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Fun Fact: you don’t need crazy expensive tools, even though FRC is a sport of building hundred pound metal robots. A drill, jig saw, and hand tool set might be able to make a winning robot. I kinda want to try that now I’m thinking about it…. but later! I want to just talk about tools first.

Hand tools

Your first robot will be put together with bolts and nuts. Therefore, you need allen wrenches, wrenches, and screw drivers. They don’t have to be expensive, super cheap wrenches from Harbor Frieght work nearly as well as an expensive Craftmen set.

Tips:

• a couple ratcheting 3/8 and 7/16 wrenches will be quite useful
• kids love the multitool allen wrenches
• mark your 5/32 Allen wrenches so they are easy to find

Measuring devices

At minimum, a normal tape measure will get you far. But having a set of caliber for precise measurement will be invaluable once you’re designing your own parts. I personally prefer dial calibers over electronic.

Not always necessary, but I also use a speed square very often for making straight cuts or quick, imprecise measurements. That’s another tool where the cheap plastic version works great.

Drills and drill bits

Now we’re getting into the power tools! As a general recommendation, pick a brand and stick with it so your batteries work for all of your tools. I’m a Ryobi fan boy, so that’s ussually my go to, but any brand will get the job done.

I highly recommend buying the impact driver/drill combo set. At some point you’ll be putting screws into wood and the impact driver will make your life so much better.

Would also recommend getting a second drill/driver set. With my team of 14 kids, it seemed like every other meeting we had all 4 drills out being used.

For bits, buy a decent sized set, making sure you have multiple of #2 phillips bit. Also, buy extra 3/16 and 13/64 bits. Those are perfect for 3/16 rivets and #10 through holes respectively.

The last bit I would recommend, is getting a step bit with the max size of 1-1/8″. Every once in a while, you’ll need to drill an oddly large whole. The step bit will get the job done well enough and save you from buying insanely expensive bits. Also, many bearing used in FRC have a 1-1/8″ outer diameter.

Cutting wood

The ultimate solution is to have access to a wood shop so you can use miter saws and standing band saws. But, a circular saw can get you pretty far for much less space and money. Just need to use straight edges.

Cutting metal

98% of the time when you’re cutting metal, you’ll be making perpendicular cuts. There fore, my favorite method is getting a dedicated miter saw with a metal cutting blade. It’ll get the job done in seconds, just don’t let the kids use it to cut steel, or you’ll ruin a very expensive blade!

Other options involve outfitting your band saw with a metal cutting blade, or getting a horizontal band saw. A grinder with a cut off blade will also work for making weird shapes.

3d printers

3d printing is so dang useful once you get the hang of it. Highly recommend just getting a $200 Creality printer, it’ll do the job plenty well until you want to get a fancy one. Don’t 3d print structural parts! But electronics mounts, shaft spacers, drill jigs, covers are all great applications.

Being a robotics coach, like any coaching position, is not for the faint of heart. But it also includes additional pressures throughout the season that aren’t necessarily there in other sports.

I’ve been a mentor for around 8 years and only took on the role of head coach this year, so I won’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m here to acknowledge some of the challenges robotics faces for those who run the teams.

1. Time, All of It

Robotics will consume all your time if you let it. Some students seem to have infinite stamina and want to work on the robot day and night. As a coach, there’s an urge to support that dedication. However, it’s not sustainable and puts immense pressure on those dedicated kids, as well as on all the other team members, even if they’re not physically present. Establishing a schedule and sticking to it is crucial. Determine what you can commit to without sacrificing the rest of your life. For example, during the build season, starting with three days a week might be manageable. If progress is insufficient after a couple of weeks, consider adding more meeting days or extending hours.

For my team, we met for 14 hours a week—5-8 on Tuesday and Thursday, plus 8-4 on Saturday. Our goal was to build something simple and qualify for eliminations, which we achieved!

2. Trying to Include Everyone

At its core, robotics is about teaching students new skills and helping them overcome technical challenges, sometimes including social ones. While some students are highly motivated and self-driven, others may need more guidance. It’s a challenge to identify what’s holding them back—whether they’re unsure of what to do, had a bad day, or simply lack motivation. One strategy I use is to ask hesitant students to assist me with a task. This usually leads to them becoming more involved, even if they initially resist. However, if they still don’t engage, I may need to involve another student or handle the task myself. While it may not feel like a victory, the goal is to engage them and provide opportunities for learning and participation.

