Elevation of the Tetras?

[Flynn]

Are there any ideas other than an arm, or a fork-lift type design that can possibly be used to lift the tetras. We're trying to decide which design to go with.

[Haldir 122690]

I guess you can use a claw or a crane.

[Spikey]

You could make an extendable conveyor belt, it would be hard to make but awesome if it worked.

[Kelvin Ng]

you could try using a crane...like those tall cranes used to carry huge boxes at shipyards and stuff. but of course that thing would have to raise up and your centre of gravity would be insanely high.

[DrShadowSML]

Instead of having a claw to grip tetras, you could simply have an extendable pole-like object to get under the top of the tetra and lift it on the goal. It's an arm without a hand basically. :]

[dhitchco]

I like the "conveyor belt" idea. Just think of a chameleon's tongue and the number of ways you could grab onto a tetra!

But, back to reality and the ways to grab a tetra?

1) Forklift it from underneath
2) Grab it fromthe top of the apex (ala a crane)
3) Spear it inside and lift from UNDER the apex
4) Suction the tetra on one side (perimiter only)

Just remember that the tetras won't always be aligned exactly the same even if you approach it in a parallel fashion:
a) tetras on the field floor will angle away from your robot
b) tetras in the auto-loader wil be perpendicular to the front plane of your robot
c) positioning a tetra on a goal can be done at a variety of angles
d) tetras UNDER a goal can be any which-way
e) manually-loaded tetras will be very unpredictable

BUT, there are ONLY three vertical elivations you need to worry about: floor height, loader-height, and goal-top stacking height. Anything in between these three is not a critical dimension.

[chocolateluvrlr]

BUT, there are ONLY three vertical elivations you need to worry about: floor height, loader-height, and goal-top stacking height. Anything in between these three is not a critical dimension.

Goal-top stacking height varies. For one thing, the center goal and other goals are different heights. Also, as more tetras are added, the height changes. Plus, if a robot is putting tetras into the goals, the arm must reach different verticle elevations.

[dhitchco]

To chocolateluvr (et al),

Yes, you're somewhat correct. What I meant to say is that the robot arm doesn't really need to have "infinite" positions vertically, and only needs to have TWO positions horizontally. Let me explain further:

1) Horizontally, the robot "arm" only needs to be "close" to the robot for a pick-up and only at the 2.5' extended positionto do a drop-off. There's no need to extend any further than the 2.5-3' range.

2) Vertically. One correction from your post. You do NOT get points for stacking tetras INSIDE (contained) within a goal. The ayy count one point, just shove them in there. You also get no extra points for "owning" the stack inside the tetra. That only happens for the stack of tetras that's on TOP of the goal.

Yes, there are multiple goal-top positions in order to "clear" the goal or to "clear" the stack of tetras. The center goal needs 7' off the floor to clear the goal and about 6" more to "top" each stacked tetra.

[Eria4044]

Are there any ideas other than an arm, or a fork-lift type design that can possibly be used to lift the tetras. We're trying to decide which design to go with.

Someone on my team wants to use a fish hook design.