The IMPASTA was our competition robot for the 2023-2024 Season: Centerstage. The Centerstage Game is summarized here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e-5Uo1dRic. This season, I was a freshman learning about the basics of CAD and programming, focusing on small subsystems within the robot.

This season, our goal was to make it to the State Championship, which we succeeded in. For this specific robot, we wanted a very good V1 that could get us efficiently through all the league events. We wanted to be very creative with our approach to scoring since the scoring area was tilted.

The more experienced members on our team really wanted to include a double reverse virtual four-bar that would allow us to rotate through our robot into the correct scoring angle. After a lot of research, we deemed it to be a viable solution, though it was complex. I mainly worked on the paper airplane launcher as a starting point. I researched and tested the best launch angle and plane to complete the task. I decided early that we would be using a rubber band mechanism to consistently shoot the airplane. 

We designed our robot around the double reverse virtual four bar connected to slides. We hard mounted the slides at the same angle as the backdrop so we could easily score without the pixels bouncing out. We decided on adding just a simple intake that could rake the pixels into the two pixel slots on our double reverse virtual four bar. After finishing our main robot build, I designed a mount at the correct angle for our paper aiplane launcher. I knew we would have a servo in the back that would rotate to release the plane, so I designed the whole mechanism around the servo and the main airplane channel. After designing my first prototype that was variable in its performance, I collaborated with an experienced design team member to learned that it would be more reliable to have a sliding piece that is connected to the rubber band as opposed to the rubber band direct pushing the plane. So, I designed the final model using the servo to release the sliding pusher charged by the rubber band.

The robot didn't work very well for our first league meet, but after that, everything was running efficiently. It worked so well that we decided we didn't need a V2 at the League Championships to help us get to States. We had some team issues with the debate about who is driving, and ultimately leading to minimal driving practice for both parties, so we didn't necessarily compete very well at States. However, our only goal was to get there, so we acheived what we wanted to. My paper airplane launcher was probably one of the most consistent in my league, hitting the highest scoring zone around 3 out of 4 times.