Reference
Seasons from the Field
Every machine 16688A has written about, one robot at a time. Nothing here is new, it is pulled together from the chapters so you can read a whole season in one go instead of meeting it scattered across Chapters 3, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 15. Each entry says where it came from.
Rapid Relay
VEX IQFusion: Nearly the whole robotBalls scored in all four zones of the goal, so range and flexibility mattered more than raw power.
Concepts we put on the table
A standard catapult with adjustable tension, a double catapult for two balls at once, a flywheel, and a backroller combining a catapult for the upper goal with a rubber band roller on the back for the lower goal.
Chapter 3, Brainstorming →What we cut, and why
A long-range launcher. Alignment was hard to program consistently, and small angle errors at distance caused dramatic accuracy loss. The debate killed it, not a vote.
Chapter 3, Brainstorming →Mechanism fusion
Modular first, one mechanism to pick up and one to score. Then a shared motor link tied intake, drivetrain, and catapult together. Gears deformed under catapult tension, fixed by changing the pull-down method.
Chapter 8, Combining Mechanisms →PTO
The first PTO split one motor bank across intake, outtake, and catapult. Partway through the season the drivetrain needed more power too, so it folded into the same shared system, four mechanisms instead of three.
Chapter 9, PTOs →What it taught us
More complexity, but it unlocked speed we could not get any other way.
Full Volume
VEX IQFusion: Fully separateRed blocks unlocked the big bonuses, but were too large to handle alongside green and purple in the same match. Green and purple were similar enough to share one intake, so that is what we built for.
Concepts we worked through
A green-block-only robot, a purple-block-only robot, and several elevator configurations before settling on a direction. The core concept stabilised early, the mechanisms serving it kept improving all season.
Chapter 3, Brainstorming →Intake
Reworked intake geometry, one mechanism to pick up and a separate one to sort and score by colour.
Chapter 6, Intakes →Mechanism fusion
Modular by design. No fusion needed, and it scored both colours better that way.
Chapter 8, Combining Mechanisms →PTO
Motor-sharing between intake and lift meant 4 full motors on intake, then 4 full motors on lift, instead of a fixed 2/2 split. Scoring got faster on both ends.
Chapter 9, PTOs →What it taught us
The right call was reading which elements could share one mechanism, not chasing the biggest bonus.
Mix and Match
VEX IQFusion: Two mechanisms fusedThe bonus structure rewarded pairing beams with pins, so a robot handling both object types was worth more than one that specialised.
Mechanism fusion
Started modular, one to stake the pin and one to clamp the beam. A shared motor link tied the drivetrain to the back beam arm. The pivot and rotation point changed so the pin slipped cleanly onto the standoff goal, scoring pin and beam in one pass.
Chapter 8, Combining Mechanisms →PTO
4-motor drivetrain with the lift down, 2-motor drivetrain plus 2 lift motors when raising the beam lift to score. Field speed nearly doubled, and that is what got the max-score runs.
Chapter 9, PTOs →What it taught us
The highest-value PTO trade is drivetrain against a mechanism, because driving and scoring rarely happen at the same instant.
Slapshot
VEX IQFusion: One fusionA flywheel game where space was the constraint.
Flywheel and dispenser
Mostly modular. The flywheel shared a motor with the dispenser to save space, tuned so the dispenser never slowed the flywheel's shot. Freed motors and space while shot speed held.
Chapter 8, Combining Mechanisms →What it taught us
Fusing cost nothing here because the two motions never conflicted.
High Stakes
V5RCOur first V5RC drivetrain built around a specific field strategy rather than a general-purpose base.
Drivetrain
6-motor tank drive at 450 RPM, 8 wheels, 6 omni and 2 traction centred. 450 gave the speed the field strategy needed, and the centred traction pair gave pushing power at the goal without killing the turning radius.
Chapter 15, Advanced Drivetrains →What it taught us
Centre a traction pair on an omni base and the robot pivots cleanly around that line.
Push Back
V5RCA field with a barrier obstacle, so crossing it mattered more than top speed.
Drivetrain
6-motor drive at 320 RPM on 4 inch wheels, all four omni. Geared down for torque instead of top speed, and full omni kept us mobile crossing the barrier instead of fighting for traction on the ramp.
Chapter 15, Advanced Drivetrains →Roller speeds
One speed, 1200 RPM, ran every roller on the robot, and it burned motors out early because splitting the drivetrain motors from the intake cut torque to each roller. The fix was dropping most rollers to 900 for torque and leaving the front intake at 1800, since it only ever pushes a ball that is already stuck.
Chapter 11, The Engineering Notebook →Odometry, rejected
We tested odometry pods on this robot and wrote down that we weighed the pros and cons and decided against it. That one sentence is what stops someone re-testing the same dead end two seasons from now.
Chapter 11, The Engineering Notebook →What it taught us
Gear for the obstacle in front of you, not for the top speed you wish you had.