Meet Miss Daisy XIII!

2014 Lenepe-Seneca District

The 2014 FRC challenge, called Aerial Assist, was announced in early January, to the excitement of all FRC members. The game requires six robots in two teams to shoot two-foot-diameter balls into approximately six-feet-high goals or push them into goals located on the floor. They are also expected to shoot the ball over a six-feet-high truss in the middle of the field. Teams must pass balls between one another to maximize points.

This year’s robot, Miss Daisy XIII, is infused with both past design ideas and entirely new concepts. The chassis was made out of sheet metal, so it was light and strong. With this design, those working on the robot could easily access and repair things inside of the chassis. Due to positive past experiences with tank drive, we decided to use it again because of its efficient power distribution, speed, and turnability. Our intake was a square-shaped frame roughly the size of the game ball, and it had wheels on all three sides. This ensured that the ball could be sucked in from any angle. There were bevel gears on top of the frame to simultaneously power both shafts to decrease the weight of the frame. Pistons were added to the base of the frame so we could lift up the intake when it was not in use and keep it from sustaining damage or getting in the way.

At the beginning of build season, we designed our robot to be the “finisher” of the game and shoot in the high goal. However, we did not anticipate just how difficult the game would be, and in our first few events, we had some challenges lining up our shot. Because of these problems, we resorted to playing tenacious defense, which worked surprisingly well. After successfully playing defense for a few events, this method became known as “Daisy Defense”. We were able to tweak the robot throughout the season and eventually increased the consistency and accuracy of the shooter. By the time the world championships rolled around, Miss Daisy XIII was the finisher she was meant to be!

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