2006 Xerox Creativity Award essay!
I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. If you have any questions (if anyone actually reads this!) let me know!
2006 Xerox Creativity Award Submission - Team 330 - Beach Bots - By: me
After six long weeks of intense designing, building, testing, integrating, tweaking, and perfecting, Team 330 was proud to present a creative solution to the 2006 FIRST Robotics game challenge, “Aim High.” Through a unique and highly effective systems engineering design process, Team 330’s robot the “Beach Bot” was meticulously designed to effectively accomplish all of the tasks-shooting into the high and low goals, using the camera for tracking, gathering and storing balls, and defending effectively against other robots-involved in “Aim High.” Challenges were conquered and obstacles were overcome; as a result, Team 330’s innovative robot design earned the “Xerox Creativity Award” at both the Arizona Regional and the Southern California Regional!
Every team has a way of tackling the challenges posed by FIRST. Team 330’s imaginative systems engineering design process has reliably produced solid robots since we started implementing this design process in 2003. ( In 2005,the “Beach Bot” won the World Championship, the Southern California Regional “GM Industrial Design Award” and the Southern California Regional Championship, and the Sacramento Regional “Judges Award.” In 2004, Team 330 was the Arizona Regional Champion and the Southern California Regional Finalist, and the World Championship Judges Award winner. In 2003, the “Beach Bot” won the Arizona Regional “GM Industrial Design Award” and was the Arizona Regional Finalist.) This process is used in the engineering industry and we have adapted it to fit our design process. Before we thought of a solution, we first analyzed the problems presented in the “Aim High” game challenge. During the first week of the build season, Team 330 members read and reread the rules to gain a better understanding of the problem. Then we analyzed the game by chalking out a life-sized scale playing field on the black top and using humans to walk through it. Once we had a better understanding of the different components of the game, we discussed and developed a strategy during the second week of the build season. This year our goal was to be able to score in both the low and high goals. We also agreed to use the camera to track the target, to be able to gather and store many balls, to be an effective defender. As we brainstormed and developed our system requirements, we utilized CAD modeling systems and prototyping. At our preliminary design review (PDR), Team 330 members presented their own solutions to the problems presented in the game. During week three at the PDR, we chose ideas from a number of designs and combined them to form our unique creation. The critical design review (CDR) followed to confirm the feasibility of the design. Finally, in week four-after much brainstorming, prototyping, designing, redesigning, and CADing-we began to build the “Beach Bot!” Each of the steps above was critical in our design process. The advantage of using the systems engineering design process is that our team knew exactly what we wanted to build before we started building.
The product of all that hard work in the design process was a blueprint for a robot that creatively and effectively accomplished the tasks-shooting into the high goal using the camera for aiming, scoring in the lower goals, gathering and holding multiple balls, and defending efficiently against other teams-in “Aim High.” Starting from the ground up, the Beach Bot has a solid frame of welded 1”x1 ½” aluminum rectangle to withstand the pushing from other defensive robots. Our robot’s drive consists of six 6” wheels with the center wheel lowered about 1/10th inch to aid in turning. The front wheels are wheelchair wheels with no tread so they will slip on the carpet, making turning easier for the driver. The four center and back wheels are pneumatic tires which provide the robot with pushing power that can push almost any robot on the field, accomplishing our requirement to be an effective defender. Four CIM motors provide our one-speed transmission with redundant power in case of malfunction. The robot travels at 7 feet per second. To provide feedback on distance, two Hall Effect gear tooth sensors are installed protectively inside the drive transmission. A single axis yaw rate gyro measures when the robot turns to provide data to the controller about positioning of the drive train. The path of the ball begins with PVC rollers which are run by a Fisher Price motor and rubber belting. Traveling up cloth belting, which is also run by the Fisher price motor, the ball is deposited into a spiral shaped hopper. Designing the ball hopper this year provided us a unique challenge. After prototyping many different ideas-such as a revolving structure much like that of a gun to a hopper much like that of a parking garage-we decided to go with a spiral design because of both its effective way of organizing the balls and its large ball capacity of more than 15 balls. After trying out many materials for the outside covering and structure, we finally found a good balance of lightweight PVC for the skeleton