pic: Team No. 1002 The CircuitRunners 2005 Robot [Archive]

Jeremy Roberts

23-02-2005, 10:06

Yup. It's omni drive. We have 4 wheels at 45 degree angles around the octagonal structure of the base. The arm is telescopic...one stage in one direction and 2 stage in the other (hence the end effector on either side). There are lots of other goodies packed in there (mechanically and electrically). The pictures does not show a lot of detail, but we will have more pics coming on the CircuitRunner site.

Oh...we were 117lbs at ship. We have weight on there that can be easily taken off. That leaves enough for our protective paneling and whatever else will bring us up to 119.9 :) .

JulieB

23-02-2005, 14:11

FAST TO

Really don't know how the arm works but the drive train its FAST!!

shtylman

23-02-2005, 19:34

The arm is pretty much a square tube inside of another with a rack running down it. I think this is by far the best robot we have built to date (considering we only have two other robots to compare to).

speedbuggy76

23-02-2005, 19:45

Yeah I am very proud of our robot this year. Last year was my first year and we won our regional, so that was a great way for me to start, but I think that the design process behind this year's robot was much better. Everything went a lot smoother this year, the drive train amazes me, and the arm seems like it will be very competitive. Thanks a lot to all our mentors and all the other people on our team, it was a great build! I can't wait to get to competition! :yikes:

See you at Peachtree and Boilermaker :eek:!

Gcube9x

23-02-2005, 21:02

When I think about how much everyone worked on the robot, it just amazes me. Everyone has something they can engrave their name on as being THEIR system, and there are parts that deserve to have two or three names on them...I love it.
We were up til 6AM trying to finish on ship day...and pretty much did, so I am very pleased with our robot being done before the deadline...for once.
It will prove fun to drive this thing...

jpsaul7usa

23-02-2005, 21:16

Wow, our teams and robots are strikingly similar. This is our team's 3rd year/robot and we won our regional last year too. Here's an image of our robot a few days before ship date: 1212's Robot (http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~jps64/images/robot/IMG_0639.jpg) We're running on 4 omni's and have a telescopic arm, but it only opens in one direction :(

Are you using a winch or pneumatics to extend your arm? If so is that the motor on the end of your arm? Why two directions? And what's that horizontal bar for?

Stefan

23-02-2005, 21:28

Rack and pinion makes the arm expand

Cableing makes it rotate and a pneumatic piston for extra support (its got some insane torque)

Note on arm: It owned 2 people in 2 seconds around midnight on sunday yes i was one of them and it was all on camera....

Two directions well you have 2 types of goal height..... so one end is only for the smaller of the 2.... and a higher res ver of that image can be found Here (http://circuitrunners.com/2005/gnat.jpg)

Gcube9x

23-02-2005, 21:32

Van-door gearbox moves outer arm, globe gearbox moves inner arm.
That bar you see is a door handle :D .

Oh, the extruded and pvc are obviously end effectors.

Andrew Y.

23-02-2005, 21:58

i didnt get to work on the robot much this year but from wut i saw durring srimmage, i praise the robot. love the omni drive!

team 1212 - how does your omni work exactly?

stealth13777

23-02-2005, 22:12

To answer an earlier question, wiring took a lot. We have over 200 crimps (for ease of length change, short wires off speed controllers, spikes, etc and the controller, then put the length needed between. We used a lebeler to label everything though, so most of the wires are very easy to trace for troubleshooting :). This is my first year, speedbuggy basically tought me everything as we worked. I would also like to know how the omni drive works for the other team that has it.

408Oxidation

23-02-2005, 22:14

Wow the electrical sounds like a b!tch to debug... Labels... hmm good idea, why didn't I think of that?

Gcube9x

23-02-2005, 22:20

I would also like to know how the omni drive works for the other team that has it.

Doesn't it work the same as ours? Two wheels go forward, two go reverse, low friction gives most of the power of all 4 motors in the forward direction.

jpsaul7usa

24-02-2005, 00:13

Our wheels work like traditional omni-wheels. They aren't at 45 degree angles from the sides like yours, so we really only have 2 motors for any given direction if we're pushing using any of our sides. We were thinking of using AndyMark's converter (http://www.andymark.biz/am-planetary.htm) to put 2 motors on each wheel, but the time and weight required didn't meet our needs. We're fast and graceful, and our team has a bad history of getting into pushing matches, so why bother? And I really don't want to see any harm come to those thin plexiglass panels I helped make ;p

Oh, and our wheels are custom designed. Each omni-wheel has 112 spacers, nuts, bolts, washers, wheels, and hubs, each hand assembled, tightened, and filed. We ordered the smaller wheels from the blue book but the supplier ran out, so abou 1/3 of our wheels don't match :ahh:

This is going to make me sound like a dunce, but what are rack and pinion?

mizscience

24-02-2005, 00:17

very interesting design... :]

Max Lobovsky

24-02-2005, 00:26

This is going to make me sound like a dunce, but what are rack and pinion? A rack is basically a gear with infinite radius. It's a straight line of teeth standing up. The pinion is the gear that meshes with the rack. By turning the pinion, you can move the rack along its length. Its a method for converting rotational to linear motion.

