2011 – Logomotion

Game Animation:


Team Name: Gompei and the H.E.R.D.

Robot Name: Gompesaurus Rex


Summary for the Year:
Our motto for this year was “innovatively competitive” and we certainly had a plethora of excellent designs supporting that theme. We had a drive train that could quickly be switched between matches from a 6-wheel drop center to a 6-wheel in-line with omni wheels in the back. The latter format moved the axis of rotation to the front of the robot making it easier to adjust when hanging tubes. To manipulate tubes we built a two-stage elevator and a roller claw. The elevator was assisted by a constant force spring that rendered it “weightless.” The roller claw used wheels to pull in tubes and poly-cord to rotate them once stowed. The jaws of the claw itself would separate when a tube was entering, but would snap shut due to elastic binding once the tube was enclosed. The roller wheels ran so quickly that any tube was ours if it so much as grazed the device. To prevent tube popping, a trigger was positioned at the back of the claw so that the robot would know when a tube was fully secured and automatically turn off the roller wheels. What made 2k11 really successful was the mini-bot and deployment system. Two alignment wings would swing down to align the robot with the tower quickly and correctly followed by a curved metal ramp that meshed neatly with the pole and formed a continuous track for the mini-bot to travel on. A system of pins and springs was set off that activated the trigger on our mini-bot as it accelerated on the horizontal, transitioned to the tower, and rocketed to the top in as few as 1.2 seconds. The mini-bot itself clung to the pole magnetically and weighed so little that the bulk of it was just the battery. The mini-bot and deployment were so successful that other teams actually copied the designs after our first competition.


Competitions Attended

  • WPI Regional (Worcester, MA)
  • Washington D.C. Regional (Washington D.C.)
  • FIRST Championships (St. Louis, MO)

Offseason Competitions Attended

  • BattleCry@WPI 12
  • Mainly Spirit
  • Bash at the Beach
  • River Rage

Awards

  • Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism, WPI Regional
  • Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award, Washington D.C. Regional