BEST Tetra Grabber [Archive]

Ianworld

04-04-2005, 22:33

I've seen a lot of tetra grabbers I guess. There are a couple categories I guess and they depend a lot on how the tetra lifting mechanism works.

I'd say the best simple stab through design is probably swampthing's(179). To be honest is similar to my team's just a couple of prongs forward with a solid cross beam is all you need.

There are also the crane designs that grab the tetras through the top. team 38's had a great hold on the tetra and was an amazing design. The other great design i've seen is on good ole beatty(71). Their integration with their tetra grabber and storage area is very effective. I'd say that these designs are far from perfect in general though. THe tetras often sway quite a bit and are hard to place on the goals.

The final category is the dumpers. Most of these would stack up 2 to 4 tetras and dump them all at once on a shorter goal. I saw a couple good ones that did this, the gaelhawks(230), team 1402 and 381(i think...). 381 stood out because it overcame an issue with most of these tetra grabbers by really strongly securing them before dumping them. Something necessary when you become a goldmine of points and a target for all the opposing bots.

The most original and ambitious is probably wildstang's(111). Their double forklift side lifting design is quite amazing to watch in action(even on a crummy feed). It doesn't secure tetras tightly or provide an optimal method of delivery, but it is quite iimpressive in its ability to rapidly grab tetras.

A special mention goes to 865. A very very cool, methodic capping mechanism. It would store up a bunch over a long arm, and from what I could see on the feed, extend them up, unlock them, and flip them onto the goals. They had some issues, but defenitly the coolest! Not to metion it was paired with a swerve drive.

In general the succesful designs i've seen secure the tetra in some manner, either by clamping over it, pulling it in tight to their robot, or just gripping it in a manner that doesn't let the tetra bounce all over. The other key was being able to easily place them onto a goal. A team that easily places tetras onto goals is 121 the Rhode warriors. Their gripper keeps the tetras from moving around and locks the tetra in its orientation. The result is that they can rotate the tetra onto the goal. This defenitly eases teams abilities to cap tetras. The final key design was capping stored tetras seperatly. Not many teams can do this in a quick effective manner, but those that can like 71 are very succesful.

Looking back at this post i've defenitly spent way too much time watching FIRST robots in action ;).

sanddrag

04-04-2005, 22:34

Yes, I think 980 was one of the most unique. I can't point to a specific team but I think the most effective were those that acitvely grabbed the tetra rather than the tetra just sitting on something.

One of the most creative arms I saw was at the LA regional. At the start of human control, the robot went to the human loading station and the human player hooked a tetra in and then pulled (telescoped) the arm out to make it nearly twice as long. It stayed this way for the rest of the match and went on to cap several tetras. No pneumatic or motor actuation needed for the reach. Just a single pivot.

slickguy2007

04-04-2005, 22:43

I really liked 237's design a lot. When I saw it at NJ I thought it was pretty cool. Especially the way they went to go pick up that vision tetra.

I also like 135's rake design too. It was highly effective which made them a great alliance partner in finals.

GO 1403!!!

Cory

04-04-2005, 22:45

Active tetra grabber-173
Passive-20/254

Stephen Kowski

04-04-2005, 22:45

KISS.....25 & 179 have very effective passive grippers though at the high speeds both teams move, it is sometimes a safety issue but i like the designs anyways....

lynca

04-04-2005, 23:05

To add to versions of the tetra grabbing mechanism,

The pivot (yaw) or turret action while the robot is moving is a very crucial feature to success,

476 had a decent semi-turret
57 also had a well designed pivot motor, similar to 71

these robots can be pinned but still function because of flexible arm movement,

Also, the roll over arm seems to be quite effective as well
233 and 231 are good examples,

Holtzman

04-04-2005, 23:06

Pierson

04-04-2005, 23:16

The best gripper I've seen first hand is that of team 188 Woburn Robotics. Its capable of grabbing 2 at a time and dropping them individually. See this thread about it http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36191&highlight=tetra+grabber+188

Other than that, very simple designs seem to prevail this year. A simple t-bar seems to work quite well.

While it is cool that they can pickup 2 tetras at a time there was a minor flaw in the elevator system. During the (I believe) quarter finals in LA, a force was applied to the tetra grabber by pulling down and away from the robot by an opposing team. The top of the elevator mechanisms came off of the robot rendering them useless for the remainder of the match. It was fixed in time for the next round. I think if they had designed it a little simpler by using less string and metal that was a little more structurally sound, this might not have happened.