I think this robot brings the count of known holonomic drives this year to 4: 1257, 1002, 1212, and 1083

alphastryk

24-02-2005, 18:38

i love that pic...

we are going to be very competitive this year...

Katy

24-02-2005, 18:43

how is your center of gravity?

speedbuggy76

24-02-2005, 18:45

Our center of gravity is good actually. The arm is quite heavy but we have some good design put into that drive train (the wheels are pretty far apart :D ;) ).

sforsancho

24-02-2005, 18:47

Team 649 is using a killough drive system this year, and it is slick.

pictures to come :D

Andrew Y.

24-02-2005, 20:28

Our center of gravity is good actually. The arm is quite heavy but we have some good design put into that drive train (the wheels are pretty far apart :D ;) ).

ilove wut u said matt.....i really do :D :D

stealth13777

24-02-2005, 20:53

Interesting way of making the omnis. I have seen ones like yours on one other team's bot and wondered about them. Matt couldn't have put his comment any better.

Gcube9x

24-02-2005, 21:24

ilove wut u said matt.....i really do :D :D
I am soo anticipating our first match!

Jeremy Roberts

24-02-2005, 21:39

Team 649 is using a killough drive system this year, and it is slick.

pictures to come :D

I look forward to seeing it. We particularly faced the challenge of weight distribution on the robot. Our drive relies on some pretty heavy feedback control to keep us going where we want to (with tetras, without, arm extended, retract, alternate base configurations etc.)

<Message to CircuitRunners>
I know your excited but don't use the CD forum as a chat room to talk among yourselves. Take it to the CircuitBoard or some instant messaging software. I can't wait either. :)
<End message>

Pin Man

24-02-2005, 23:34

getting at the controls looks to be a pain... I know we always make sure we have our electronics at easy access because somehting always has to go wrong...

Looks great though... Can't wait to see it in action...

speedbuggy76

25-02-2005, 00:41

the electronics really is not that hard to get to. I know it is not very pretty like on some other robots, but it is labelled and is not very difficult to access. We also had a harder time doing electronics this year because of the odd amounts, shapes, and areas of where we could mount to.

Nathan Pell

28-02-2005, 23:56

A rack is basically a gear with infinite radius. It's a straight line of teeth standing up. The pinion is the gear that meshes with the rack. By turning the pinion, you can move the rack along its length. Its a method for converting rotational to linear motion.

I think this robot brings the count of known holonomic drives this year to 4: 1257, 1002, 1212, and 1083

Just curious... how did you know that 1083 is doing holonomic again this year? I am just wondering....

Thanks!
Nathan Pell
Team Leader

Herbie698

01-03-2005, 00:01

it looks to me that it can be easily tipped over...if not, how did you manage to keep it to stay upright?

Mr MOE

01-03-2005, 08:23

Nice looking bot. Can't wait to see it in action.

sforsancho

01-03-2005, 21:02

Just curious... how did you know that 1083 is doing holonomic again this year? I am just wondering....

Thanks!
Nathan Pell
Team Leader

We FIRSTers can read minds... :eek:

or we just read the forums: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34640

Andrew Y.

01-03-2005, 23:59

it looks to me that it can be easily tipped over...if not, how did you manage to keep it to stay upright?

hmm.......that is kinda a suprise our robot will woop out....i wouldnt want to spoil a suprise!

wut regionals will u guys be at?

jpsaul7usa

05-03-2005, 18:27

How did the robot work out? Can you give any driving tips/strategy advice to us fellow omni-wheelers after you finished your weekend @ Peachtree?

Oh, and congrats 1002 on the Chairman's Award!!!

Jizvonius

06-03-2005, 02:07

How did the robot work out? Can you give any driving tips/strategy advice to us fellow omni-wheelers after you finished your weekend @ Peachtree?

Oh, and congrats 1002 on the Chairman's Award!!!

Here's some very important advice. Practice specific movements. There are specific movements that omni-drives can do that are a major advantage during a match, but they require some smooth, experienced control. (driving in controled arcs, etc.) Also, if you have an arm that moves your center of gravity, it can cause you to spin out at high speeds as different arm positions change the weight distribution on the wheels. So, practice a lot with your configuration and don't test drive and manipulator separately if you plan to use them together. If you saw us in quarter finals, you know what I mean. Good luck

matt111

06-03-2005, 02:21

Jeremy Roberts

06-03-2005, 11:28

What regionals are you going to? My team is using those exact same wheel and we had them in the same orientation (45deg), but we could not get the programming right. We kept spinning wildly out of control, so we had to modify our design a bit (;X its a secret). If you are going to St Louis or Boilermaker, our team will be stopping by.

We'll be at Boilermaker. Stop by anytime. We use a bit of feedback control to keep us going in the direction and orientation that we desire. The code is actually not that complex and we'd be willing to share. I'm interested in seeing this secret modification of yours. Good luck.

jpsaul7usa

06-03-2005, 12:31

Thanks for the advice :)

Could you post your feedback code? 1212's robot doesn't have spin problems but it does drift some. I know our programmer would love to check it out. Also, do you know how many prelim matches there were total at Peachtree? Thanks :)