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VCC (VEX Competitive Concept)


After the release of the 2020-2021 FIRST® Tech Challenge game, we immediately believed that we could build a competitive, legal robot (minus the electronics) completely out of VEX Parts. After a few weeks of prototyping, designing, testing and iterating, we've done just that. Introducing, Ringer.

Wheels: (2x) 4” Omni-Directional & (2x) 4” Traction

Gear Ratio: 20:1

With the exception of the plastic panels and motors, the drivetrain is built entirely from parts found in the VEX Robotics FTC Starter Kit.

The drivetrain features (2x) 4” Traction Wheels and (2x) 4” Omni-Directional Wheels. The Traction wheels are driven, while the Omni-Directional Wheels are free spin. This setup allows the front (intake side) of the robot to easily align to rings on the field. The Traction Wheels in the back allow you to aim your robot toward the goal with finer adjustments. 

Suggested Improvements:

If you’re looking to improve this design, look at upgrading the wheels from (2x) Omni-Directional and (2x) Traction to (4x) Mecanum Wheels. This will allow you to align to rings and goals even easier. 

Intake: Floating roller with (8x) 30A 1.625” Flex Wheels

Conveyor: Two rollers with (12x) 60A 1.625” Flex Wheels

Feeder: One roller with (6x) 30A 1.625” Flex Wheels

Shooter: (1x) 60A 4” Flex Wheel

Intake/Conveyor Ratio: 7:1 VersaPlanetary Lite + 36:60 Gear Reduction (11.66:1 Overall)

Feeder Ratio: 4:1 VersaPlanetary Lite + 36:60 Gear Reduction (6.6:1 Overall)

Shooter Ratio: 1:1 VersaPlanetary Lite

The intake features a floating roller, giving the intake added compliance when picking rings up off the floor. The rings are guided up the conveyor with 1x1 angles. This allows the intake to be wide, while allowing the rings to enter the shooter the same way every time. Both the intake and conveyor are powered off the same motor. 

The feeder helps keep rings from entering the shooter too early. The feeder is intentionally geared faster than the intake/conveyor so that rings are accelerated going into the shooter. 

The shooter is a 4” 60 Flex Wheel powered 1:1 off of a motor. To help adapt the motor’s small output shaft with the rest of the VEX V5 construction system, we used a 1:1 VersaPlanetary Lite with a Universal Female Output Shaft. This effectively adapts the motor’s 3mm output shaft to a ¼” ThunderSquare shaft.

Note: Many of the components used in the intake, conveyor, and shooter are items found in theEX Robotics FTC Starter Kit.

Wobble Goal Intake: (2x) 40A 1.625” Flex Wheels powered 1:1 by (2x) VEX 393 Motors

Arm: Virtual 4-bar mechanism

Arm Ratio: 175:1 VersaPlanetary Lite

The Wobble Goal Arm is designed to grab, lift, and drop Wobble Goals outside of the field perimeter. 

The arm itself is powered by a single motor attached to a 175:1 VersaPlanetary Lite (7:1 + 5:1 + 5:1). 

The Wobble Goal Intake is (2x) 40A 1.625” Flex Wheels attached to VEX 393 Motors. This creates an active intake that allows the robot to quickly grab onto Wobble Goals. 

The Wobble Goal Intake is attached to the arm through a virtual 4-bar. This linkage allows the arm to keep the orientation of the Wobble Goal Intake the same regardless of the orientation of the arm.