Bharat Nain

04-04-2005, 23:35

Team 56 had the best grabber I have seen. It is incredibly simple and works perfectly everytime. Team 103 is another one that can keep a good grip on the tetras.

Brant Bowen

04-04-2005, 23:40

chaoticprout

04-04-2005, 23:44

At the So Cal regional I thought team 69 and 330 had awesome tetra grabbers. Only seen one tetra fall off 330 and none off 69. Congrats!

dlavery

04-04-2005, 23:53

I would have to say that Team 16 had the most unique gripper I've seen. It is hard to explain, but it is basically a curled piece of PVC or something that just spins the tetra into it and out of it as needed. I was amazed at how effective it was when I saw it too. If anybody knows, how did they think of it?

Just look at a corkscrew. Yes, it is an amazingly effective and simple way to grab tetras, and probably one of the most innovative solutions to that particular problem that we have seen this year. Kudos to the Bomb Squad for their creativity!

-dave

Daniel Brim

04-04-2005, 23:56

I did see 69, 330, and 980, but I wasn't entirely impressed with their "chopstick" design (granted, they were effective, but they did have their weaknesses). The advantage to it was that they could all cap very fast (I knew when 69 picked 330 that they were going to win the regional). I did like 188's gripper (kind of like our's but we have an active 3-pronged gripper). With all of these teams, if you bumped them hard enough, they could lose it. The difference was how easily they could lose it.

I guess the one I liked the best was 69s just because it was so darn fast. They didn't get that #1 seed for nothing!

-Daniel

Rick TYler

05-04-2005, 00:01

Team 997 has a beautifully-machined grabber that can hold and stack at least six tetras at once.

Team 1595 has a double-pronged skewer that was just about identical to all the other skewers I saw, except that their's retracted to drop the tetra. Rather than backing up and risking knocking something off, they place the tetra, the skewers slide back inside the arm, and Bob's your uncle -- the tetra is in place. One of the few mechanisms that made me slap my forehead in a why-didn't-I-think-of-that way.

Team 492 has a simple single-prong skewer. Their claim to grabbing fame is that they use the little globe motor to tilt the holder back against their arm when they are carrying it. It's not quite as strong as a pneumatic grabber, but it's fast, simple and reliable, just like their whole robot. You'll notice it at Atlanta.

Justin1636

05-04-2005, 00:02

i would say 118 and then 233. 118s chainzilla worked awesome the pneumatic poles that came out of the elbows worked perfect and 233s double hook was also simple yet very effective :D

Ali Ahmed

05-04-2005, 02:16

I would say the most simplest designs has to be 179's. It is just perfect for their super fast drive train. I also like 188's. They probably have one of the most unique designs I have ever seen with a little more tweaking they can be a very fast capper, rivaling double capper like Beatty and Wildstang.

xzvrw2

05-04-2005, 08:54

The coolest gripper that I have seen was our old one. The way we did it was with two 2" nylon slips that had helix's cut into them. we had a motor pulling a cable the was pulling the very tip of the arm to push the nylon slips. there was a pin in the helix's that when the nylon slips got pushed back it would rotate them. that rotating action gripped our gripper. it was a cool design that ken came up with but it took too long to grab a tetra.

the coolest design that i see that was worked really good was Team Hammond's picker-upper. it can pick up 2 at a time and gives them the stability to cap quick. sure they only cap like 3 or 4 times a match because they use their human player all the time, but capping 2 with that are 4 times a match is a lot of tetras.

i also like 269s arm. they put a tetra onto the upper holder then they go back into the human player zone and the human player puts the second one underneath it.

TLonghorns0593

05-04-2005, 08:59

33 the killer bees had an awesome gripper. it was an active passive grabber.

JulieB

05-04-2005, 09:44

1) 1414
2) 1461 i think is saw on Nasa Tv at las vegas
3) 1414

Arefin Bari

05-04-2005, 09:53

Wildstang's tetra grabber is very sweet. That machine can grab tetra from the Auto-Loader like it's nothing.

Team 233 (Think Pink) has a great telescoping arm with a very simple tetra grabber, looks awesome the way it works.

