Dugtrio

2025–26 · FTC DECODE · Team 6417 Blu Cru

The world's only robot with three shooters mounted on a turret. Where most teams shoot one ball at a time and bottleneck on sorting, Dugtrio fires three at once — or completes a motif deliberately — using three independent flywheels.

• Placed 2nd out of 8,000+ teams globally and 1st in the US
• 1st in the Chesapeake region · FTC Worlds Inspire Award
• Led mechanical design and fabrication across 150+ iterations

Triple Flywheel Shooter

• Three independent flywheels allow shooting from any distance — three shots at once, or meticulous motif completion
• Steel flywheels add rotational inertia, preserving speed and increasing shot consistency
• Independent flywheels increased accuracy by 40%
• Linked hoods freed up servos for tilt, making the turret 70% faster
• Custom "rider bearings" reduce friction; sprung wiring permits full 360° rotation

Intake & Transfer

• Full-bot-width intake with an optimized ramp profile that removes dead zones — "touch it, own it"
• Intake geometry forces artifacts to auto-align, giving the driver room for error
• V2 went channel-less with custom molded mecanum rollers and Teflon: over 70% faster pickup
• Countersprung elevator linkage balances gravity — V2 needs less than half the torque of V1
• Surgical tubing acts as a one-way door; a virtual four-bar kicker keeps the transfer short enough to turret while moving

Drivetrain & Endgame

• A 50 lb six-wheel drivetrain, chosen over mecanum through tradeoff analysis — getting pushed while shooting three artifacts was the key risk
• Central traction wheels provide pushing power; omni-wheels keep turning smooth
• Two-stage serpentine belt drive allows tighter packaging, with motors low to reduce center of mass
• Endgame tilt uses a 1:8 gearbox to tilt the 50 lb robot, doubles as a parking brake, and overcenters to stay up even without power

Software & Controls

• Auto-aim for both turret and shooter using linear interpolation
• Custom AI ball detection enables driverless intaking
• Custom Pure Pursuit pathing algorithm developed for the six-wheel drive

Design Process

• Requirements analysis drove every subsystem — each game observation mapped to a design consequence
• Brainstorming sprints and 12+ prototypes in PLA, polycarbonate, and cardboard
• Finite Element Analysis optimized pocketing to reduce deformation by 4x
• Multibody modeling and master sketches in Onshape enabled fast top-down changes
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis after each competition; version control enabled experimentation