3. Knowing What To Do Next

The most common question during a meeting is undoubtedly, “What should I do next?” Sometimes, I have an immediate answer; other times, I need to brainstorm with the team to determine the next steps. Ideally, the coach’s role is to initiate special projects and provide guidance rather than micromanage. However, this balance can be challenging to achieve consistently. I’m still working on finding the right approach, but I aim to empower student leaders to take on more responsibility and guide their peers.

4. Working with the School

Navigating the school’s rules and regulations can be challenging, especially for coaches who are not teachers. It’s essential to maintain a good relationship with the school administration and adhere to their policies regarding purchases, facility usage, and cleanliness. Communication with students about school expectations and responsibilities can help ensure compliance even when the coach is not present. When discussing issues with school staff, approaching them with humility and a willingness to collaborate is key to finding mutually beneficial solutions.

5. Getting Help

While there are often willing volunteers in the community, it can be challenging to determine how to involve them effectively. Students are usually self-driven, and the coach may not always know what specific assistance will be needed in the coming weeks. One approach is to organize specific mentor-led sessions where adults work with students on meaningful tasks within a limited time frame. Keeping volunteers informed about upcoming events and opportunities via email can also encourage their participation over time.

Why Deal with the Pressure?

What’s the point of being a robotics coach when it’s sometimes harder than other coaching roles? It’s certainly not for the money, as there’s typically little financial incentive, and professional leagues like BattleBots can be costly endeavors. For many of us, the reward lies in witnessing our students succeed at incredibly challenging tasks while working alongside them to tackle new obstacles.

There’s a saying in FRC that a drivetrain can’t win you a match, but it can sure as heck lose you one. I would argue the same could be said about your robot’s intake. You’re going to struggle to stack totes or shoot balls if you can’t pick one up.

So what makes a good intake?

Before I can answer that question, I need to get some definitions out of the way.

• Passive control – game piece is not in contact with any active component and can still move on it’s own
  • EX: a gravity hopper
• Semi-active control – game piece is in contact with an active component but can still move on it’s own
  • EX: hooper with agitator
• Active control – game piece is in contact with an active component and can’t move unless the active component moves
  • EX: conveyor against a solid wall

A good intake will:

• Be in active control at the first moment of contact with a game piece
  • This is really tough to  do with a clapper intake, unless the game piece and robot end up in the same position every time, like feeding from a human player station
  • Roller intakes do this well and spinny things are easy to make
• Be wide to make it easy for the driver
• Never lose active control of the game piece
  • Depending on how the game piece moves through the robot, you can have “dead spots” where the game piece isn’t held against an active component
  • Some teams will add a “kicker bar” that deploys with the intake that sits just below the bumper to prevent the ball from getting stuck
  • ***this is negative for catapult and plunger shooters, it’s difficult to design them to not lose active control right before they fire

• Deploy/retract in a repeatable way
  • An intake that stays out all the time is likely to get hit and draw penalties so it must retract back inside the frame perimeter
  • Have a hard stop on the way out to make sure the intake ends in the same position every time
  • Pneumatics can make this easier

What are the steps to making an intake?

1. Prototype to figure out the following: (***these things are hard to measure so take lots of videos of each trial)
   1. Crush: how much do you want to squeeze the game piece (or if the game piece is hard, how much the wheels should crush)
   2. Wheel/roller type: test a bunch of different materials to see what does/doesn’t work.
   3. Wheel speed: how fast do your rollers need to go to get the game piece from ground to inside the robot in under a second?
   4. How far away from the bumper should the first roller be?
   5. Do we need a kick bar?
   6. https://photos.spectrum3847.org/2022-FRC-1/2022-Build-Season-1/Week-2/i-PkC2zsL/A
2. Make a sketch
   1. Figure out where rollers will need to go to maintain crush and active control
   2. Where is the motor going to be placed that it isn’t in the way of the game piece?
   3. How will it go from fully inside the frame perimeter to outside the robot?
3. Review it!
   1. Grab a team mate and mentor to look at your sketch to catch issues before you get to far
4. Select your materials (Needs to be able to take a hit!)
   1. Want it to flexible and light weight? Use Lexan
   2. Want it to be strong and withstand your driver running it into a wall? Use 1/8″ aluminum tube (see 2056’s robots, they’re built like tanks)
   3. Lots of options here, if unsure, talk to a mentor for advice
5. Design it
   1. Look at past designs, make sure you include all the bearings, and spacers you’re going to need
   2. Think about how wheels and rollers are going to stay in place
6. Review it
   1. Grab a team mate and a mentor to look over your design to try and find any obvious things that are missing
7. Make it! And expect to have to make it a couple more times
   1. No design is ever going to be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ll learn way more from putting it in the real world vs keeping it on a computer screen

Every subsystem on a robot is critical to success, but your intake is your first point of contact with a game piece and is likely the system that is going to need the most tries to get right.

