Author: Nate Laverdure

NewsletterBy Nate Laverdure

Newsletter: Triple Helix on fire! Six regular-season tournament wins in a row

This weekend in Portsmouth, Triple Helix Robotics steamed to another victory on the FRC playing field, captaining our alliance of three teams to bring home our 6th win in a row in official play. The team is now ranked #1 in Virginia, #1 in the Chesapeake District, #14 in the US, and #17 worldwide.

Triple Helix won the event alongside two alliance partners from Richmond: 5804 TORCH from the Collegiate School and, 539 Titan Robotics from Trinity Episcopal School.

The judges at the event also recognized Triple Helix with the Autonomous Award– our second such honor this season! Owed greatly to our high performance in the autonomous mode, our win-loss-tie record now stands at 31-5-0 for the season.

The team greatly appreciated the strong support of our parents and friends at this event– thanks to all the visitors who stopped by and wished us luck! We definitely needed it, as this event was by no means a cake walk. In addition to the exciting competition from several strong opponents, we struggled with a strange low-level software issue that sometimes caused our robot’s processor to reboot mid-match. This issue even appeared in our finals matchup against the powerful #2 seed alliance captained by 3136 ORCA and featuring the heavy-hitting cone scorer 1599 Circuitree.

The team will be working on stomping this bug– as well as continuing to reap the benefits of extensive practice with our robot at the Peninsula STEM Gym operated by Intentional Innovation Foundation– as we prepare for the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship on April 5-8 in Fairfax, VA.

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics

NewsletterBy Nate Laverdure

Newsletter: Triple Helix starts the competition season with a win in Blacksburg!

This weekend, Triple Helix Robotics traveled to Blacksburg for our first district qualifier event of the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition season, and WON THE EVENT alongside partner teams 401, 1915, and 3373 against a field of 30 other contenders from VA, MD, and DC.

[The winning alliance of four teams. Courtesy of 401.]

Our robot “Genome Xi” demonstrated reliable autonomous routines and highly polished teleoperated (student-driven) scoring throughout the event. In the qualification rounds, Triple Helix claimed an early lead and held onto our #1 ranking throughout the event, locking in our position as the captains of the #1 seed alliance.

[Average points scored in auto + endgame (Y axis) and teleop (X axis) by all FRC teams worldwide as of the end of Week 1 of competition season. Via statbotics.io/teams]

Triple Helix was also awarded the Autonomous Award for our technical leadership in translating advanced control techniques into points scored on the playing field during real matches. The judges said:

The Autonomous Award sponsored by Ford celebrates the team that has demonstrated consistent, reliable, high-performance robot operation during autonomously managed actions. Evaluation is based on the robot’s ability to sense its surroundings, position itself or onboard mechanisms appropriately, and execute tasks. Their triple-performing play impressed the judges. This team consistently scored two cones in autonomous. Control theory is in their genes!

Our stunning performance in this qualifier event means that we are very likely to punch a ticket to the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on April 6-8.

Fans of Triple Helix Robotics are invited to cheer us on at our next qualifier, at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, VA on March 18-19. The event is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday. You can also watch the event steaming live at watch.team2363.org, and dive into our stats at thebluealliance.com/team/2363.

Thanks to FIRST Chesapeake, the host team FRC 401 Copperhead Robotics, a really stellar crew of Triple Helix parents, and all our wonderful sponsors for making this weekend’s experience possible! We could not do this without your steadfast support.

–
Nate Laverdure
Head coach, Triple Helix Robotics

NewsletterBy Nate Laverdure

Newsletter: Triple Helix Robotics is playing CHARGED UP

Happy new year!

Triple Helix is playing CHARGED UP
This FIRST Robotics Competition season, Triple Helix is playing “CHARGED UP”, a pick & place-style game featuring two different game pieces (perfectly colored– purple and yellow!!) which must be scored in a large array at the near end of the field. For bonus points, we must balance our robot on a teeter-totter… both autonomously and while under driver control.

Today the team met for Part I of our game analysis and strategic design discussion. This year’s game looks challenging, with several new shapes of objects to manipulate, some tricky strategic tradeoffs, and a nailbiting endgame. It should be a fun game to watch and play.

Field construction at the Peninsula STEM Gym is underway
At our shared robotics practice facility, we are preparing to build full-scale wooden mockups of the field elements. We can still use additional construction help, which requires only basic woodworking skills. Please join us in the #stemgym channel on our team Slack to learn more.

We’ve locked in our event schedule
Triple Helix aims to compete at up to four FRC events this spring. Hope to see you there as a spectator or a volunteer!

– March 3-5: FIRST Chesapeake District Blacksburg VA event
– March 17-19: FIRST Chesapeake District Portsmouth VA event
– April 6-8: FIRST Chesapeake District Championship, EagleBank Arena, George Mason University, Fairfax VA
– April 19-22: FIRST Championship, Houston TX

Thank you to all our wonderful sponsors!
The team greatly appreciates your support!
http://team2363.org/partners/

CAD, MechanicalBy Nate Laverdure

REV MAXSwerve wheel tread jig

In fall 2022, Triple Helix created a working drilling & marking jig to prepare replacement strips of treads for the aluminum 3″ MAXSwerve Wheel used on the 3″ REV MAXSwerve module.