and Lexan for the outside. After their descent down the spiral, the balls are distributed onto a platform with a series of belting and pulleys run by a Fisher Price motor that either transports them to the high goal shooter, or-if reversed-shoots them into the lower goals. This creative design is highly effective because it uses one mechanism to accomplish two tasks! This provided yet another complication since Team 330 has never used belts and pulleys before. But, after much prototyping early in our design process, we were able to integrate this system of pulleys and belts into our final robot. Once transported to the high goal shooter, the balls are shot out of the robot using two parallel 8” wheelchair wheels which are roughed up with files before our matches for less slippage. These wheels are run by one big CIM motor strategically mounted low down on the robot to ensure a low center of gravity. Another Hall Effect gear tooth sensor, along with the camera, provides data to the Proportional Derivative (PD) controller. This PD controller analyzes the feedback it is given and uses the information to adjust the speed of the shooter wheel so that even when it has been slowed down by a ball being shot, it will be speeded up enough to launch the next ball with precision and accuracy. This is also extremely effective in autonomous mode.
Although we faced challenges this year-time and budget constraints, a small team with only ten students, and extremely limited access to a machine shop-Team 330 overcame these difficulties and produced a winning robot that was honored with the 2006 “Xerox Creativity Award” at two separate regionals!
“Aim High” was the theme of the 2006 FIRST Robotics game challenge. This premise challenged all the teams in FIRST to go beyond the norm, to produce higher quality robots, and to think of a creative solution as an answer to the engineering problems presented in the game. Conquering the many challenges that faced us in designing and building the “Beach Bot,” we on Team 330 have “aimed high” and accomplished what looked like the impossible: a robot that celebrates our team’s creativity and effectively dominates the game!
2006 Xerox Creativity Award Submission - Team 330 - Beach Bots - By: me
After six long weeks of intense designing, building, testing, integrating, tweaking, and perfecting, Team 330 was proud to present a creative solution to the 2006 FIRST Robotics game challenge, “Aim High.” Through a unique and highly effective systems engineering design process, Team 330’s robot the “Beach Bot” was meticulously designed to effectively accomplish all of the tasks-shooting into the high and low goals, using the camera for tracking, gathering and storing balls, and defending effectively against other robots-involved in “Aim High.” Challenges were conquered and obstacles were overcome; as a result, Team 330’s innovative robot design earned the “Xerox Creativity Award” at both the Arizona Regional and the Southern California Regional!
Every team has a way of tackling the challenges posed by FIRST. Team 330’s imaginative systems engineering design process has reliably produced solid robots since we started implementing this design process in 2003. ( In 2005,the “Beach Bot” won the World Championship, the Southern California Regional “GM Industrial Design Award” and the Southern California Regional Championship, and the Sacramento Regional “Judges Award.” In 2004, Team 330 was the Arizona Regional Champion and the Southern California Regional Finalist, and the World Championship Judges Award winner. In 2003, the “Beach Bot” won the Arizona Regional “GM Industrial Design Award” and was the Arizona Regional Finalist.) This process is used in the engineering industry and we have adapted it to fit our design process. Before we thought of a solution, we first analyzed the problems presented in the “Aim High” game challenge. During the first week of the build season, Team 330 members read and reread the rules to gain a better understanding of the problem. Then we analyzed the game by chalking out a life-sized scale playing field on the black top and using humans to walk through it. Once we had a better understanding of the different components of the game, we discussed and developed a strategy during the second week of the build season. This year our goal was to be able to score in both the low and high goals. We also agreed to use the camera to track the target, to be able to gather and store many balls, to be an effective defender. As we brainstormed and developed our system requirements, we utilized CAD modeling systems and prototyping. At our preliminary design review (PDR), Team 330 members presented their own solutions to the problems presented in the game. During week three at the PDR, we chose ideas from a number of designs and combined them to form our unique creation. The critical design review (CDR) followed to confirm the feasibility of the design. Finally, in week four-after much brainstorming, prototyping, designing, redesigning, and CADing-we began to build the “Beach Bot!” Each of the steps above was critical in our design process. The advantage of using the systems engineering design process is that our team knew exactly what we wanted to build before we started building.