Hope you found this useful! If you have any questions or things that I missed, reply and let me know! Have a great day!!!

Alright, so this update has a little less progress than I would like. I was really close to being able to drive a robot through FPV, but then I set it on fire….

I started out by spending an unfortunately long time contemplating how to mount all of the electronics. Decided to go with zip ties on to a board that has holes that are spaced out every half inch. I could have bolted them to the board, butttttt zip ties are so much quicker to use, and they won’t loosen up from vibration!

Speaking of laziness, I decided I wanted to try and get something moving as quickly as possible and grabbed a chassis I used in a previous project. It had 4 metal gear TT motors that were already hooked up to a Adafruit motor shield.

I also used the control code from that previous project. (leave a comment if you want a copy!) It sets up the esp32 to broadcast a wifi network that I connect to with my desktop. The Desktop computer is running a python script that sets up a UDP socket to the esp32 to send commands. Right now I just have it set up to send the axis values from an old usb Joystick I had laying around.

The bot was driving around on the first try butttt then the second time I plugged in the battery, the voltage regulator on the esp32 caught on fire…. It was a literal fire, tons of smoke, a little red dot of flames and a terrible smell! This probably happened due to putting too much voltage on it from the battery. The device recommends 6-12 volts input, and I was feeding it 12-13V from the fully charged battery. Thankfully I have extra esp32s and if I really really wanted to I could probably replace the voltage regulator on there. I’m going to find a external 6v voltage regulator to power the esp32, and the servos I’m planning on using in the future.

Here’s all the parts that I’m using in this post. I included an affiliate link for each item, if you decide to click on it, next time you buy something from amazon a small percentage will be sent to me to fund my next robot project! No extra cost to you!

Have you ever had a project idea sitting in your head that sounds like it’d be awesome but you just never had the motivation to do it? I’ve had this idea of making an First Person View (FPV) robot for LITERALLY years! Last year I finally broke down and bought and wired up the components for FPV, but I never stuck them on a chassis. That could have been the end of it, BUT a couple days ago, I saw that Hackaday was running a new contest and creating a FPV vehicle!!!!!! https://hackaday.io/contest/188273-2022-fpv-contest  It’s the perfect kick in the butt to get me to build this bot!

Last night I gathered up most of the electrical parts that I’m going to need:

• FPV transmitter
• FPV headset
• Antenna
• Battery
• ESP32 dev board
• Motor controllers L298N

I also soldered up a power distribution board with 8 outputs which will hopefully be enough. I’m not used to using perf boards which is my excuse for how ugly the soldering ended up being for this. I started out by just trying to put a glob of solder and running that between the tabs, but it wasn’t flowing how I wanted and turning into a giant mess. I ended up grabbing some stranded copper wire and using that to guide the connections. Still a giant mess, but I double and triple checked that there weren’t any shorts and then I covered everything in hot glue to make sure it stayed that way.

Next steps are going to be making a distribution board for the esp32 to sit on and then mounting all of the electronics on a board. I also need to find a power regulator to drop the 11 volts from the battery to 3-6V to run the servos.

Here’s all the parts that I’m using so far. I included an affiliate link for each item, if you decide to click on it, next time you buy something from amazon a small percentage will be sent to me to fund my next robot project! No extra cost to you!

“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
  • https://photos.spectrum3847.org/Robot-Mechanisms/2022/Intake/
  • 1678 in 2022 https://www.citruscircuits.org/2022-cad-and-code-release.html
  • 254 in 2022 https://www.team254.com/first/2022/
• 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! 

Not all robotics meetings are successful, especially with High School students. Some will devolve into pointless arguments about things that had nothing to do with the original goals. Some will have students that just sit and stare at you silently. There will be times that a student thinks that the meeting is a waste of their time, AND THEY’RE NOT AFRAID TO LET YOU KNOW.

Meetings with your students don’t have to be like that, here are some tips to help everyone get the most out of coming together!

(If you’ve got tips that you’ve learned, drop them in the comments below!)

1. Schedule around the leaders and mentors, not everyone

If you have more than 5 people that you’re trying to get in a meeting that’s in the afternoon/evening, there’s going to be conflicts! Trying to get the perfect time that everyone can attend will stress you out, take over a dozen different messages and probably delay when the meeting happens. The trick is to identify the key people that need to be at the meeting and schedule around just them.

