For each robotics team in competitions, they are allocated space as the “pit” for storing their tools, supplies, and space for fixing up the robot between matches. Many teams also utilize their pits to give out buttons and such to publicize their teams. Our team also give out buttons and flyers about our team and robot, but we wanted to decorate our pit to attract guests, judges, and other teams. As such, I was the project lead for this project during the 2019 season FRC tournament.
Our initial goal was to create an interactive TV display. We wanted to display many different screens, and at least include information about our team and our robot, including the robot’s components and functionality. By having this TV display, we hoped to help users understand more about our team and robot, especially people from other teams so that they would choose our robot to be in their alliance if needed. We also wanted to impress judges and be considered for the Team Spirit Award.
As the project lead, I had to schedule a rough estimate of our tasks to ensure that our project would be finished before the competition days. I primarily only had one person, Rithu, working with me on this project, and since she was new to the team and programming, I helped throughout the project with software issues, assigning her tasks, and integrating her with the team. I wanted to ensure that she had a good experience in the team, as well as boost her confidence as a team member.
We first had to brainstorm how we would set up the TV display. Since we did not have any examples from prior years, we had to start from scratch. At first, we considered using a TouchJet Wave that our team owned, and we tested it out with our TV. We found that it didn’t suit our needs as we needed the TV to be vertical as there wouldn’t be enough space otherwise. However, the TouchJet only worked with a TV used in landscape mode.
Instead, we decided to use a Raspberry Pi and Arduino, where the Raspberry Pi would have a program with different screens, and we could use buttons connected to the Arduino to navigate between different pages. We decided to use Python as our language as it was easily usable on the Raspberry Pi, and we used Tkinter for our GUI.
Next, we had to find content for the display. We needed a video or an informational slideshow about our robot to showcase its functionality, and we also needed to retrieve images and information about our team. As our team had many different projects apart from the robot itself, we had a vast amount of choices. We could potentially showcase a demo from our computer vision project, or show a gameplay video from our video game project replicating the competition game. As such, other than programming the UI for our display and button I/O, I had to contact various project teams, such as PR, to request for such content to integrate into our display.
After many iterations of design, our final design, inspired by the theme of the Apollo 11 anniversary, included a backdrop, with the left side painted like the Earth and the right side painted as the moon. The right side would have the TV, with a row of arcade-style buttons to switch between screens. In the end, the various screens included a slideshow about the various components of the robot, an informational screen about our team, a gameplay demo from our video game project, and a showcase video of our robot. We also implemented a slideshow of our sponsors that would run when the TV had been inactive for some time.
The left side would be decorated with a rocket ship, and we would have our buttons and flyers on this side. There would be a button on the rocket ship, where it started a “launch sequence.” “Flames” would turn on at the bottom of the rocket ship, then after a few minutes, an Apollo capsule at the top of the rocketship would move on a metal railing from the left side to the right side. Then, the TV display would show a video of the Apollo mission, with an animation of our robot edited in. The capsule would shortly return to the left side.
This change in our design led to more work needing to be done. Other than programming the GUI and I/O for the arcade buttons, we had to program the “launch” sequence, including adding power to the “flames”, the motor that moved the capsule, and interrupt the current screen with the Apollo 11 video. I also had to work with our mentor, our hardware team, and our PR team to complete all of the necessary hardware and TV content for this sequence.
We were successfully able to program all of the necessary parts, integrate components from other project teams, and test them all together in preparation for the competitions. During the days of the actual competition, I helped set up the pit, the TV display, and the software for the program. When I wasn’t busy with scouting, I helped troubleshoot any problems that occurred during the day, including electrical issues or insufficient power to the motor.
In the end, we didn’t receive a Team Spirit Award. However, many guests stopped by and enjoyed interacting with the display, especially the launch sequence. Many judges were impressed, and our mentor was very proud as he had hoped to have a pit design like this for many years. Our team was chosen for quarterfinals by one of the alliance leaders for the Silicon Valley Regionals. Although our team wasn’t one of the finalists, I imagine that our display helped convince the alliance leader to choose our team and be one step closer to victory.
Although I was first taken aback about being assigned such a simple project, I eventually grew to love this project after we fleshed out the final design since it was so much more intricate than before. I loved the idea of merging the work of so many teams to create such a fun and creative product. I grew my experience in managing a project, including scheduling tasks to make sure we finished in time, and I also had fun participating in the competitions. I want to give special thanks to my mentor Mr. Williams for helping me in all these years in robotics.