This jig produces treads with the correct hole spacing for 3-ply black neoprene tread material (McMaster-Carr p/n 5994K1) such that the tread installs tightly on the 3″ diameter x 7/8″ wide billet wheel. Triple Helix found this working hole pattern through four rounds of guess-and-check iteration, and also by drawing on our past experience with the similar tread jigs we made for SDS wheels.

Drill bushings (McMaster-Carr p/n 96511A666) can be pressed into the fixture to ensure that the jig will remain usable for a long time, however users should note that they will need to grind a flat into these bushings since the screw placement is very narrowly spaced.

Onshape document

NewsletterBy Nate Laverdure

Newsletter: Triple Helix: semifinalists in WV endurance robot tournament

Last weekend, the Triple Helix Robotics team traveled to Morgantown, WV, where we competed in a field of 24 teams in an 26-hour overnight competition.

WVROX, “the world’s first and only FIRST Robotics Competition endurance event”, is held every two years at West Virginia University and is hosted by fellow NASA house team 2614 MARS.

Photo credit: Sanjay (FRC 4099)

In this challenging event, Triple Helix racked up 18 match wins and finished the event as semifinalists and captains of the 3rd-ranked alliance alongside our alliance partners teams 48 and 2656.

The team has now played well over 100 Rapid React matches– one of our busiest seasons ever. And it’s not done yet! We look forward to playing additional offseason events this fall, including the one we are co-hosting– the 7th annual Rumble in the Roads on Saturday, November 5 at Menchville High School.

We’re also well into our recruiting season for the upcoming school year, and we welcome any prospective new students and mentors to drop by any upcoming meeting to meet the team and learn about how to get involved.

Thanks for your support!
Nate

NewsletterBy Nate Laverdure

Newsletter: Triple Helix Robotics – quarterfinalists at IRI!

This summer, Menchville High School’s award-winning Triple Helix robotics team travels to two high-profile offseason tournaments where we compete (for fun and bragging rights) on a national stage against many of the world’s top teams.

These events are similar (in size, scope, schedule, budget, etc.) to our own “Rumble in the Roads”, a fall FRC offseason tournament that Triple Helix co-hosts alongside our friends 1610 Blackwater Robotics. This fall, the 7th annual Rumble will be held at Menchville High School on Saturday November 5.

Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI)

Last weekend, we traveled to the prestigious Indiana Robotics Invitational, a 48 team tournament held over 2 days in Columbus, Indiana.

After successfully debugging a tricky networking problem on the evening of load-in, Triple Helix managed to squeeze out 7 wins in our first 11 qualification matches, demonstrating our robot’s ability to quickly cycle game pieces into the large central goal and, right at the end of each match, quickly hang on the “mid” bar for some critical extra bonus points.

Check out this 10-minute summary of the IRI by FIRST Updates Now!

Triple Helix was selected as the 4th and final member of the 4th-seeded alliance alongside world-renowned partners:

  • 195 CyberKnights from Southington, CT
  • 67 The HOT Team from Highland, MI
  • 2539 Krypton Cougars from Palmyra, PA

Our 4th seeded alliance paired up against an extremely strong 5th seed in the first round of the playoffs (a best of 3 series), and ultimately lost to them in our 3rd and final match of the event.

This success — 

  • to receive an invite to this amazing event
  • to be able to go
  • to put up a winning record in qualifying rounds
  • to be asked to join a playoff alliance
  • for our robot to touch the carpet and put points on the scoreboard in the elimination rounds

— represents the culmination of an amazing 2022 season for Triple Helix and is a massive honor for our team.

West Virginia Robotics Xtreme (WVRoX)

In 2 weeks, Triple Helix travels to Morgantown WV where we will play at WVRoX, a 26-hour overnight endurance competition.  We are really excited to play over 30 matches in a field of 24 great teams…

Check out this 1-minute teaser for the event!

Follow along

Our fans can follow along as we play at these events by monitoring
https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/2363

Also, while we’re at an event, the link watch.team2363.org should take you directly to a live stream of our matches.

Thanks for your support!
Nate

CAD, MechanicalBy Nate Laverdure

SDS MK4 swerve wheel tread jigs

Triple Helix designed and fabricated a set of drilling jigs to prepare replacement strips of treads for the Swerve Drive Specialties MK4 and MK4i swerve module. These jigs reproduce the hole spacing for black neoprene and blue nitrile tread material shared by SDS’s Patrick Woolfenden here; treads prepared using these tools install tightly on the nominal 4″ diameter x 1.5″ wide MK4 swerve wheel. Triple Helix used our 130W laser cutter to cut the components of the tread tools from 1/4″ Delrin sheet.

Onshape document

Assembly instructions:

  • Laser cut the top and bottom plates from 1/4″ sheet.
  • Laser cut the spacer plate(s) to match the thickness of the tread material.
  • Drill and tap the holes around the perimeter of the bottom plate to 8-32.
  • Drill the corresponding holes on the other 2 plates to provide clearance for an 8-32 fastener.
  • Install drill bushings (McMaster 96511A666) into the top plate such that they are flush with the lower surface.
  • Assemble the drill jig with SHCS 8-32 x 5/8″ LG fasteners.