If it’s a recurring meeting and you want to give more folks opportunities to attend, then schedule it on different days each week. For the programming meeting with my FRC team, we alternate Mondays and Wednesdays.

2. Clear expectations for the meeting (start/end times, objectives)

Try to schedule your meeting and send out a event to your team at least 5 days before hand. The event should have a clear start and end time, along with the main objective of the meeting. This way, your students can know whether or not they should attend.

3. Have a plan (at least an initial one!)

Completely winging a meeting can sometimes work but it’s much more likely to turn in chaos, or silence (which is much worse to me). If you have a vague idea of the steps you want to take in a meeting, then it will help you know when to move things along.

4. Empower the students

The best meetings I’ve been apart of are when I just have to schedule it and then I get to sit in the back while a student leads it. That student gets to be a leader, I can get to occasionally add my own input, and it’s easier for me to draw more students into the conversation. That leads me to the next tip:

5. Ask individual students questions, especially the quiet ones

There’s always going to be students that aren’t comfortable speaking in front of their peers. As a mentor, you’ve got to help get them involved, not only for their own growth but because they might have the best idea in the room!

6. Schedule the next meeting while everyone is still in the room

Nothing is worse than having to go through the scheduling process for the same meeting every single week. At the end of one meeting, make sure you always have the next one scheduled before everyone walks out the door.

Even better yet, just set the meeting to be recurring every week.

Thanks for reading!!

The 2022 field layout has some pretty interesting design elements that are going to make it one of the better games for spectators FIRST has ever put out. The biggest element that I’m excited about is the main scoring element of the game being IN THE CENTER OF THE FIELD! No more whiplash from trying to watch the action on both sides of the Field!

Another new element is that the centerline is not perpendicular to the side walls, it’s off at a 66 degree angle. While my gut tells me it won’t make a difference in match play I’m excited to see if it throws anyone off.

Laying out the field is a bit tricky this year, but if you start in the center and work your way out, it shouldn’t be too bad. DISCLAIMER: This website is not affiliated with FIRST and is not the authority on this information, it’s just meant to present some potentially helpful information.

Once again, the overall field dimensions are 27 feet by 54 feet. The hub assembly goes smack dab in the middle. The center should be 13.5 feet from the sidewall and 27 feet from the alliance station walls. Getting the hub at its correct angle will be easier if you can lay the centerline first and then align the hub to that.

To mark the centerline, you’ll want to mark the end points of the line on the side walls. (71 inches from the midpoint of the walls)

Next you’ll want to mark out the tarmac zones. Having a framing square or something else large to help get perfect 90 degree angles will be super helpful. Start by marking the outer corner which is 84.75 inches from the center of the fender. Then layout the side lines that are 75 inches long and extend along the lower exits. Finally just connect the dots!

The outer ring of cargo starting locations is a little tricky, but if you have the tarmac laid out, you just need to use your framing square to get the perfect 90 degree angle from the outer tape lines.

Lastly, FIRST’s field layout drawing does have some other helpful measurements. The human player is approximately 365 inches (30.5 feet) from the center of the hub. The close launch pad is 203 inches and far pad is 245 inches from the center of the hub. And the ball in front of the Terminal, is 305.67 inches from the center.

See this link for official first field drawings: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/playing-field

Ever wanted to make your own, 125 lb, robot monkey??? No??? Never felt that particular urge? Well you’re going to have to in order to conquer this particular endgame challenge! 

What are the key dimensions of the Hangar in FIRST’s 2022 FRC game, Rapid React?

The Hangar is a jungle gym type structure located in front of both driver station 1 walls(sucks to be the team sitting there). It consists of 4 climbing rungs supported by 2 truss structures and features the only safe shooting zone in the game, the Launch pad.

Each rung is made from 1.25 inch schedule 40 steel pipe (1.66 inch outer diameter)

The Low Rung is 48.75 inches off the ground. 

The Mid Rung is 60.25 inches off the ground and 42 inches back from the low Rung.

The High Rung is 75.625 inches from the ground and 24 inches back from the Mid Rung.

The traversal Rung is  91 inches off the ground and 23 inches back from the High Rung.

The truss also has a black tape mark the is 66 inches off the ground to help the Refs make sure robots are staying below the maximum height.

The two alliance launch pads are located at the front of the truss, and are 10 inches wide x 17.25 inches tall. The Near launch pad is 168 inches (14 feet) from the Fender of the hub and the far launch pad is 207 inches (17.25 feet) from the fender.