“Steal from the best, invent the rest”
FRC has been going on for 3 decades, which means there have been 30 different games you can look back on to see how teams designed their robots. I’m not saying you should just copy/paste another team’s whole robot. But, if this year’s game requires you to pick up cubes, you should be looking at 254’s FRC Robot Design in 2018 (the only undefeated robot ever) to see what kind of wheel they used on their intake. You still need to build your own prototype to verify that it works as expected. There’s always going to be little things that you’d never expect to be a problem when you build a design for the first time. But, if you’re basing it off of a FRC robot design that’s been proven in competition, you’ve got a big head start.
Don’t know what year had a similar challenge? ASK A MENTOR! They might have been there.
Want a giant database of robot photos? Checkout Spectrum robotics robot mechanism library (they have a ton of great stuff, would recommend browsing their website) https://photos.spectrum3847.org/Robot-Mechanisms/
Want to see how matches were played? Go to https://www.thebluealliance.com/
Want some links to see how the best robots solved the most common FRC challenges? Here you go!
- Large ball intake
- 254 in 2014 https://media.team254.com/resources/Team_254_Tech_Binder_2014.pdf
- 148 in 2014 Robowranglers 2014: Vader
- Elevator
- 1678 in 2018 https://grabcad.com/library/lemon-zest-frc-team-1678-2018-1
- Thriftybot elevator kit https://www.thethriftybot.com/bearings/Pre-Order-Thrifty-Elevator-Stage-Kit-p506585797
- Greybot elevator tutorial 973 RAMP Cascade Elevator Part 1
- Inner tubes
- 1730 in 2011
- 254 in 2011 https://www.team254.com/first/2011/
- 12″ cubes
- 1619 in 2018 https://www.team1619.org/robots/competition-robots/2018
- 254 in 2018 https://www.team254.com/first/2018/
- Large totes
- 1114 in 2015 https://www.simbotics.org/robots
- Small Ball intake
- Shooter (flywheel)
- 1678 in 2022 https://www.citruscircuits.org/2022-cad-and-code-release.html
- 1730 2022
- Catapult
- Motor Catapult white paper: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/uploads/default/original/3X/c/4/c4fd84c75983c0cd32572ca0f4ea36f3d4f962e5.pdf
- Pneumatic catapult https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/pneumatic-catapults/153604/5
Clearly I have some favorite teams, so if you think I missed any great designs, let me know and I’ll add them to the list!