the competition as a member of the Apollo Division finalist alliance with an overall record of 8-9-0

World Championships

Chips’ performance in our fourth season, with a record of 37-17-0 and three finalist finishes in the FIRST in Texas District, gave us a Texas District Rank of 13th and qualified us for World Championships for the first time in team history.

At the World Championships we finished with a record of 5-5-0 and were ranked 34th in our division. We were not selected to be on an alliance for the elimination rounds.

Roy Anderson

Our 2023 robot, Memory, was named to honor the memory of Mr. Roy Anderson (1961-2022).

Mr. Anderson was an instrumental part of creating Chips and giving our team its personality, his involvement will have a lasting impact on the team and everyone that had the honor of knowing him. 

Base: Our robot uses swerve drive with SDS Mark 4’s.

Shooter: The shooter is an adjustable hood that uses limelight targeting to score in the high goal. There is a brush on the kicker wheel for the larger diameter and there is a snowblower motor on the adjustable hood for no backdrive.

Intake: The robot has a double intake with two motors – one inner and one outer. Gears are used to change direction and it passively adjusts for ball path.

Hang: The robot has a traversal hang that is achieved with two sets of bars. One set goes up and leans forward, while the other is a pair of static hooks.

Software: The software uses closed loop to achieve a two ball auton with taxi.

On January 9th, 2021, the Chips team met in the Clear Brook HS cafeteria for the first (and hopefully last) completely virtual FRC kickoff. Because of the CoronaVirus pandemic this was to be a very different type of FRC year. There was a hint of a slim possibility of in-person competitions, any such competitions would be a replay of the 2020 game with minor modifications to the rules. There would also be several challenges that would be played out completely at home. The At Home challenge was a collection of five skills events that would be done at home with video submissions for competition. The Innovation Challenge was a competition of teams developing concepts and designs of things to help with people’s health. The Game Design competition allowed teams to develop a completely new FRC game. There were also the traditional judged awards such as the Chairman’s Award, Woodie Flowers, Dean’s List, and robot design awards that were done completely virtually.

After some discussion Chips decided to participate in all of the competitions and challenges. With the intent of creating a new robot designed to play at in-person c

ompetitions when they were rescheduled. After a few weeks FIRST announced that there would be no in-person competitions so Chips went all-in on designing an At Home challenge robot. While still working on the other challenges.

Chips finished 9th in their division for the Robot Challenges. Chips won the Creativity Award for Game Design.

As a “new veteran” team, Chips participated in the Channelview FIRST in Texas district event (March 6 – 8) with our robot Ahoy.  After qualifying matches, Chips was ranked 3rd with a record of 8-4-0. Chips accepted an invitation by the 1st seed, 5427, SteelTalons and was joined by 5908, Spartans for the elimination matches. The alliance won 2 of 3 quarterfinal matches and lost both semifinal matches. Chips was also presented the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation. Chips was temporarily presented with the Highest Seeded Rookie award but promptly returned the award because of the new veteran status instead of rookie status.

Shortly after the Channelview event, the FIRST season was suspended due to the Coronavirus. At this time, Chips was being listed/voted as the fourth best team in the south by FIRST Updates Now (FUN).

The remainder of the suspended season was cancelled.

As a pre-rookie team, Chips participated in The Remix 2019 off-season competition. Chips rebuilt the Robonauts 2019 Everybot to compete in the competition. We rotated through a collection of drivers and human players to give as many people as possible the experience of being behind the glass. We were the 25th pick, the 3rd pick on the 1st alliance, joining team 3310, 148, and 5417. We finished in 2nd Place.