2481 Roboteers | Behind the Bumpers | Milstein Winners

Añadido: 2026-05-12

[00:00:02][music] >> Everybody, it's Tyler here at the First Championship. We're checking in. It's 2481, the RoboTears. What a showpiece this robot has been. And I'm just going to tell you, seeing it in person, oh my goodness, it is absolutely insane. This 115 fuel capacity robot is absolutely amazing to watch on the field. They just had a really good match. Congratulations on that as well, too. So, we can't wait to see how this huge robot continues to go all the way through. We're talking about these massive rollers, that massive hopper area, how it's all come together, [music] and this huge shooter as well, too. There's so much to cover here on RoboTears. So, let's learn more about them coming up here on Behind the Bumpers.

[00:00:43]Alex, so many great things to break down on this robot here, but this shooter, I mean, the amount of BPS you get through this, just the massiveness of it is so cool. So, talk me about how it's all come together. So, currently, we are getting 20 BPS, and it's for that, it's a four-wide shooter, and we're able to also essentially accelerate our balls all the way down here with four rollers to increase our accuracy. And then right here, we have a PVC pipe. We noticed a lot of teams that had rollers up here, but we were not wanting to add that this way in the season, and just putting this here increased our accuracy by like another 10%. And then this grip tape, which is the same stuff you'll find in skateboards, increased our accuracy by like another 40% early in the season, which it made our ball spin very consistent.

[00:01:26]And on our shooter, we have three 44s >> [music] >> uh to shoot it. And then going down, we have another three uh two more 44s for the next three rollers, and our last one is a 60.

[00:01:39]Before we get to our next segment, we'd like to thank the following.

[00:01:42]Kettering University's cutting-edge programs and their experiential co-op model seamlessly blend the professional and academic worlds, offering hands-on, future-focused learning that empowers students pursue new ideas and inspires other institutions to follow their lead.

[00:01:54]Don't just be ahead of the curve, create the curve. Get more information at kettering.edu/first.

[00:02:01]As you're getting ready for the competition season, think AndyMark as your one-stop shop for all your team needs. AndyMark's Launcher in a Box is a configurable solution that so many teams are finding success with for the rebuilt season. Also available at andymark.com, the AMPD AndyMark Power Distribution Board that provides 24 40 amp independently fused output channels for safe, reliable power distribution.

[00:02:20]That's andymark.com.

[00:02:23]Looking at the season so far, uh your team has gone through, you know, just watching it evolve, it seems like you've just gotten better and better and better. Were there any major changes to the shooter, or has most of the stuff stayed relatively the same? Between this Between our last comp and this comp, we have replaced our side plates and made the brackets a lot more beefy on them to prevent them from breaking like in our previous competitions. And then we also have a linear actuator instead of a pneumatic piston to decrease our weight.

[00:02:47]And this one is a two-position, and that's And then from there we just change our motor RPS to get everything in between.

[00:02:55]Drake, let's talk about the intake on this robot here. As mentioned before, it's it's almost hard to describe personally how massive this whole thing is for stuff. So, talk to me about how it's all come together for RoboTigers here. So, with our intake, we have a 3-in roller wrapped in grip tape powered by two Kraken X-60s, featuring our SRPP side plates with our front stone wheels [music] to help us with balance. And the ball gets compressed between the roller and the ramp, which helps fill our massive capacity of 115 balls in Is there anything your team has had to do to try to mitigate like jamming and stuff when you have an intake you know this open this wide and so much balls coming in for [music] that? What have you done to try to make sure nothing hap- or nothing wrong happens? In the beginning, we had issues with motor stalling and everything, so that's why we had a second motor. But we also added this plate up here to help balls pushing against the roller and having the motor stall. So, that allows us to fill our hopper to max capacity, and that [music] allows us to shoot as many balls as we possibly can.

[00:03:48]When you When you look at in terms of like trying to acquire fuel in as quickly as possible, When you were approaching this game and your team's like, "Hey, we're going to make this humongous hopper and then we got to get the uh stuff in for it." What have you tried to do to really try to get more and more fuel in as quickly as possible?

[00:04:02]We knew in the beginning that we wanted to have a big, wide hopper so we could pick up as many balls as possible. So, with our five-ball wide hopper, >> [music] >> um that allows us to just come up, not push the balls, but come up and take uh touch and take them.

[00:04:17]So, cool to go through this robot so far. Isaiah, we got to cover this uh hopper here since you mentioned 115 fuel uh for this. This is so cool. So, I'd love to hear more about uh you know, of course, how it comes together, especially with these walls, and any challenges your team had to deal with.

[00:04:30]You know, that's a lot of weight that you're bringing to your robot. How are you bringing all this together to package it?

[00:04:34]Hey, so for our hopper, our original hopper was made out of aluminum angle and it worked pretty good, but I had some issues with durability and getting caught on things and racking on the sides. So, afterwards that we changed to a bunch of RAM tube >> [music] >> and a couple more angles. So, we have the 1/16 wall on the side that allows us to get our extra inch and a quarter of flex to hold as many balls as possible.