I do want to give credit to team 179 (Swampthing) for coming up with that arm in 1 day. they had a flipper in the beginning which was pretty cool to watch, but it required them to line up the robot in the right place. Right after the scrimmage at their school, they decided to come up with something more efficient and they have proved it throughout the Florida and Palmetto Regional.

sammie771

05-04-2005, 09:58

I have only been to GTR but while I was there I was able to see 639's awesome tetra grabber. That is the second year in a row I have been extremely impressed by Code Red's bot.

Joe Matt

05-04-2005, 10:02

There are many different designs this year, and for favorites I like 173 (simple, fast, and accurate), 7 (unique, fast, and can stack in auto, plus I like ice cream), 33 (how can you not like them?), and 122 (low center of gravity, stacks quick, etc.)

For me, it's not complexity, coolness, or anything else, just if they can pick up quick, stack quick, and hold onto those tetras! I really don't like teams that have tetras swinging on a little hook, they are hard to control and the tetras like to fall off. I also am not a huge fan of robots who have a tall tower to place a tetra on top, like 111 and 71 this year.

Stephen Kowski

05-04-2005, 10:05

33 the killer bees had an awesome gripper. it was an active passive grabber.

Please explain the active passiveness, and also does anyone have any good pics/ vids of bomb squad's corkscrew?

Beth Sweet

05-04-2005, 10:07

I loved 868, 67, and 85 this year. 868's ability to place 4 tetras at once was just awesome to me. 67, I don't know if it was the driving or the device itself, but they made it look like nothing to grab and stack tetras. Like they could do it without even trying. 85 I just thought was cool because it looked like a spring and twirled around. The little kids by me liked it too...

TLonghorns0593

05-04-2005, 12:26

Active passive. They had an active element to there grabber actuated by a cylinder. It helpd get the tetras easier from the auto lodaer but when they held it it was a passive grabber. They never firmly held it. If you had time and talent you could take it away from them.

Mark Pierce

05-04-2005, 12:58

85 I just thought was cool because it looked like a spring and twirled around. The little kids by me liked it too...

Thanks, our grippers are what got us the Creativity Award at West Michigan. It sounds like the Bomb Squad's is similar to our design. Ours was made out of schedule 80 PVC electrical conduit. Carl, the new senior who came up with the idea, says it was inspired by a vending machine.

Team 85 Pictures (http://www.zeeland.k12.mi.us/zhs/firstteam/pictures.html).

PURPLE!

05-04-2005, 14:40

I think I have to answer the three questions with team 118. There arms (yes ARMS) were amazing in comp. Their drivers moved flawlessly and rarely made a flaw. if they did miss a cap, it took bearly any time at all for them to fix it... and now I am please to present you... my bad representation of a text drawing of their robot.

***********//**[|]**\\
**********//***[|]***\\
********\ //****[|]****\\ / <------ actual pick up spot of tetras,
*********\\****[|]****// (goes in and out)
**********\\***[|]***//
***********\\**[|]**//
************\\[||||]// <----- base goes up and down (5\/\/337)
**************[|]
**************[|]
**********|========| <------ omni drive
**********|========|
Yeah... I prolly should have just used a picture but what's the fun in that....

NOTE: okay.... the fourm dosn't like a lot of spaces so insted of spaces you get *. Deal with it.

xzvrw2

05-04-2005, 15:20

it was a cool gripper but i think they changed it . i think they are just a skewer now.

David Hoff

05-04-2005, 17:47

Team 447 out of Anderson, Indiana has a very interesting and effective design. Basically they have a metal cone and from what i understand there is a piston inside which when fires comes down and latches underneath the tetra clover to trap it in the cone. When these guys go to work they can cap the middle row in less than 10 or 15 seconds if they have tetras stored on the front of their bot.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/111029314795.jpg

xzvrw2

05-04-2005, 17:50

man those 447 guys are always coming up with good robots. i remember last year they had an awesome robot.

thanks 447 and 648 for a great time last year at Midwest.

JohnnyB

05-04-2005, 18:25

Since we can't vote for ourselves, I'll have to vote for 229 :D :D :D

I also liked 469's gripper. It was the wrong strategy, but it was still cool to watch, and I never really figured out how it worked.

Mike

05-04-2005, 18:32

56's was niiiiice.

It had the simplicity of the simple stab design, and solved the problem of the tetra falling down the arm.

