FRC ReefScape

How I learned SolidWorks.

Intro to SolidWorks

I came from Fusion 360, and during preseason I learned solidworks, the most I can say is I know how solidwork works.

Season kickoff

I started the season trying to design the intake, which after prototyping, resulted in this. Thankfully this wasn't used in robot.

Build season

After failing to design the intake, my main contribution is the climb subsystem, which is used for the endgame scoring where the robot need to climb a "cage".

Climb subsystem—CAD concept — CAD concept of the climb.

Drivebase climb test — drivebase testing and iteration.

Robot climbing at World Championships — successful climb at Worlds.

Practice builds

I reverse-engineered top robots from reveal and match footage. These are planning-phase studies; many parts are placeholders, so it will look less clean and polished than the referenced CAD.

Practice #1

Hybrid of Orbit (1690) and HighTide (4414): 2-stage elevator + long differential-driven arm, low ground intake.

Subsystems

Elevator

2-stage continuous with carriage; ultra-thin, low-mass. Rigging: cascading, differential belt-drive elevator powered by 2× Kraken X60 through 5:1 planetary gearbox.

Intake

Over-bumper coral intake with integrated indexer. 4-bar geometry enables intake and indexing from any orientation.

Front roller compliant; rear roller positive drive to indexer.
Tip-in angle tuned to minimize bounce and jams.

Arm

Long carbon-fiber arm; no dedicated pivot motor—differentially driven via elevator. Ultra-light with multi-tool at tip; Kraken X44. Handles coral and algae.

Practice #2

Blend of Jack in the Bot (2910) and MadTown (1323): pivoting elevator with multi-tool at wrist.

Subsystems

Elevator

4-stage, short-and-wide continuous elevator using Dyneema; 6:1 custom gearbox. Pivot motor for the arm shares the stack. Pocketed rails for mass reduction. ~135″ total extension.

Pivot

Gearbox embedded in the main superstructure (~500:1). Shoulder bearings captured both sides; absolute encoder on the final stage.

Hand (end effector / multi-tool)

Ground intake from any orientation; compact package. Holds coral in two orientations (L1 vs L2–L4). Can ground-intake and retain algae.

Tool-less belt swap; wrist service loop.
Hard stops at floor-pickup and high-score angles.

Competition robot

Team Sprocket’s final design — the robot we brought to World Championships.