Who are we?The Centennial High school FTC Robotics team, "Omnitech" is aimed to train students on FTC and give the valuable experience of working with a team. Our members are passionate about robotics, computer science, engineering, and/or marketing.
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What exactly do we do?
Our team's goal is to expand students' knowledge of STEM, learn to work together with a team, and gain skills they can use in a professional environment. To accomplish this we use the First Tech Challenge competition. We build a robot to compete in the challenge and aim to win. There are many different parts to this. Obviously building the robot and programming but also, marketing and outreach, designers, making sure we're organized, etc. Each part requires a specific set of skills. Here in the club we help teach these skills and guide you in the right direction to use them in the real word.
Why do we particpate in ftc?
FTC is a great learning experience for students of all ages. It teaches things like Gracious Professionalism™, good sportsmanship, and workplace skills. FTC is a way for our team to teach STEM related things and help guide students in the right direction towards their profession while at the same time having fun. While FTC does come with some challenges, it is important we teach new comers how to face them in a professional and efficient manner. FTC provides students to learn and grow from their experience.
To learn more about FTC on our website click here or go to the official website here
To learn more about FTC on our website click here or go to the official website here
History
Everyone starts somewhere, no one learns something knowing everything. Throughout our competition and experience we've learned a great deal. We've learned from our mistakes, accidents, and failures, but we've kept on going and hope to others continue on the same path.
2021-2022 season
This year was our Omnitech's competition. Despite having little to no experience we were able to successfully construct a robot for FTC and do fairly well, despite the challenge of getting back in the routine of physical school after the effects of Covid-19. It took some time and patience but we were able to come through and perform well this season.
The team
OMNIBOT
The challenge
This season's game was called "Freight Frenzy". Two teams shared the same goal of moving the cargo - typically a whiffle ball or a cube of the same size - to certain objects in the arena called the "Alliance Shipping Hub" and "Shared Hub". The Shared Hub had a pole with a curved surfaces inserted on it. The Alliance Shipping Hub was the same except it had three of these curved surfaces on it. By getting cargo on these two objects you scored points. Of course there were other ways to score points like the ducks and parking (more on that here). At the end of each round, the teams with the most points would win that round.
How Omnibot came to beWe didn't come up with the name "Omnibot" until after we finished building it. While designing the robot for this season's game, "Freight Frenzy" we were struggling to design a drivetrain. A drivetrain is the part of the robot that makes it move, the wheels pretty much. We weren't sure what kind of drivetrain to use and it took us some time to figure out. We had ideas like tank treads, normal wheels, six wheels, eventually we decided on using omnidirectional wheels. Omnidirectional wheels are wheels that can go any direction and not just forward and back. They can go side to side, diagonal, and forward and back. Hence came the name, "Omnibot" from the types of wheels we used.
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How it worksOmnibot uses four omnidirectional wheels for its drivetrain. The wheels are able to go side to side, forward and back, and are able to rotate. They move the robot to the position the driver sets it to. Our intake is made up of spinning tubing. Intake is the mechanism used to bring the cargo inside the robot so it can carry it. The spinning tubing spun at a 360 degree angle. When Omnibot drives forward the driver controlled tubing spins to bring the cargo into the outtake. The outtake mechanism is used to bring the cargo onto one of the Shipping Hubs. Our outtake uses linear slides to go up and down and side to side. Once placed onto the outtake box the driver controlled slides are moved up and the side to side slides are moved out. The final step is to spin the outtake box to place it onto the Shipping Hubs. The opposite applies to bring the outtake box back to pick up the cargo from the intake. All together the drivetrain, outtake, and intake make up Omnibot.
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