Team 1501 is coming to play

[Wayne Doenges]

Check out these videos of our robot in action.

http://www.huntingtonrobotics.org/videos/2008-1501-video.wmv

or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5OC-Y-af74

and/or this:

http://www.huntingtonrobotics.org/videos/2008-1501-video.mpg

Many thanks to our videographer Chris Ellston.
See you all at BMR

[Billfred]

Many people wondered where Steve Spurrier's famed $@#$@#$@#$@#-'N-Fire offense went during the second half of the University of South Carolina's football season.

I can now see quite clearly that it packed up and went to Indiana, where it has been put to good use. (But, uh, we wouldn't mind getting it back for the fall.)

Simply amazing--I'm going to have to see this one at some point.

[Tal Nitzan]

Your robot looks like a building in CNC3 :D

Like it!

[Chris_Elston]

The videos are the same, just different formats. "different strokes, for different folks".

[Qbranch]

Do you guys have any pneumatic accumulators on your robot? Those pistons are HUGE!

Saw your guys robot yesterday at the Muncie practice, awesome!

-q

[Wayne Doenges]

Do you guys have any pneumatic accumulators on your robot? Those pistons are HUGE!

Just a few. 4 actually :D

You guys had a great robot too.

[Jaybee1405]

Awesome!!!

Can you knock it off the overpass?

[Morgan Gillespie]

Very impressive. Your robot looks absoltutely sick and should compete quite well.
Did you name her yet?

[DarkFlame145]

did i see a CMU cam on there?!?!?!

[Wayne Doenges]

Can you knock it off the overpass?
We will be adding a device to knock the ball off. It was just finished before the Muncie practice and didn't get installed on the bot.

did i see a CMU cam on there?!?!?!
Yes you did. Our excellent programmers have made it possible to track either the red or the blue ball whether it's on the rack or the floor.
In the video you see it chasing a student that has the blue ball :ahh:

[Waynep]

Great use of the CMU camera. Congrats to your programmers for a job well done. Love the bot.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Tilted launching forklift, eh?
Sounds like what we are doing.

Our robot is exactly the same as yours... :)

[Tim Arnold]

I love it, but I'm biased... it looks like our "Track-a-pult" has a twin of sorts! :D

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7518/img1352uz0.jpg

You throw the ball quite a bit farther (thanks to your primary use of surgical tubing rather than our motor+surgical [2cims and 2fp]), and definitely have better programming, but otherwise we're very similar. We even had the same problem with the ball rolling forward in the gripper forks during launch (seen in the slowmotion clip).

[Wayne Doenges]

Did you name her yet?
The robot's name is "Phoenix"

[s_forbes]

Somehow you guys always seem to make the coolest looking and working robots, I don't know how you do it! I love the approach you took, and I'm glad to see that you are still employing the same awesome robot construction techniques that you usually do.

Do you guys happen to have a bunch of pictures of your completed robot? I want to stare at it for a couple of hours...

[EricH]

We even had the same problem with the ball rolling forward in the gripper forks during launch (seen in the slowmotion clip).For 1501, I'm not sure I'd call that a problem. Hey, it works!

On another note--Poor overpass! (Near the end, it fired right under an overpass.)

[Hannah1405]

That looks really good! It looks to have an innovative design, as well as an effective one. Best of luck! :)

[Chris_Elston]

Somehow you guys always seem to make the coolest looking and working robots, I don't know how you do it! I love the approach you took, and I'm glad to see that you are still employing the same awesome robot construction techniques that you usually do.

Do you guys happen to have a bunch of pictures of your completed robot? I want to stare at it for a couple of hours...

When we are ready, normally after our regional, we will list all the pictures here:

http://huntingtonrobotics.org/photos/

Your more than welcome to view last year's BUILD SEASON pictures. Last year, Wayne took over 400+ pictures for the 2007 robot!

http://huntingtonrobotics.org/photos/
http://huntingtonrobotics.org/photos/album/72157603904208946/2007__Build_Season.html

[Sunshine]

Awesome Robot and fantastic engineering to solve the problem. My hat is off to you.

[Jherbie53]

Looks good, it reminds me a a water balloon launcher, except it is a one robot trackball launcher.:D

[Wayne Doenges]

On another note--Poor overpass! (Near the end, it fired right under an overpass.)
We had planned to go around to the other overpass (made with correct materials) and shoot, but someone told the operator to "Fire" and he did :ahh: :ahh: :ahh:

Do you guys happen to have a bunch of pictures of your completed robot? I want to stare at it for a couple of hours...

I should be posting some build and completed shots soon.

[Qbranch]

did i see a CMU cam on there?!?!?!

Yeah, not only is it good at finding balls, it's also great at finding our team's shirts... :yikes:

Excuse my sarchastic humor, it's a really cool feature! :]

q-

[Wayne Doenges]

Here is a picture I promised you;
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/30412

[Nathan]

Yeah, not only is it good at finding balls, it's also great at finding our team's shirts... :yikes:

q-

Chasing down team members inexperienced enough to wear red or blue shirts isn't a drawback, it's a feature!

Nathan

[Wayne Doenges]

Yeah, not only is it good at finding balls, it's also great at finding our team's shirts...
It's every students, whoever lost a t-shirt, dream. You program our robot and it will find your shirt for you. However it will then launch the shirt onto the roof :ahh:

[Ryan Dognaux]

Another slick bot from THRUST this year, looking forward to seeing it in action at Boilermaker.

