CPSLO Cal Poly Gear Slingers | Pits & Parts | VURC Push Back Robots

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:04]Everybody it's Tyler here at Vex Worlds checking with Vex U team this Cal Poly Gearslingers. Uh this set of robots here has been absolutely phenomenal in their journey coming into Vex Worlds here.

[00:00:15]Five out of five events won including that Purdue SigBots event that had some epic finals as well too. So really excited [music] to talk about these two robots. A spot here, lever bot there, we'll learn a bit more about the two different robots and their differences.

[00:00:26]Common chassis but a lot of different stuff as they go upwards of the robots as well too. Some cool programming features you're going to learn about so let's dive in [music] more about this set of robots here on Bits and Parts.

[00:00:36]Garrett, let's talk about the chassis on these robots here and also the match loaders are common as well too, right?

[00:00:41]Yeah, absolutely. So this season we went through about six different iterations of chassis early season on. We did different variations of wheel sizes as well as gears and what we found worked best for us was 2.75 inch wheels with 450 RPM. A lot of Vex U teams as well are running 10 motor drive whereas we have found that eight motor drive works good for us.

[00:01:03]We felt that 10 motor drive did not add much in terms of power of pushing power compared to eight motor drive so we wanted to stick with less motors which is less weight as well as um because we didn't notice much in the 10 motors we we figured eight motors is fine.

[00:01:24]Uh we also have these odon pods here that are used for tracking and and Hunter will talk about that a little bit later.

[00:01:34]Uh another thing that we have on our robot that are both the same for both robots is our match loader here. So as you can see here this is our match loader.

[00:01:44]We have a pretty wide match loader. It they fold out pretty close to the edge of the um robot. So what that allows us to do is that during skills we can grab four blocks side by side when we're when we're grabbing them over the park barrier.

[00:02:02]In addition to that, this is very heavy built, so we have two eighth-inch Delrin sheets here that are super strong and it allows us to actually shovel under robots, which is very different from how a lot of other teams use their match loader. So, when most teams use their match loader, they're only using it to load the the ball blocks into their lever.

[00:02:25]Um but, we will use it to shovel under robots to defend them and push them off of the long goals or the mid goal or anywhere we want to. And that doesn't count as pinning or anything like that because what we won't push them against walls, we'll only push them around the field. And they completely lose track of their driving and it's super helpful. Uh throughout this season, we've pretty much stuck with the same drivetrain and same match loader and everything else we've sort of swapped as we moved on throughout the season. I'm glad to hear you're uh potentially preparing for combat robots as well, too, in your future. So, that's awesome.

[00:02:58]Before we get to our next segment, we'd like to thank the following.

[00:03:01]The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation provides fantastic programs for students from elementary school all the way through college. These include Vex, aerial drone competition, online challenges, JROTC, girl powered, scholarships, certifications, and so much more. To discover these exciting opportunities, visit recf.org and get connected.

[00:03:23]Just want to talk about the uh green aspect here and everything else that has gone into it as we start to work our way up on this robot. Yeah, of course. So, uh starting out with the intake here, we've this has gone through quite a few iterations, but overall the structure has stayed the same. Uh we have a double chained or it's supposed to be double chained. Um and we use the half-cut flex wheels in the middle for because they're more squishy. Uh we're looking at custom uh wheels here, but the half-cut ones seem to work fine. Uh it's just Overall, transitions really well into our set of two rollers we have here. We got this uh green roller here and this much bigger uh 3D printed uh 4 and 1/2 inch roller here. Um they kind of transition really nicely.

[00:04:04]Uh we have this back of uh zip ties here with uh piece of latex tubing uh pulling it in.

[00:04:10]And we found this to work really well because it basically makes your uh gives you the springiness of a rubber band with the friction of uh slippery zip ties, which is ultimately what you want for a S robot that can hold a whole bunch of blocks.

[00:04:22]Uh coming up here, uh we have a a few more rollers. We got this little roller here and a little uh kind of little roller here just to help push it that last little bit. Uh some adjustments we made later on after the initial design was we realized this whole structure wanted to move an extra 2 inches this way. And so, that's where these come in to help with that. Um but yeah, it transitions really easily, can hold eight or nine blocks, um and uh yeah, the mid goal's really clever, too. So, what we do for that is uh it takes them all, kind of pushes them all up into here. But for the mid goal, uh we have uh this roller, this roller, and this red one here on the same motor, uh but these two spin opposite directions via these gears here. And so, what's going to happen is when I when we spin them backwards, even though this one spins backwards, this uh this one here has enough uh power to overcome that and it can come out the mid goal. So, if I demonstrate that, um it very quickly scores a whole bunch out there. And the reason we went with uh so many rollers here is it gives us a huge amount of power scoring the mid goal. We actually had to slow down because it was flying all the way through the mid goal.

[00:05:25]Um same with the long goal, we can get all the way to the control zone initially with no need to uh do our wings. Um Now, uh just real quick, how does it keep the blocks like up here uh from flying out the back? We use Connor will talk about this more, but we use a sensor here to keep track where the blocks are, but also we have a pneumatic here to pull down the hood. Uh and so, normally when we intake uh this hood right here is Uh, it's held down uh, by this, but when we score this goes up and it spins the rollers and so it uh, it just like that. Um, scores really really fast. Again, empty the whole thing in like a second. Um, Uh, another unique thing about our robot is we have two wings on opposite sides.

[00:06:05]Some people have uh, two wings the same side. Uh, I've found that it's a lot of fun to drive a robot uh, with two wings opposite sides and it works really really well. That's how we were able to win the uh, Purdue competition.

[00:06:16]Uh, we've modified it to use high strength shaft with a stand off at the end as bent to keep it in size box. So this stretches all the way to 24 in.

