Your Guide To Excel In First Tech Challenge: Robot Architecture, Design, Programming And Game Strate ; 9781723085154 ; 1723085154

Coaches Sanjeev and Rajeev have coached teams that made it to all levels of robotics championship including FIRST competitions (FLL, FTC) and VEX from the states of Washington and Texas. This book describes design principles, programming ideas and strategies which have helped their teams excel at all levels of progression, with flying colors. This book is intended for team members, coaches and mentors as a primer and reference. This book summarizes design principles including different kind of drives, elements of robot architecture and design of robot as system. There is detailed explanation of various programing elements including the use of the PID controller, usage of various sensors and design and programming for a consistent and more predictable movement.   Beyond the resources provided by different vendors, teams typically need custom pieces to implement their design intent. Various sections in the book describe how to build custom components and the pertinent parts and tools needed. Suggestions for making machined pieces, sheet-metal pieces and sheet metal equivalent of machined pieces is discussed as well.   CAD software provides powerful tools for modeling solid part, creating assemblies, creating details for manufacturing the parts, estimating the mass and center of mass, bill of materials and kinematic analysis. A section is dedicated to introducing the basic ideas and most useful features of the CAD software.   In addition to the technical information, the book has a section dedicated to apprising teams, participants and coaches of many other issues that will help them be better prepared for the competition. The book also describes many mechanisms as well as design ideas to reduce the overall timing and to enhance repeatable performance.   Many programs described in the book are provided on the companion website: www.winningrobotics.com

Rajeev is a Robotics and Automation Engineer by trade and he has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from SMU. He has developed and deployed robotics systems for Semi-conductor processes and automated material handling. Rajeev teaches robotics in his spare time in Texas to further the cause of Robotics and STEM education and coaches various teams in different robotics competitions. Rajeev s teams have excelled at all levels of progressions in various competitive Robotics leagues including FIRST leagues such as FTC and FLL and making it to the World Championships. Rajeev is also a founding member of World Robotics League, a Robotics competition focused on technical excellence and a founding member of World STEM Olympiad, a non-profit furthering the cause of STEM in education. Rajeev is a prolific inventor and has published his research in reputed conferences and journals. Rajeev, has 19 journal papers, 15 conference papers and 7 patents to his credit. Rajeev finished his Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering at IIT-Guwahati where, for his term project, in the early days of computing and robotics, he created a voice guided robot that lit up the eyes of the faculty. Sanjeev is an avid Robot Enthusiast and Do-It-Yourself aficionado and has had a lot of robotics experience with teaching and coaching teams to compete in various robotics competitions. Many of the teams coached by Sanjeev have succeeded and won awards at all levels in Various Robotics Leagues including FIRST (FTC, FLL) and VEX and making it to the World Championships. Apart from teaching Robotics, Sanjeev is a founding member of World Robotics League and World STEM Olympiad. Additionally, Sanjeev works with up and coming Game entrepreneurs and Cloud companies and shows them the ways to succeed. Sanjeev has 8 patents and 2 conference papers. Sanjeev is a Computer Science Major with an undergrad B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT-Guwahati and an MS in Information Security from Georgia Tech. Sanjeev can often be found speaking at Computer Conferences around the world.