The product of all that hard work in the design process was a blueprint for a robot that creatively and effectively accomplished the tasks-shooting into the high goal using the camera for aiming, scoring in the lower goals, gathering and holding multiple balls, and defending efficiently against other teams-in “Aim High.” Starting from the ground up, the Beach Bot has a solid frame of welded 1”x1 ½” aluminum rectangle to withstand the pushing from other defensive robots. Our robot’s drive consists of six 6” wheels with the center wheel lowered about 1/10th inch to aid in turning. The front wheels are wheelchair wheels with no tread so they will slip on the carpet, making turning easier for the driver. The four center and back wheels are pneumatic tires which provide the robot with pushing power that can push almost any robot on the field, accomplishing our requirement to be an effective defender. Four CIM motors provide our one-speed transmission with redundant power in case of malfunction. The robot travels at 7 feet per second. To provide feedback on distance, two Hall Effect gear tooth sensors are installed protectively inside the drive transmission. A single axis yaw rate gyro measures when the robot turns to provide data to the controller about positioning of the drive train. The path of the ball begins with PVC rollers which are run by a Fisher Price motor and rubber belting. Traveling up cloth belting, which is also run by the Fisher price motor, the ball is deposited into a spiral shaped hopper. Designing the ball hopper this year provided us a unique challenge. After prototyping many different ideas-such as a revolving structure much like that of a gun to a hopper much like that of a parking garage-we decided to go with a spiral design because of both its effective way of organizing the balls and its large ball capacity of more than 15 balls. After trying out many materials for the outside covering and structure, we finally found a good balance of lightweight PVC for the skeleton and Lexan for the outside. After their descent down the spiral, the balls are distributed onto a platform with a series of belting and pulleys run by a Fisher Price motor that either transports them to the high goal shooter, or-if reversed-shoots them into the lower goals. This creative design is highly effective because it uses one mechanism to accomplish two tasks! This provided yet another complication since Team 330 has never used belts and pulleys before. But, after much prototyping early in our design process, we were able to integrate this system of pulleys and belts into our final robot. Once transported to the high goal shooter, the balls are shot out of the robot using two parallel 8” wheelchair wheels which are roughed up with files before our matches for less slippage. These wheels are run by one big CIM motor strategically mounted low down on the robot to ensure a low center of gravity. Another Hall Effect gear tooth sensor, along with the camera, provides data to the Proportional Derivative (PD) controller. This PD controller analyzes the feedback it is given and uses the information to adjust the speed of the shooter wheel so that even when it has been slowed down by a ball being shot, it will be speeded up enough to launch the next ball with precision and accuracy. This is also extremely effective in autonomous mode.
Although we faced challenges this year-time and budget constraints, a small team with only ten students, and extremely limited access to a machine shop-Team 330 overcame these difficulties and produced a winning robot that was honored with the 2006 “Xerox Creativity Award” at two separate regionals!
“Aim High” was the theme of the 2006 FIRST Robotics game challenge. This premise challenged all the teams in FIRST to go beyond the norm, to produce higher quality robots, and to think of a creative solution as an answer to the engineering problems presented in the game. Conquering the many challenges that faced us in designing and building the “Beach Bot,” we on Team 330 have “aimed high” and accomplished what looked like the impossible: a robot that celebrates our team’s creativity and effectively dominates the game!