Scott Shaw 237

05-04-2005, 18:48

I think two of the best capper mechanisms out there belong to 56 and 38. 56's design is simple and quick and 38's is robust (think NYC semi finals) and is a quick capping design. Both robots I am sure will do well at nationals. 303's design is not too shabby for a fork design and 173 is one of the quickest cappers I have seen.

nic_radford

05-04-2005, 19:12

***********//**[|]**\\
**********//***[|]***\\
********\ //****[|]****\\ / <------ actual pick up spot of tetras,
*********\\****[|]****// (goes in and out)
**********\\***[|]***//
***********\\**[|]**//
************\\[||||]// <----- base goes up and down (5\/\/337)
**************[|]
**************[|]
**********|========| <------ omni drive
**********|========| [/LEFT]

Hey Purple! How did you obtain the drawings we used to do our machining with? Seriously though, that ASCII drawing is way cool.

It was funny how that final design finally came about. We kept adding pieces to the arm until the tetras stopped falling off. I wish I could say we did this crazy analysis using quatum, chaotic, neural, fuzzy, self-organizing, genetic, fractal algorithms to find the optimal angles and sizings. But nope, just until it stop falling off or getting stuck in the robot.

xzvrw2

05-04-2005, 19:28

469 uses some servos to actuate this arm thingy and some more to actuate these other arm thingys. its cool. at nationals you should go check them out. it is almost like 71's gripper.

monstermike

05-04-2005, 19:43

Now that many of you have replied to my thread, i'll post my own opinions. I think the Best tetra placer is team 1213's. It might jsut seem like a simple forklift, but it is wicked fast, and the drivers are very good at aligning it. THe team that gets the best hold on the tetra would be a tie between team 93 and 27. Team 93 was stealing tetras from robots trying to cap at West Michigan. It was simply sweet. Team 27 actually pulled down another robot when the opposing robot clamped down on the TETRA (ie; they didn't touch 27's robot at all, JUST THE TETRA, and 27 had such a firm hold over it, when they tried to drive away the opposing robot fell over), im sure it was an accident (no penalties), but it was still cool to see. Both teams were still able to release tetras very fast, averaging around 6-7 a match. There were many great designs, but these were my personal favorites.

monstermike

05-04-2005, 19:44

sorry for posting twice, my computer locked up, and i was unsure if the post made it through or not.

SURVIVORfan44

05-04-2005, 19:56

My favorite tetra grabbers were 384 and 447. It was very hard to knock a tetra out of Sparky.

Airforce1000

05-04-2005, 20:01

1) 1414
2) 1461 i think is saw on Nasa Tv at las vegas
3) 1414

You weren't watching the right team at Vegas man. ;) Hands down, we have one of the best grippers in the nation. Our locks on so we can't drop it or get stolen from us. We have a smooth release of it. We can cap the center goal from the auto-loading station in under 10 seconds. Our best time was something like 8.65.

Also, what some people don't realize, is that any robot that can carry more then 1 tetra at a time is vulnerable. 1641, who was the Mojave robotics team at Vegas was easily stopped. Their robot looked like Waldo. I saw them flip once while they were a good 15 feet up. Must've hurt. :\

1266, the Devil Duckies. They flipped twice at Vegas and they can cap 4 tetras at a time, possibly more. And they don't get that high. They stay at their box position the entire match. All you gotta do is hit them once or twice when they go to cap and they'll miss. Sometime fall if they catch the bar just right. There is strategy to take any team down. Everyone has a week point. You just have to find it. If you want a picture of our claw, go to www.team987.com and search in the 2005 photo albums. You'll see what I mean. We also had the most capped per round in Vegas. Andy Baker said we were at a disadvantage as we were essentially the best robot there and everyone was watching out for us in the elimination rounds. If it was at the boilermaker or some harder regional, we would've done better because we wouldn't have been so watched out for there.

I know you said you couldn't nominate your own team, so I'll nominate 294 as a unique grabber. Held on tight to that puppy. :p

xzvrw2

05-04-2005, 20:01

Now that many of you have replied to my thread, i'll post my own opinions. I think the Best tetra placer is team 1213's. It might jsut seem like a simple forklift, but it is wicked fast, and the drivers are very good at aligning it.

man that this is crazy good. i loved seeing their robot at the Detroit regional. next to the chickens and 1701 i loved that robot.

and yes i said it I REALLY LIKED 1701S ROBOT. they had this gripper that similar to our old one. but i think it worked better then ours. yes i said it it worked better then ours...a rookie teams gripper arm was better then a 9 year team. no i am just playing. it happens all of the time. i just really liked those guys.