[00:04:58]We have these jail bars on the front, which due to the way they're spaced, it allows the ball to come out slightly to allow for us even more balls in our hopper.

[00:05:08]It sticks out a little bit. And then, finally, our robot is 33 and 1/2 by 21 and 3/8.

[00:05:18]So, that allows for even even more added storage of [music] balls and it turns our robot into a nice, perfect square once our intake comes out with our 12-in extension.

[00:05:28]The other aspect of this is how do you not only get the fuel and store it, but how do you actually get it indexed into uh what your shooter is as well? So, Levi, let's walk more through how this you know, you have so much fuel, how are you getting this to actually come through into your shooter? And then uh the other thing I want to ask you, too, is uh from a center of gravity issue, how have you guys tried to mitigate like having all that weight and not, you know, tipping as much as we've maybe seen in the past, especially your for championships? Well, actually our indexer is pretty simple. It's just interlocking 1 and 5/8 swish wheels with a X60 to a 31 gear reduction hidden right under our shooter here.

[00:06:09]Um They are spaced apart and they just roll.

[00:06:16]And then [music] for our weight, what we do is we try to move a lot of our weight down.

[00:06:22]So, and our frame and our back frame bar is a 2 by 2 bar and we have the X44s so we can move all our weight lower to to make our center of gravity lower.

[00:06:34]What do you say to teams who are maybe anti-big hopper and saying, "Hey, having something like that and being a bump only robot might not be the way to go."

[00:06:42]You guys have had really good success with this so far. So, how do you how do you approach that, especially matches as well, too, where you have to focus on the bump?

[00:06:48]So >> ahead, Kill. With match strategy and all that, we are a bump only robot which leads itself to its own challenges, you know, a defense bot sitting on the bump.

[00:06:56]So, what we do to that is the robot doesn't ever touch the bump at all when it's going over skinny ways such that we can't get beached. And in addition to that, we also have partners setting picks or screens where they would hit the defense bot out of the way so we can come over. And that allows us to get over and unload our massive hopper of 115. What is that being held right here?

[00:07:15]Can you tell us more about it? Uh this is an example of one of our hopper bars.

[00:07:19]So, if you'll notice, [music] there's the the angle on it or the cutout that allows us to miss the bump such that we will not get beached on it cuz we could get beached if this bar went all the way straight across.

[00:07:30]Let's talk a little bit more about your drivetrain. Things, you know, when you have all that weight and you're trying to get all the way through the field, you guys have always done, I think, some cool custom work with your swerve modules. I think this is no exception as well, too. Yeah, of course. So, this year we are using our own custom swerve modules with a really, really big wheel on it. These were designed in the 2024 off season after we had issues with the swerve in the 2024 season that was not custom. Um they were designed to have the biggest wheel possible [music] and have a a super adjustable gear ratio.

[00:07:59]The gear ratio can move from 32 ft per second all the way down to 12. And this year, because we're holding so many balls and have all of that extra weight, um we decided we wanted to gear low to have more torque [music] to actually push that over the bump, push it around the field and not be stalling our motors constantly and have lower current draw.

[00:08:19]Okay, the last thing I want to ask you is watching team from your first and second regional. It just seemed overall on the field that your bot just seemed more fluid, faster and [music] your cycles that sort of thing. What do you think it's attributed from a driver's perspective of of just getting your cycles down so much better?

[00:08:32]>> Getting the cycles down was not really a whole lot mechanical.

[00:08:35]Um what we did after our first event, we analyzed the issues, fixed them in a week, and [music] then spent the entire time just doing driver practice, practicing sweeping balls, picking up balls, and that's what attributed to our what looks like faster cycles at our second event. And then here at the World Championship, what have you uh maybe learned a couple matches in so far in regards to regional play versus here at Worlds? Regional play versus this is a lot different. The balls generally tend to move a lot faster. They're not sitting in a whole bunch of piles like they were at a regional.

[00:09:03]Um but a smart driver and one that has a lot of practice sweeping balls, hubs, and generally picking up balls, um will have a lot easier of a time just running around the field and getting them.

[00:09:13]Well, Robot Hers it's always a pleasure to check in uh with your team here so far. We can't wait to see how you do uh through this first championship. I think one of the coolest showpieces here in Rebuilds well, too. So, good luck the rest of the way. Thanks for taking the time.

[00:09:26]Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and click the bell to stay up-to-date on future fun videos. As you're getting ready for the competition season, think AndyMark as your one-stop shop for all your team needs. AndyMark's Launcher in a Box is a configurable solution that so many teams are finding success with for the rebuild season.

[00:09:42]Also available at Andymark.com, the AM PD AndyMark Power Distribution Board that provides 24 40 amp independently fused output channels for safe, reliable power distribution. That's Andymark.com.

[00:09:53]Kettering University's cutting-edge programs and their experiential co-op model seamlessly blend the professional and academic worlds, offering hands-on, future-focused learning that empowers students pursue new ideas and inspires other institutions to follow their lead.

[00:10:05]Don't just be ahead of the curve, create the curve. Get more information at kettering.edu/first.

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