[00:06:23]We got these double roller liners here that help keep us straight. Um, we also have uh, this uh, descorer for the mid goal. Uh, the lever bot has a unique mechanism that we'll talk about later, but this is how the S bot descorers the mid goal. Uh, you just ram into this and all the blocks go flying out.

[00:06:39]We talked about uh, earlier that your team has gone through so many different iterations of robots uh, this year so far. Coming in the Vex Worlds for this robot specifically, were there any big iterations that were made? Yeah, this this is the first time we've actually run a S bot at a competition. Before this for the rest of the season we'd be running a Rig 1, which is just like a straight conveyor. Uh, but we found the capacity in the single wide uh, conveyor was really really valuable because a single wide means you can score in the low goal a lot better.

[00:07:04]You can you don't have to worry about funneling. You can just score immediately and empty your whole conveyor super super fast.

[00:07:10]Now uh, Rig 1 uh, you need like all kinds of fancy funneling. We spent way too long trying to get that to work. But we ran that for most of the season one Purdue with it. It was really good. Uh, we actually convinced UCF to re-rebuild to uh, Rig 1. Um, but yeah, so I we really like the S bot and I'm happy we switched to it. Talking about another great type of robot, let's talk about the uh, lever bot Chris and uh, what's going on with this? You know, S bots, lever bots, these are uh, metas that we've seen in the V5 competitions as well too, but in Vex you get to kind of make it even more as well. So talk to me more about the competition side.

[00:07:38]>> So going into strategy a little bit, uh, Joseph has the S bot to do some end game tactics with filling up and scoring a bunch of blocks. And then my main job is to keep the middle goals and keep swinging them back and forth and then ultimately keeping them up until end game and playing a lot of defense, which is where also the match order comes into play. And the big advantage we saw when building our lever bot for the middle goal, specifically the low goal, was when we uh when we outtake here, the blocks are kind of falling from the top instead of out from the bottom on Joseph's bot. And that's really advantageous for the low goal because it just plops down and [music] allows me to score from a bigger radius on the low goal. So, when I'm being defended, I can be pushed around circle around the low goal while also being able to get that control zone back.

[00:08:21]And then as for the middle goal, uh we have two pistons here on the lever on the four bar. Uh these are 50 mm pistons so we got the to get the correct geometry. And then what this allows us to do is score in the middle goal, obviously. We've got a a passive [music] hood here that's just banded that keeps all our blocks in. And then the unique thing about our uh lever here is that our wing comes down with the with the four bar. And then I can just toggle with the wing here. And what that allows me to do is descore and claim the middle goal a lot faster or just plop out one of their blocks to get them three less points or get the control zone back. And that's really useful for strategy and getting it back early in a match, which puts you basically a cycle ahead and you can get some blocks and then you're just ahead.

[00:09:02]Coming to the Vex Worlds here, we're filming this before qualification matches have started, but have you modified your strategy at all from maybe Purdue Sigbots coming to Vex Worlds? Uh we've slightly modified it, but it was pretty refined at Purdue. Um Joseph still was like the main person scoring the long goal and then I kept the middle and I was able I just kept doing the long goal when I had the chance to because it's kind of a distraction because my main focus is keeping the middle and when I have those two and I I know I can trust Joseph with the long goal, I know we're up. So, when I kind of set the long goal, it's more of a distraction for them and they spend more time on that and the middle is really easy with this robot designed to swing.

[00:09:37]I That's why I put the shiny reflective stickers on there, right? Distract a little bit more. Hunter, let's talk about programming on this uh these sets of robots here. Uh we're talking about some different sensors uh they're utilizing for some stops, and I'm sure some other great things that go into this robot, too. Yes, of course. So, Here, do you have Can you take So, underneath our robot, we have two tracking wheels with encoders. Um these are just standard for odometry um to keep track of robot as it moves across the field.

[00:10:04]Um behind the robot, we have the inertial sensor. This is keeping track of the robot's orientation, and combined with the odometry, we can track the robot across the field and use PID to get to specific points.

[00:10:18]Um Now, of course, this does tend to accumulate error over time. So, on the sides of the robot, we have these distance sensors. We've got one on the left front and one on the right. Um and this allows us to reset the um compared to the wall, and reset the compared to the wall, and reset the odometry system.

[00:10:39]Now, like Joseph covered a little bit, we have a sensor right up here at the top of our intake. And what this does is when the intake runs, it stops these rollers as soon as they get seen. And it can also be used for color filtering.

[00:10:54]But what this does is it prevents any of the game elements from shooting out of the top when we don't want them to. Um Now, we have a lot of driver assist features. So, um Just For example, when choosing an auto selector, um it can just be cycled through with the arrow keys.

[00:11:14]And after it calibrates and everything, there's a lot of features like You said Like this one. And there's this one button, which it does two movements. And if it were lined up with the long goal in that scenario, um it would automatically line up the wings for D scoring. So, at the press of a button, the driver can easily, um line up to D score everything in the long goal.

[00:11:57]Cal Poly Gearslayers, thank you so much for taking the time to tell us more about all these sets of machines. We wish you best of luck here at VEX Worlds hopefully continuing that five out of five, hopefully six out of six streak now with this set of teams as well, too.

[00:12:07]So, best of luck the rest of the way and good luck here at VEX Worlds.

[00:12:12]Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and click the bell to stay up to date on future fun videos.

[00:12:18]The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation provides fantastic programs for students from elementary school all the way through college. These include VEX, Aerial Drone Competition, Online Challenges, JROTC, Girl Powered, scholarships, certifications, and so much more. To discover these exciting opportunities, visit recf.org and get connected.