[Wayne Doenges]

Can you knock it off the overpass?
The programmers had a late night yesterday getting the autonomous (we don't use hybrid) to run.
Phoenix knocked off both balls from the overpass 5 times (in a row) in autonoumous :ahh: :ahh: :ahh: :ahh: :ahh:

[Arefin Bari]

haha, love it. Great video. Too bad I have to wait till Championship/IRI to see it in person.

[Dan Richardson]

I <3 Rivets, this is a great bot. Way to make 4H proud like you do every year!

[Gabe Salas Jr.]

The video is great (nice music too). Very cool system to launch Trackballs. Can't wait to see it at Championships. Best of luck to you all!

From the front, the robot looks like the silhouette of Batman's head.

I am the night...

[Ross340]

so is the curved surface on the back in case of a tip?

[Nathan]

so is the curved surface on the back in case of a tip?

I think it's because it looks cool.

The secondary reason might be because curves make monocoque extremely strong, but that's still secondary :-)

Nathan

[EricH]

I think it's because it looks cool.

The secondary reason might be because curves make monocoque extremely strong, but that's still secondary :-)

NathanMaybe also to help it fit in the 80"? Or is that a tertiary reason?:D

[Curt Henderson]

First lets say that we don't have a typical front to our robot this year. We have a Sail Side and a Fork Side. It took many confusing conversations before we came to this terminology, since we drive forward on either side of the robot being the forward direction with a flip of a lever switch.

The curved surface is the Sail Side and is curved for its strength and to allow the initial starting dimensions. The pivoting action provides the telescoping of the carriage rails to "Load" our launch device and simultainously pick up the ball in the same motion. We are very proud of this design and very confident that the safety judges will agree that our tension device is safe off the field, which was a major concern through the design phase.

If you like the robot so far, just wait until you see the "remove the ball from the overpass thingy" we have yet to reveal. Along with the vision routines this device will be very simple and very effective.

[JB987]

Cool bot...what happens if there are two trackballs of same color near each other an equal distance from your camera???

[Curt Henderson]

Cool bot...what happens if there are two trackballs of same color near each other an equal distance from your camera???

As far as we know from the rules, that won't happen during the initial field setup for the autonomous mode as there is only to be one ball of each color on each side of the overpass at the start of autonomous mode.

[flamefixed]

very nice robot!

are the large pistons mounted on a casing around the forkside axle shaft?

and whats the release and reset mechanism on the forks?

and are the ropes and gas piston? there to support the welds on the forks?

[Wayne Doenges]

are the large pistons mounted on a casing around the forkside axle shaft?
There's a funny story associated with the piston mounting. The CAD file had them one length and the actual pistons were another. It turned out great as we were able to mount the pistons to our Omni-Wheel shafts. weight savings :D

and whats the release and reset mechanism on the forks?
If you look at the end of the forks you will see two pieces of UHMW. The robot sits on these in the starting position and the forks will fall forward when we move forward.

and are the ropes and gas piston? there to support the welds on the forks?
The gas piston (now removed) was to help the forks fall forward. We found we didn't need it. The yellow ropes are to take up the strain, of the forks when we fire. The welds won't fail. The forks would bend before that would happen. We are planning on making a second set of forks.
Good questions.

[flamefixed]

very nice way to deploy the forks.

in the other post i was referring to how do you release the forks for launch? and then bring them back down to reset?

[Chris_Elston]

very nice way to deploy the forks.

in the other post i was referring to how do you release the forks for launch? and then bring them back down to reset?

check out the video again, around 0.34 through 0.38 seconds in the video you'll see the awesome release latch slide...*cough*...curt...*cough*...(inside joke)...

When the sail is in fork truck mode, the tubing is loose, no tension. we lock the latch. stretch the sail like stretching a rubber band..then we release the latch like pulling a pin. It's a safe setup when in the pits, unless we stretch the sail...

After the sled fires, we return to fork truck mode, sail returns, and the forks fall at a rate of 32.1740 ft/s² or 9.80665 m/s².

[Wayne Doenges]

in the other post i was referring to how do you release the forks for launch? and then bring them back down to reset?
My Bad :)
When the sail moves forward it stretches the tubing. When we are ready to fire the operator triggers the release. The first thing that happens is the flag is moved out of the way (it's on a pivot) than the trigger is released.
When the sail is brought back, the trolley (where ball rests) moves back down the tracks using gravity. When it reaches the bottom the trigger moves out of the way (it's on a pivot) and will drop back when the trolley is past. On the trolley is a piece of angled steel that the trigger catches on.

[Goober!!!]

I’m really proud of 1501 this year with a fantastic robot. I wished I would have been there more this year, but school and work have been keeping me busy. I'm trying my hardest to get to BMR this year to cheer on the team and all the other teams that are going. So good luck to all of the teams this year!!!

Goober!!!:D :D :D

[flamefixed]

the forks fall at a rate of 32.1740 ft/s² or 9.80665 m/s².

you mean the forks fall at a rate accelerating at 9.8 m/s² ? assuming you have perfect sliders :D

[Curt Henderson]

very nice way to deploy the forks.

in the other post i was referring to how do you release the forks for launch? and then bring them back down to reset?

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/30674

Here is a link to a photo of the Carriage Latch Release.

[Wayne Doenges]

We will once again be having the "Guess the Rivet Count" game at BMR.
The person who guesses closest the total number of rivets, in our robot, WITHOUT going over will win something nice. What it is I have no idea :confused:
The number of rivets is NOT 1501.

[Wanabesrfrchick]

Your robot makes me smile. :D