Energize your game with precision and power. Power Play focused on cone stacking and terminal navigation, testing our mechanical precision and strategic thinking.
Overview
The team’s first FTC robot, built around a claw-and-vertical-slide scoring system on a modified starter-kit drivetrain. Nearly every subsystem went through multiple design iterations as the team learned core FTC engineering and fabrication skills for the first time.
Strengths
- +Combined drawer + linear slide reached the highest junction (1.1 m) while staying fast and stable
- +Hexagonal, multi-contact claw with foam padding held cones securely across a range of orientations
- +First-year iteration built genuine institutional knowledge in drivetrain and lift design that carried into later seasons
Tradeoffs
- –Original chain-linked drivetrain was bulky, unstable, and overloaded the omni wheels
- –The linear-extrusion slide iteration (before the hybrid redesign) was the least stable of the three versions tried
- –Servo-and-gear claw variant was too heavy, too bulky, and prone to gear skipping under stress
Subsystem Breakdown
Drivetrain
Started as two traction and two omni wheels linked by roller chains, which proved bulky, unstable, and put excess pressure on the omni wheels. Realigning the wheels and moving the traction wheels to the back — with help from a mentor team — fixed the uneven driving and instability.
Slides
Iterated through drawer slides (fast, but only 0.28 m reach), then linear extrusion slides (0.6 m reach, but the least stable option), before settling on a combined drawer-and-linear-slide system reaching 1.1 m with far greater speed and stability.
Claw
Compared a double-extrusion gripper, a servo-and-gear gripper, and a final 2-servo design before settling on a hexagonal, multi-point-contact claw with foam padding to distribute grip force evenly and keep cones from slipping out.