Robocup Team Description Paper
RFC Cambridge
Rui Jin, Aaron Ra
meriz, Svilen Kanev, Lisa Liu, Baker Logan, Marcel Thomas, Benjamin Johnson, Arshia Surti,
Elizabeth Schanne, David Wu, Siddarth Chandrasekaran
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
liulisa@mit.edu
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
kanev12@college.harvard.edu
website: http://www.rfcbots.com
Abstract: Past problems such as kicking failure and inconsistent behavior have
been addressed by redesigning and brushless boards and break beam sensors,
upgrading components, and designing a new way of mounting the encoders.
Accessibility to internal components was improved by redesigning the sheilds.
Lastly, new strategies were implemented and a monitoring system was put in
place
to
gather
statistics.
1. Team Description
RFC Cambridge is a joint MIT-Harvard team in its sixth year of competition in Robocup. We
participated in the international Robocup competition in 2006, 2007, and 2009, as well as the US
Open in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The team consists of approximately fifteen members split
working in four integrated subteams: mechanical, electrical, computer science, and controls. We
are the only Harvard-MIT organization, one of few engineering clubs at Harvard, and one of the
few completely undergraduate-led RoboCup teams. Our robot team consists of 5 robots with
omni-directional wheels powered by a brushless motor system. Each robot has a rubber-coated
dribbler and an electro-magnetic solenoid for planar kicking. The current height of the robot is
15cm; the maximum diameter of the Robots projection to the ground is 18cm; and the maximum
percentage of ball coverage is approximately 19.
2. Hardware
2.1 Solutions to Known Problems
Last year’s focus was on the kicker module and a prototype wheel design. In the fall of 2011, we
focused on redesigning the shields and our method of mounting the motor encoders; in the
spring of 2012 we plan to implement and field an improved dribbler design.
2.2 Shield redesign
The new shield design was designed with the idea of increasing its robustness; the previous
shield iteration was a two-piece design made of 1/16” ABS sheet consisting of a cylindrical
“side” attached to a flat circular “top” plate. The two plates were bonded using epoxy; however,
it was found that this was a very fragile solution, as the epoxy would frequently come undone.
As more and more layers of epoxy were applied to the shield, it was clear that a new design was
needed.