MasonMM

05-04-2005, 21:28

***********//**[|]**\\
**********//***[|]***\\
********\ //****[|]****\\ / <------ actual pick up spot of tetras,
*********\\****[|]****// (goes in and out)
**********\\***[|]***//
***********\\**[|]**//
************\\[||||]// <----- base goes up and down (5\/\/337)
**************[|]
**************[|]
**********|========| <------ omni drive
**********|========|

Love the drawing... but for those of you looking for something a little more... real... you can see it here on CD. link (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pictures.php?s=&action=single&picid=9877&direction=DESC&sort=views&perrow=4&trows=5&quiet=Verbose)

Beta Version

05-04-2005, 21:47

Sugar_Bunny

05-04-2005, 21:56

Thanks guys for the compliments. One of our design guys works at hardware store. As you know FIRST "haunts" you where ever you are. He found one of the dog leash loooking things you drill in to the ground. I know there's another name for it. Anyway he ended up bending PVC with a heat dryer to make it.

I personally thought 135's rake grabber was really effective. You guys where awesome in the final matches. I also enjoyed watching 111's robot pick up two in one motion from the auto. loading zone. 1024's design was very effective and very fast. Thanks for the high score at Boilermaker.

Jackie

Eric Yahrmatter

05-04-2005, 22:01

. Team 27 actually pulled down another robot when the opposing robot clamped down on the TETRA (ie; they didn't touch 27's robot at all, JUST THE TETRA, and 27 had such a firm hold over it, when they tried to drive away the opposing robot fell over), im sure it was an accident (no penalties), but it was still cool to see.

Yeah...that was us!

Please explain the active passiveness

It has a pivoting middle finger that, when lowered, can go into the tetra and then be raised, ripping it off the autoloader. Once raised, the finger is the middle spike of a trident. Pictures soon.

MasonMM

05-04-2005, 22:56

I was at the houston regional in which 118 participated. I must say that that is one awsome grabber. there were many times where the sheer speed of thier ability to cap could have scored them a clean sweep, owning all goals. Whether it was proffesionalism or luncy I dont know, but the never did choose to own all of them

It was just part of our strategy... Unless we needed to run across the field we didn't. I think at Lone Star we may have only done it once, and that was because the opportunity was just so open. Every other match we did fine just controlling two rows and we never needed to go run around further away from our starting place.

sua428

06-04-2005, 00:17

I must say that the best tetra grabber would be team 71's. In addition to storing and lifting multiple tetras, team 71 was able to stabilize the dangling movement with a cone. It was very well thought out and performed greatly.

I am partial to say team 857 had the most unique grabber. They were my favorites at the Midwest Regional because of their grabber. Able to manipulate the shapes of the tetras in order to stack three or four on the robot's "back", team 857 could slide tetras up and swing them down onto the goal. It was a very keen concept if I may say so.

As far as the best hold on a tetra, I would say team 537's grabber accomplished it relatively well.

cooknl

06-04-2005, 02:43

Also, what some people don't realize, is that any robot that can carry more then 1 tetra at a time is vulnerable. 1641, who was the Mojave robotics team at Vegas was easily stopped. Their robot looked like Waldo. I saw them flip once while they were a good 15 feet up. Must've hurt. :\

A little off topic, but 1641 COULD be stopped, but it took a really good pusher, or sometimes even two, during which our alliance partners were capping away. :)

As for the fall, we were only capping one at that point, and we were just seeing if we could go higher than the other machine. Turned out we couldn't. Didn't hurt much, actually, one little piece snapped off and everything else was just fine. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, 64 (Gila Monsters) on the opposing team caught us on the way down. :)

That was the only time we tipped the entire competition, and it's not going to happen again, after some upgrades on Thursday at the Championship!

Michael Leicht

06-04-2005, 07:20

56 and 237

all i need to say

JWhiskers

06-04-2005, 12:04

Sorry about pulling you over bee's, believe me, it wasn't intentional.

