Projects

Current Projects

FRC ChapR

FRC ChapR

Project Lead: Rachel Gardner

Contributors: Rachel Gardner, Riya Aggarwal

Summary: The FRC ChapR project encompasses all of the work put into making the ChapR compatible with FIRST Robotics Competiton (FRC) robots. It involved the creation of a Linux daemon to run on the roboRIO (the brains of an FRC robot), as well as an update to the firmware of the ChapR.

Chap Research Outreach Management Application

Project Lead: Philip Liu

Contributors: Rachel Gardner, Eric Rothfus, William Wang, Parker Bergen, Shrey Majmudar

Summary: The Chap Research Outreach Management Application (CROMA) is a web-based organization and management system for outreach events and data. It is especially designed for FIRST Robotics Teams to structure documentation and notifications. Every individual members on individual teams would have their own personal login and would have immediate and convenient access to a customizable personal dashboard, an informative team dashboard, and a user-friendly operating system.

Close up Robot

ARbattles

Project Lead: Riya Aggarwal

Contributors: Rachel Gardner, Michael Huang, Lee Balboa

Summary: ARbattles combines robotics, computer vision, and projection mapping and python in a game where players battle each other through an augmented reality game. It is controlled via a python script consisting of two modules, one for the game itself – shooting bullets, score, and displaying it all on the screen (pygame); and one for tracking where the robots are with a camera (computer vision). The project will be displayed at TEDxYouth@Austin Full Circle 2016 as part of xLabs.

Screenshot952015-09-08-22-57-02

3D Printed Sprocket Characterization (3PSC)

Project Lead: Rohit Srinivasan

Contributors: Chase Probst, Rachel Gardner

Summary: 3PSC is a research project to characterize the stress-strain relationship of sprockets (tensile strength, torsional stress, shearing stress, fatigue stress and any other stress modes) between the different materials (metal and different polymers)

Completed Projects

v1.1 Case (2)

The ChapR

Completed: June 2014

Project Lead: Rachel Gardner

Contributors: Coach Eric, Ben Gorr, Akshay Prakash

Summary: The ChapR is a patented remote for controlling FTC, FLL, and FRC robots without a PC. It allows teams to easily set up drive practices and run autonomous programs without bothering the programmer(s) or fighting over the few PCs available. Created in 2013, it has been “sold” to hundreds of teams all over the world, using the “profits” to fund free ChapRs for teams in need. More information can be found here on the project website.

Final Website Collage

Online Orders Database

Completed: October 2014

Project Lead: Rachel Gardner

Contributors: Eric Rothfus, Joshua Rothfus

Summary: The online orders database is a custom web-accessible database for storing the customer and order information to aid production and sales of Chap Remotes. Created over the course of a summer as a way of teaching database and web programming, it has since processed over 150 orders. It uses a mySQL database with a WordPress interface in order to provide an internal system for processing orders. Each user has a login and role (courtesy of WordPress), so every member of the manufacturing team can do their part in marking items as shipped, replying to customers, requesting payment (via PayPal integration) etc.

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Fruit Spiral

Completed: February 2015

Project Lead: Michael Huang

Contributors: Rachel Gardner, Lee Balboa, Chase Probst, Sidharth Srinivasan

Summary: The Fruit Spiral is a real life game that involves touching fruits made to show at the xLabs portion of the 2015 TEDXYouth@Austin. There are currently two different modes to the game, Classic and Piano. In Classic mode, users are instructed to touch fruits prompted by a speaker, and in piano mode, users can touch fruits to play piano notes. It uses a touch sensor that measures capacitance changes, an Arduino Pro-Mini for the processor, and a Vmusic 3 to output sound

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Chap Measuring Press

Completed: October 2015

Project Lead: Lewis Jones

Contributors: Philip Liu

Summary: The Chap Measuring Press is a precision marking tool. The three-axis of freedom, hand cranked, and easily constructed design allows users with no previous marking experience to easily learn how to operate an XY-axis screw powered machine and accurately mark parts for further machining. The purpose is to reduce manufacturing errors and inefficiency by pre-planning. Our implementation of the design and the project as a whole had several issues, but the prototype of the design was completed and the team learned valuable lessons from the project.

The SensorPro

Completed: June 2015

Project Lead: Michael Huang

Contributors: Michael Huang

Summary: The Sensor Pro Board (the “SensorPro”) is an electronic circuit board that allows NXT users to efficiently and easily use sensors that are not offered by Lego with their FTC robot. It consists of a HiTechnic SuperPro Prototype Board , an Arduino Nano, a built-in gyro sensor, and pins that allow for additional sensor attachment.
Before the SensorPro, FTC teams had to either use existing sensors or use the HiTechnic board to create interfaces for new or custom sensors. While many teams used the HiTechnic board, one of its major drawbacks was the lack of I2C interface to modern sensors. The goal of this project was to allow I2C-based sensors to be used easily while allowing non-I2C sensors to still be used with the HiTechnic board.

Breadboard

BeatBoard

Completed: November 2015

Project Lead: Ben Gorr

Contributors: Sarah Guenov

Summary: The BeatBoard is an add-on to the roboRIO (the brains of FRC robots). It is used to separate sound into frequency bands to allow a user program to act upon noises in the high, medium and low frequency band. This data can then be used to flash LEDs or move motors (making the robot dance). It is designed as a “bling board” for FRC robots; that is to say, it adds no real functionality beyond being really cool.

Cropped Sprocket in Blender

SprocketR

Completed: November 2015

Project Lead: Chase Probst

Contributors: Lee Balboa, Rachel Gardner

Summary: The SprocketR is a web application to generate custom sprockets from user inputs. The user is able to specify big-picture parameters in order to determine the options with the least amount of slack. Once chosen, this sprocket pair can be generated as a .stl file to be 3D printed or machined.