For the first time ever, UCC had a team participate in the First Tech Challenge. The First Tech Challenge this year requires robots to place rectangular samples into buckets or hook specimens (samples with a clip) onto a rod to score points. These are two of the main ways to score points, but there are many other ways to score points. The Youtube video below is FTC’s official game reveal.
The team, 27344 Untitled Document, qualified for provincials in their first competition. During their first competition, 27344 Untitled Document had 6 wins and 3 losses to qualify for provincials. They also had the highest scores during the autonomous round of the competition.
The name Untitled Document was chosen to represent the fact that the team was starting from scratch for the first time this year. Many students worked on different aspects of the robot, including coding, hardware, software cadding, outreach, etc. Hopefully this year will be the first of many for a strong robotics program at Upper Canada College!
Parts of the Robot
- Chassis
The Chassis refers to the “base” of the robot that allows it to move around. The team used a chassis design with a beam placed in the middle to allow for space to create an intake/outtake to pick up samples and specimens. Additionally, the wheels used are special Mecanum wheels, which allow the robot to move precisely in diagonal directions and spin on certain wheels and points.
- Intake
The intake consists of an arm that slides out of the robot, and a claw attached at the end of the arm. Once the arm extends horizontally, the claw at the end goes down to grab a specimen. After many iterations, the team created a claw that could uniquely fit into the grooves of the samples and specimens. The claw allowed for the samples and specimens to be picked up more easily, allowing the robot to score points faster. The claw is attached to an arm on the robot that goes up and down to pick up the specimen and samples.
- Outtake
Once a robot has picked up a specimen/sample using the intake, there is a handoff in the middle of the robot between the claws. A horizontal slide passes the specimen/sample to a vertical slide. Once the vertical slide grabs the specimen or sample, it can score it into the high basket.
After a challenging yet inspiring journey, the team persevered and qualified at the Waterloo tournament. The team will continue competing at more tournaments, and will eventually participate in Provincials, and hopefully Worlds!
The Blue and White 