I have to say that the most unique tetra grabber I've seen is 85's. Their two screws are just cool to watch in action.

I think that 868 was one of the most effective I've seen, they could almost always get 2 stacks of 4 and were hard to play defence on.

Mark Pierce

06-04-2005, 15:27

I was impressed with several simple but effective grippers at both GLR and West Michigan. I was especially impressed with several of the rookies at WMR. Unfortunately, I'd probably get the team numbers wrong if I attempted to list my favorites.

I have to say that the most unique tetra grabber I've seen is 85's.
I put the composite picture from our pit display on my website: Pierce Family Website (http://s94932053.onlinehome.us/index.php?page=pictures&?pageType=folder&currDir=./FIRST_2005). With any luck I'll get more of the pictures loaded this weekend.

P.S. Yes, Carl was reminded to wear his safety glasses after the shot.

lynca

07-04-2005, 22:18

The corkscrew idea is great! very stable but still able to quickly uncap,
it seems that baxter also demonstrated this concept.
It will be interesting to see the device at Nationals,

http://baxterbombsquad.com/

Does 85 or 16 have any complaints about the speed or consistency of using the corkscrew?

Steve Yasick

08-04-2005, 08:32

There are many good things about the cork-screw.

Very reliable. When we grab a tetra we won't drop it until we want to.

Easy to pick things up. Off the ground, human player or auto load

Easy to let things go. When we got stuck in other people just un screw them. big window for a drop zone on a goal.

Durable. PVC can take a lot of abuse!

Some bad things.

Tetra sway can be a problem.

Auto load zone is touchy.

Way to go Carl It works just like a candy machine!

Mr.Y

Thor

08-04-2005, 22:38

Thanks for the compliments guys. BOB (85) is a fun robot to drive. Eric and I have put BOB through alot of tough matches with only minor repairs. The screws have been incredibly reliable and durable (still on our first set). The only thing that I can see as a problem with the screws would be the swaying. Usually as the arm is brought down with the tetra centered over its target it stops swaying but once in a while it'll miss and I'll have to make a corrective movement which takes time. Otherwise the speed is great we haven't had a tetra fall off or get pulled off yet, however we have intentionally unscrewed them to avoid being pulled over. Auto loading is becoming less of an issue as Eric and I figure out the best procedure. It just takes time and practice on those short practice Thursdays.

Have a great weekend and hope to see you all at the Championship, feel free to stop by our pits and chat.

-Carl

Meyerman

11-04-2005, 21:04

team 237s gripper was pretty darn cool looking and preformed well as always. 103 didnt drop many tetras either and we went to two regionals they were at.

Ein

12-04-2005, 20:50

Active tetra grabber-173
Passive-20/254

Ours was most definitly actuated. It bent at the wrist and was attached to a extending boom on a 270 degree turret.

I did see 69, 330, and 980, but I wasn't entirely impressed with their "chopstick" design (granted, they were effective, but they did have their weaknesses). The advantage to it was that they could all cap very fast (I knew when 69 picked 330 that they were going to win the regional). I did like 188's gripper (kind of like our's but we have an active 3-pronged gripper). With all of these teams, if you bumped them hard enough, they could lose it. The difference was how easily they could lose it.

I guess the one I liked the best was 69s just because it was so darn fast. They didn't get that #1 seed for nothing!

-Daniel
We were number 1 seed :( I'd say 69 and us were extremely evenly matched, one on one.

Justin_302

12-04-2005, 21:32

135 has a quick and effective method of picking up tetras and stacking them.

I believe our method of picking tetras up is effective. We can stack vision tetras which i didnt see too much of.

Daniel Brim

12-04-2005, 23:30

We were number 1 seed :( I'd say 69 and us were extremely evenly matched, one on one.I was talking about the SoCal regional. I haven't had an opportunity to see your gripper but I might at championships :) .

Ein

13-04-2005, 17:01

Ah so, sorry.

Mr. Lim

13-04-2005, 17:20

Thanks to all who liked our grabber =).

I didn't want to post in this thread, because I think people are getting tired of me talking about this grabber and the story behind it. But here is a link to a movie for those who never got a chance to see our robot in person:

http://www.team188.com/videos/Split.avi

Right click, and select "Save As..." (The movie is 14 megs)

As well, we are giving away this grabber to any team who may need it. Details can be found here (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37119).

-SlimBoJones...