pic: 229 presents Irrational

[Jay Trzaskos]

[cdm-description=photo]23464[/cdm-description]

[Alex Cormier]

RAWR!

See ya'll at FLR and GTR!

[Jay Trzaskos]

Robot Name:
Irrational

Drivetrain:

* Two Drive Modules
* 8WD Skid Steering, with lowered center wheels (4 total) for enhanced turning
* High Efficiency
* Single speed transmission
* Geared at 8 fps using custom 4-motor Chiaphua gearbox

Traction:

* Eight 4"x1.5" IFI wheels (~1.3 coeff of friction)

Mechanisms:

* Tiltable 3pt ball shooter made from 4 6" wheelchair wheels, and driven by 2 mini-bike motors
* Two 4"x1.5" custom wheels, with timing belt treads to carry balls from hopper to shooter
* Expandable hopper, to allow for ease of human player loading
* Trap door, to allow 1pt. ball dumps into the corner goals


Hit me with any questions you may have guys.

JT
229

[The Lucas]

I see the conveyer belt but it looks like it runs direcly into one of the shooter wheels instead of thru them.
How do you load the shooter?

[Chris]

Basically, when the ball hits the top of the lift, it is put in contact with the lower shooter wheel, which than shoots it along a track (thin spring loaded lexan) and through the shooter. During the design phase we struggled a lot with how to be able to change the angle, while having a moving adaptable track for the ball the follow. This was our solution.

It can be seen in the teaser video that is posted on our website here
http://www.team229.org/video/single/65


It was a very fun season, and I'm very proud of team 229 and will miss it a lot upon graduation this May.

Chris C.
Team 229

Best of luck to everyone at all competitions

[CraigHickman]

How thick is the lexan around that camera? we had ours covered with a hefty sheet metal and .125 lexan, and we still had issues with getting hit and having the camera pop off.

[Tim Delles]

The Lexan around the camera is 1/8 (.125) Inches.

We actually changed the lexan to be a cylinder because we figure that it will take hits from balls the best.

[DjAlamose]

I see that you have two chambers there on your robot, for HP loading. But my question is what happens if balls enter on the other side from opposing HPs or other robots? Does it clog the conveyor or is there some way to prevent balls from going in that side. I also noticed the 8 wheel drive (?) and from past experience I’m guessing that you robot is very strong drive train wise. It also looks to be very close to the ground, do you have problems with the ramp, or are you ignoring that completely? I have allot of questions about this bot especially after watching that video (http://www.team229.org/video/single/65) of it.

[TD78]

Looks like another strong entry from the Clarkson crew. After watching the video and talking about it at BAE with ABC, I think that you will do very well at your competitions. I really wish I could come up to Rochester this weekend; the one time I go away for spring break too! Grrr. Anyways, that only means means you have to win so I can see Irrational run down in Atlanta! Good luck guys and I plan on seeing ABC down in Boston.

-Tom

[Tim Delles]

I see that you have two chambers there on your robot, for HP loading. But my question is what happens if balls enter on the other side from opposing HPs or other robots? Does it clog the conveyor or is there some way to prevent balls from going in that side. I also noticed the 8 wheel drive (?) and from past experience I’m guessing that you robot is very strong drive train wise. It also looks to be very close to the ground, do you have problems with the ramp, or are you ignoring that completely? I have allot of questions about this bot especially after watching that video (http://www.team229.org/video/single/65) of it.


The second chamber that you see that encases the superstructure and the lift mechanism is just their for protection nothing else.

[Rob]

This machine makes no sense at all...it just isn't rational.

See you guys at FLR on Saturday

Rob

[Chris]

I see that you have two chambers there on your robot, for HP loading. But my question is what happens if balls enter on the other side from opposing HPs or other robots? Does it clog the conveyor or is there some way to prevent balls from going in that side. I also noticed the 8 wheel drive (?) and from past experience I’m guessing that you robot is very strong drive train wise. It also looks to be very close to the ground, do you have problems with the ramp, or are you ignoring that completely? I have allot of questions about this bot especially after watching that video (http://www.team229.org/video/single/65) of it.


Well you’re more than welcome to ask whatever questions you would like and I will answer them. Either in this public forum or PM me.

First off, if opposing HPs throw a ball at our conveyor belt, all that happens is it will run down the front of the conveyor than get sucked up the other side, and out the shooter. In practice we chucked balls at it as hard as we could, and that’s what happened, so if opposing HPs want to give us balls it’s more than okay with us.

As for the drive train, it’s not as strong as previous years; we ditched the shifter in the interest of simplicity and reliability. However it is still four motor, custom gearbox that has a decent top speed and decent pushing power, and it climbs the ramp both forwards and backwards which was the point of the 8 wheel drive (the outer four are raised up a bit, so in normal operation is just rides on the center four).

Any other questions feel free to ask.

Chris C.
Mechanical Designer
Team 229

[TD78]

Out of curiousity, what is the material you used for the conveyor belt?

[John Neun]

Great looking robot, folks! Congratulations! The "gold" aluminum looks great with the green. I wish we were going to FLR or you were coming to Harford so I could get a close look at it.

I cringe when I see those delicate little cameras hanging out in the breeze, especially when I hear reports of how agressive the game seems to be. I think teh 1/8 lexan is better protection on the 229 machine than what we have, a lexan sheet arced over the assembly. I will keep my fingers crossed on both of our behalves.

Best of luck at FLR!!

[amos229]

well the belt named the champ is shelf liner that has been ironed to eliminate stretching, then fabric is sewn onto the back to keep it going straight. for more info aim me at amouse12937. as for the camera guard that was my doing ship night. we originally had a piece of lexan folded into a three sided box however i found that to be to flexible and after flying model airplanes for 8 years i know how the servos strip. so i designed a tube that mounts on both sides of the camera so that way the camera doesnt get flexed or bent but the camera base that the pan tilt unit is mounted to flexes.

[Dan Petrovic]

Great looking bot! Let's hope it's as good as last years!

[Conor Ryan]

Doesn't look like you guys should have too many problems, the camera looks secure enough. This robot looks fantastic, your gonna love yourselves for going with an 8 wheel drive, it won't give you any problems with the corner goals or the ramp. Your speed though on the low end is probably in a good spot right now.

What do you guys do about preventing the balls from bridgeing?

Great Robot 229, let's see if it beats the results of my favorite 05 robot (yours).

[Zoheb N]

Nice bot, but i have one question
how accurate and cosistent is your shooter?

[Chris]

Nice bot, but i have one question
how accurate and cosistent is your shooter?

First off Conor, thank you very much for the nice things you've said about our team and robot. Denominator certainly set a high bar to attempt to beat, but we'll do our best of course.

Secondly Zoheb, Like every team in first we found our shooter certainly consistent enough for our means on our practice field in an abandoned mall, however I will reserve answer to your question untill after this weekend when we see how consistent it is when two teams are trying to shove us in a corner. She’s got some tricks up her sleeve so we'll see how it goes.

Also Conor in the box there is an agitator mechanism that feed the balls to the lift/shooter combo, its two blades powered directly off a window motor. Works decently well, of course the more balls in there the longer it takes to agitate a ball to the correct position. But we've been pleased with the result

Chris Carnevale
Team 229