Tag: Axle

“Aerospace Valley Regional”, Eastside High School, Lancaster, March 29 to April 1, Season, 2023

Take a moment to breathe. In and out. Okay. Let’s get into it. 

Recollecting ourselves, we put Frankie’s forearm back on, tightened some bolts, and replaced it’s grabber with a simplified version with compliant wheels (for grip, not to spin), we were ready to send Frankie back into battle with a renewed sense of (albeit, wary) confidence. 

Lancaster. Bright and early, and I do mean early early. There was freezing wind and snow on the ground. Everybody half asleep as they pile into the venue building, some of the lucky ones with coffee in their hand. Competition starts relatively smoothly, going to practice matches, programming new arm positions, and new autonomous modes. Warming up (both literally and figuratively), the drivers began getting used to Frankie’s… eccentricities… critical to our success. 

Delightfully, no motors were smoked this time… But then, the weight of the arm put too much stress on the solid aluminum shoulder hex shaft, sheering it clean in half. Not one — or two— but three of them clean in half. As the competition wore on, Frankie became more… eccentric… as the drive team became better, canceling one another out. 

Finishing out the competition in 18/36, it’s likely we would have been picked for eliminations if our drivetrain was not being weird the last two matches and we didn’t have to go to lunch with our robot on its side, the drivetrain half off, and our flag sticking out the top. 

However, after some time to fix everything up, it ran smoothly in the nick of time. When one member of the final alliances, the 1197 Torbots, needed more time to fix their robot, we were ready to step up for 3512 Spartatronics and 2659 RoboWarriors. Despite getting a cone (or a few) stuck under us, we managed to even out the triple balance and help win the match. 

Undead as ever, Frankie survived and made it out of competition in one piece with no further repairs necessary. Greater than the sum of its parts, we are proud to have Frankie in our history as a testament to perseverance through some… eccentri- (Ok you took out “jank” everywhere I used it and put in that super long word that was just a nice way of saying “janky!” Leave at least this last one!)  … … …

Jankiness.

— Luci, Captain of Team 980 (with ‘assistance’ from Alex, Controls Mentor of Team 980)