Team 16, Baxter Bomb Squad, 2012

[Meredith Novak]

Meet Detonator:

http://www.youtube.com/user/baxterbombsquad16?ob=0&feature=results_main#p/u/0/nxU526QgVks

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[Drivencrazy]

Awesome video and great, unique robot design. I'm glad to see the smooth Baxter Bomb Squad swerve back.

Cya in a couple days! Great work!

[Lil' Lavery]

Elegant.

[AllenGregoryIV]

I'd expect nothing less from you guys. That is an ingenious solution, I love how you queue balls for the launcher. That's also one of the smoothest barrier crossing I've seen and it's from a crab drive.

What was your reason for building so short?

I'll make sure to walk over to the East side of Dallas to see this live.

[xSAWxBLADEx]

too legit...good job with an other amazing robot. just one question is that 3 wheel crab or or did you try something new and add a wheel? :)

[Meredith Novak]

We decided to go short, so we went short. No trouble shooting over taller robots. The camera is mounted a little higher up. The "packaging" of the 119.7 lbs. was pretty intense.

We have 4 wheel modules - we went with 4 in 2011 and really liked the performance. It makes it a bit harder to manage the weight. We have made some significant changes to our driving capabilities; Austin will have his hands full with all the driving modes.

[dodar]

too legit...good job with an other amazing robot. just one question is that 3 wheel crab or or did you try something new and add a wheel? :)

Quiet your tongue; what you speak of is blasphemy! I cant believe they went with 4. lol

[Gray Adams]

The "packaging" of the 119.7 lbs. was pretty intense.
That robot is 119.7 lbs? That sounds impressively compact.

[Akash Rastogi]

I'd love to get background on your design process for this season or the decision making that went into the launcher. Definitely was something unexpected from you folks.

Digging the drive as usual, and your driver's slalom looks impeccable.

[Garrett.d.w]

Love the catapult, love the swerve, heck... love everything :P

What is your control layout? We tried swerve last year but had difficulties creating an intuitive control system.

[Meredith Novak]

I'd love to get background on your design process for this season or the decision making that went into the launcher. Definitely was something unexpected from you folks.

Digging the drive as usual, and your driver's slalom looks impeccable.

Next to winning, "unexpected" is our favorite accomplishment. We didn't want to do a wheeled shooter - we've done them, we're bored with that, never liked the limitations. We really planned to do a puncher/ plunger, but the catapult prototypes were more convincing. Beater bars and catapults have been good to us.

We have hard stops for different shooting positions and a load cell to measure the force before firing.

The driver better be impeccable. No pressure, Austin...

[Meredith Novak]

Love the catapult, love the swerve, heck... love everything :P

What is your control layout? We tried swerve last year but had difficulties creating an intuitive control system.

If you mean OI: we use a steering wheel and single joystick. The joystick buttons change modes. Not sure if it is intuitive - it is what our current driver prefers. There are about 8 modes this year...he may not prefer it after that!

[Garrett.d.w]

There are about 8 modes this year...he may not prefer it after that!

That's what happened to us last year. Too many modes.

As for a steering wheel, that's a good idea. Thanks.

Good luck this year :)

[tzjin]

Expect nothing less from an original team!

Good job pulling off a swerve robust enough to go over the bump! Since we're consider swerve next year, I'd love to get a closer look at that thing. ;)

Aren't you scared of using surgical tubing to power your catapult though? If either end ever snapped, calibration sounds pretty painful. Unless your load sensor somehow can adjust to compensate?

[Meredith Novak]

Aren't you scared of using surgical tubing to power your catapult though? If either end ever snapped, calibration sounds pretty painful. Unless your load sensor somehow can adjust to compensate?

It is powered by a winch and belting. There are several discreet loops of surgical tubing on each side, so one break doesn't unwind the whole bunch. And, yes, the load cell is there to make up for discrepancies in tubing, belt stretch, etc.

And surgical tubing has been very good to us. We are sponsored by a medical plastics manufacturer... :)

[Aren_Hill]

We have 4 wheel modules - we went with 4 in 2011 and really liked the performance. It makes it a bit harder to manage the weight.

We'll trade you some weight for driver experience, I think we might weigh ~85lbs come midwest.

