FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition 2023-2024

The PHS Stringers/25310

Pinelands High School, 7405, Cape Town

Build. Break. Repeat.

Table of contents
● Team Information
○ Opening statement
○ Team members
○ Member roles
○ Coaches
● Team Plan
○ Team plan (Business stuff)
○ Budgets
○ Sponsors (Gear Up IS A SPONSOR)
○ Recruitment strategies
○ Learning goals
● Season Overview
○ Goals and plans to learn new skills 1
○ Obstacles
● Robot Overview
○ Design evolution 1
○ Sketches
○ Discussions
○ Important team meetings
○ Processes
○ Strengths/weaknesses
○ CAD screenshots
○ Program flow charts
● Gameplay
○ Strategy 1
○ Scoring focus
○ Alliance goals
● Team Information
● Opening statement
○ Welcome to The Stingers journey through the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics
Competition 2023-2024 season. In this document, you will find comprehensive
information about our team's background, goals, and accomplishments.

● Team Members
○ Shemsedin
○ Zahir
○ James
○ Isa
○ Ameen
○ Takudzwa
○ Benjamin
○ Wandile (Former)

● Member Roles
○ Builders: Isa, Takudzwa, James, Zahir, Ameen, Wandile
○ Designers: Benjamin, Shemsedin
○ Coders: Shemsedin Ameen

● Coaches
○ Mr. Abrahams (PInelands High School)
○ Coach Ross (Gear Up)

● Team Plan
● Budgets
○ Equipment rent/Coaching fee for Gear Up: R50,400
○ Team kit: R4000
● Sponsors
○ Gear Up
○ Pinelands High School
● Recruiting strategies
○ Posts within school announcements, our school's site and its social media
accounts
● Learning goals
○ The biggest learning goals for our group was learning to code (be it in blocks or
in Java), how to design a robot and to learn about 3D design. In the end all
members of the group learn at the very least something about each one of those
topics which we see as a win
● Season Overview

● Goals and plans to learn new skills

○ When it comes to goals and our plans to learn new skills, the team did well in our
eyes. Each member learned something about each section of the process, even
if it wasn’t their individual area of focus, be it design, building, coding or using
CAD.
● Obstacles
○ The largest obstacle of our journey has definitely been learning how to
troubleshoot problems without the help of Coach Ross. A lot of this has been
specifically with regards to coding but it also applies to the building and testing of
the robot

○ Time management was an issue as we found ourselves doing a lot of the work
very close to the competition day.

● Robot Overview
● Design evolution
- We started off with a base and estimated what the maximum dimensions would be
- We added the wheels,control hub and battery to frame of the robot
- We added the intake and added cardboard ( scrimmage)
- We added arm
- We added pixel drop off system to end of arm

● Strengths/Weaknesses
○ Speed and a wide range of mobility for the placement arm are the two strengths
that we are banking on for competition day. The main weakness we have to work
against is the size of the bot itself, it takes a lot of space on the field and we have
had to learn to maneuver around the Truss
● Important meetings
○ The biggest meetings we’ve had were at the beginning when everyone was trying
to determine what exactly was allowed on the bot and we all sat down and went
through the rules together.
○ Other important meetings were when we were doing group exercises and
everyone was kind of finding what area they were most suited to
○ Some of our most important meetings were used to debate on the design of our
robot and our different ideas constructively.
● Design changes
○ Our robot has 2 arms, a minor arm for intake and a major arm for pixel
placement. The design of the minor arm has stayed virtually the same throughout
the season but the major arm has changed quite a bit. It started off as something
of a catapult with a claw at the end but its changed over time into a 2 stage arm
system

○ The base of the robot has been the most unchanged item of the robot, despite
minor changes about the placement of certain parts
○ The ramp of the intake was a sore spot in that we weren't sure what material to
use it as it had to be flexible but still solid enough to not bend or break
● Design and Building Process
● Game play

● Strategy
○ going into our first scrimmage our team was unprepared , we decided to throw
ourselves in the deep end and to put our self out there as a rookie team.Since we
didn’t have our arm used to place the pixels on the backboard we used a piece of
cardboard to push pixels into the backstage area to score points during and after
the autonomous period.During the autonomous period we would let the robot
drive itself into the backstage area while pushing 2 pixels and we would park it at
the end of the round to score points as well.Our main strategy required us to
push pixels into the backstage area to score points. 1
● Scoring focus
○ Our main strategy will be placing pixels on the backboard. The autonomous part
will reflect that, as will the driver controlled portion of each match. A lot of the
scoring process relies on the abilities of the two arms to work together in unison
○ Placing pixels won’t be the most precise part of our scoring process but our
system should suffice
● Alliance goals
○ Our strategy was to push as many pixels into the backstage as possible so our
alliance teammates had the opportunity to place the pixels and regardless if they
did or not we still scored points.
○ When the alliance teammates human player placed the pixels inside they would
place it in front our robot to make it easier to push