ROBOTICS / TEAM 1277
From CAD to competition.
A complete mechanical design, custom parts made in-house, and a team Industrial Design Award.
- My contribution
- Mechanical architecture · CAD · Fabrication
- Context
- Team 1277 · 2024 competition season
- Result
- Team Industrial Design Award · Custom parts made in-house
- Skills & tools
- Fusion 360 CAD/CAM
- Mechanical Design
- Rapid Prototyping
- CNC Machining
- Pneumatic Mechanisms
- Design Iteration
- Project Management
Why I took it on
I'd been teaching myself CAD since I was ten, and FRC gave me the chance to turn that interest into a working robot our team could compete with. For the 2024 season, we had eight weeks to build a robot that could collect foam game pieces, score at different heights, and hang from a chain. I led the mechanical design and wanted to expand what our small team could build with the tools and resources we had.
From a model to a mechanism
I modeled the robot in Fusion 360, introducing a complete CAD model to a process that had previously relied on whiteboard designs. I prototyped the intake and shooter with scrap wood and used drills as motors to test their movement. Learning CAM and CNC machining also let me make custom parts in-house and explore designs we hadn't been able to manufacture before. After seeing other teams use over-bumper intakes successfully, I designed one that could collect a game piece from different angles without requiring perfect alignment. It rotated to feed a pivoting shooter, which could aim at either scoring height. A pneumatic hook system let the robot pull itself onto the chain at the end of a match.
Working through the final tests
During final testing, the shooter wasn't scoring consistently, and we couldn't redesign the whole mechanism. I increased the flywheel speed to overcome friction and improve the shot trajectory. The adjustment worked, letting us keep the design and solve the problem within the time we had.
What it meant to me
Our team earned the 2024 Industrial Design Award. I led the mechanical design and fabrication work, while teammates led electrical work and programming, and we assembled the robot together. This remains one of my most meaningful projects because I took responsibility for bringing a design from my laptop into competition. I also developed and taught CAD, CAM, and CNC lessons so other students could build on what I'd learned.