[JosephC]

~~~~~BUMP~~~~~

It's only been like an hour :D


Great looking robot guys.

[JesseK]

If you mean OI: we use a steering wheel and single joystick. The joystick buttons change modes. Not sure if it is intuitive - it is what our current driver prefers. There are about 8 modes this year...he may not prefer it after that!

That your driver has a strong preference is very promising. Some kids are just born to be fighter pilots :cool:.

Nice 'bot!

[CalTran]

I really really wish Blue Valley district didn't block youtube :'(
From what I've read so far, this is going to be one heck of a catapulting swerving robot...I'll be spending far too much time over in your pits this year at Greater Kansas City...good luck, and see you in 4 days!

[Andrew Lawrence]

Awesome robot! I've been waiting for this one all year!

Only question I have is: What is your reasoning behind the catapult? I know earlier you said wheeled shooters were getting "boring", but what was the tactical advantage you thought it gave you?

Just curious. Thanks a bunch for sharing this! I can't wait to watch the webcast!

[Alpha Beta]

Next to winning, "unexpected" is our favorite accomplishment.

Well, I expected to see a swerve handled by an expert driver and this video didn't disappoint. The rest of the package was a delightful surprise. You must have had some fun designing this, and I'm going to have a blast watching it perform this weekend. Welcome back to KC.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Looks awesome! Can't wait to see you guys in Chicago!

[n1ckd2012]

Do you mind describing a few of your 8 driving modes? Why 8? Superb robot! Love the video.

[Brandon Holley]

No one does swerve like Baxter does, no one. Great looking bot guys. Well produced video as well. Good luck out there!

-Brando

[Robert Cawthon]

SWEET!! See ya at KC. :)

[Chexposito]

Love the robot, another great robot from Bomb Squad.

[waialua359]

Next to winning, "unexpected" is our favorite accomplishment. We didn't want to do a wheeled shooter - we've done them, we're bored with that, never liked the limitations. We really planned to do a puncher/ plunger, but the catapult prototypes were more convincing. Beater bars and catapults have been good to us.

We have hard stops for different shooting positions and a load cell to measure the force before firing.

The driver better be impeccable. No pressure, Austin...

This is just another reminder to all teams why we even participate in FIRST.
I need to pinch myself with reminders as well.

Great job Bomb Squad!

[delsaner]

Oh you guys and your swerve. ;)

Looks beautiful. Creative and interesting design. I love your ball acquisition device. Can't wait to see you guys in competition!!

[WarehouseCrew]

What is a "load cell" and how does it compensate for tubing and belt stretch?

[Jefferson]

What is a "load cell" and how does it compensate for tubing and belt stretch?

A load cell measures force. In this case the force the catapult is applying to the winch. Surgical tubing will relax when it is stretched for an amount of time. We use the load cell to quantify that relaxation and account for it to make our catapult more consistent.

[WarehouseCrew]

Would you be willing to share your design for the winch, belt and release mechanism for your catapult?

Our mechanism (cam that grabs a bar attached to catapult) is not as effective as we thought it would be. Our original linear catapult was scrapped because of weight and consistency problems, so we are scrambling to get a traditional one working.

[JDNovak]

Our original design was based on the Andymark dog shifter design. We bought all the parts individually and built the winch around that. We machined a pulley which rides on bearings and fastened the gear with the dog to it. this is driven by the dog which in turn is driven by a 26:50 gear drive from two window motors. In 2010 we used a fisher price driven dewalt transmission with locking pins. This year the window motor gearboxes are preventing backdriving.

Since the shifter was not designed to work with the load of surgical tubing we have, We had to use a much larger cylinder than the original design called for. This put a lot of stress on the pin holding the dog and it broke often. We fixed that by limiting the stroke so it never put full pressure on the pin.

The belt we use is standard Gates 9mm GT2. It has held up better than the cable we first used.

I don't have the inventor drawings but they exist. I can give you the part numbers for the shifter parts too if you need them. Our current design is totally fabricated here and includes some EDM work. It may be too difficult to pull off fast.

[WarehouseCrew]

Thanks for the information. We could not pull that off quickly. If you have the drawings, it might be nice to have that for a future robot.

I think we will stay with current mechanism and settle for the middle basket (not as much stress on existing mechanism).