Team 706's 2010 Robot Demonstration Video [Archive]

reversed_rocker

14-02-2010, 14:16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_dnzebFqDk

We're almost wrapping up our robot, just adding a few final touches. So far the feature list includes:

live camera feed for aiming/ball grabbing (no lag)

Pneumatic kicker with a surgical tube assist, can be raised up or down for long/short range shots

4 CIM 8 wheel drive

2 fischer price motors powering a vacuum to hold balls in possession

When in the long range position, the average distance before the ball hits the ground is about 35 feet. Although we can, we do not necessarily plan on scoring long range, the long range kicker can shoot over both bumps to move balls from a defensive zone to an offensive zone. once the ball is on the other side of the field, the kicker can be raised into the scoring position.

s_forbes

14-02-2010, 14:26

Impressive! I like how you managed to cram so many neat mechanisms into such a small volume, it's a very clean looking design. Your method of adjusting range is clever, too. Looks like you guys are pretty much done, you've got plenty of time to get lots of driver practice in.

XaulZan11

14-02-2010, 14:28

I'm impressed. It seems like for the second straight year, you have built a very technically advanced robot. I think should have some more success with this one, though.

The two aspect thats stand out is your ability to control a ball while turning/backing up and the ability to change the height/distance on the kicks (personally, I think a lack of this will hurt a lot of teams)

Nice work. Look foward to seeing it at Wisconsin.

reversed_rocker

14-02-2010, 14:43

i agree, last year the robot was great but we didnt have any time to test it and ran into some kinks at the competition. now that we've got a little bit better hold on our schedule i think we'll do pretty well.

Chris is me

14-02-2010, 15:23

I'm impressed. It seems like for the second straight year, you have built a very technically advanced robot. I think should have some more success with this one, though.

My thoughts exactly. You know when a team manages to build something as capable as team 233 that they're destined to build an awesome robot. (For those who are unaware, 706's robot was almost exactly like The Pink Team's last year, except it had an adjustable pitch turret and a swerve drive!) You guys really hit the mark this year, with a robot that can do one thing very well. With plenty of driver practice, you could easily win an event this year.

s1a1m

14-02-2010, 19:50

looks great have you guys thought about designating a team just for driving?

wendells

14-02-2010, 20:00

Nice!!!!!!
Well done.

martin417

14-02-2010, 20:31

Great job! easily my favorite robot so far. I love the vacuum dump valve and the adjustable height kicker.

buddyb

14-02-2010, 20:32

Looks like you guys did a great job. The robot is excellent at kicking, and doesn't really have to worry about getting over the bumps, because it can glide right under. It also looks like a really clean design.

Very nice. :D

Akash Rastogi

14-02-2010, 20:34

That is a very impressive machine. Kudos to your design team.

Good luck at your competitions!

R1ffSurf3r

14-02-2010, 21:29

My thoughts exactly. You know when a team manages to build something as capable as team 233 that they're destined to build an awesome robot. (For those who are unaware, 706's robot was almost exactly like The Pink Team's last year, except it had an adjustable pitch turret and a swerve drive!) You guys really hit the mark this year, with a robot that can do one thing very well. With plenty of driver practice, you could easily win an event this year.

I especially like how the video is 2:33 long

reversed_rocker

14-02-2010, 22:02

i feel like we should meet 233, we have so much in common. they're down in florida, arent they? not a big chance that they'll be coming to the wisconsin regional

robself705

14-02-2010, 23:28

Thanks for the input guys, its great to hear other teams like our design. Can't wait to compete.

R1ffSurf3r

15-02-2010, 19:28

We are at Kennedy Space center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Most live in either the Cocoa Beach or Rockledge area. But you never know, maybe we'll see you in Atlanta.

And even from what I can see, our robots may have some things in common. They are both 28 inches by 38 inches I presume, hehe :p

robself705

19-02-2010, 23:32

Just an update, we also added a ball magnet to the front which feeds balls into the vacuum so we can contact them with the whole front of our robot and not worry about the vacuum grabbing them. We will probably add a final video this weekend.

armyOFdarkness

19-02-2010, 23:43

Wow guys! Awesome job! Makes me proud to be a founding member of 706... can't wait to see you guys in action at Milwaukee!

KC1AJT

20-02-2010, 00:06

wow i love the kicker give the designer of that a high-five for me! :ahh:

V_Chip

20-02-2010, 00:33

A robot capable of going to Atlanta :D

I like how it is streamlined and compact, and I very much do like the variable kicker mechanism. The idea of having an offset suction possessor is superb IMHO compared to the additional space (and possible energy) needed in a dual suction setup.

Having a 8 wheel 4 CIM with traction wheels will definitely give you the advantage in a pushing match against majority of the robots due to the fact that most I have seen so far are either mechanum or omni, or a combination of slip and traction.

Great Work; I'd love to see it in competition :cool:

mjazzka

20-02-2010, 00:53

Very impressive, the variable kicking is amazing! I must say though, the highlight of the video was the easy-clamp that you are using on the front...

Good luck and have fun this year!

reversed_rocker

20-02-2010, 01:33

lol we werent sure what angle we wanted to mount the camera yet at that point in time, hopefully we'll replace the easy clamp with a more permanent solution, like duct tape, or elmers glue :)

we got a lot of great freshmen this year, i think that made a big difference. they're still learning the ropes but i really think that in about 2 years 706 will be putting out some truly awesome bots.

Sean Estrada

20-02-2010, 02:39

OMG how did you do the vacuum

robself705

20-02-2010, 20:32

We modified a two shop vacs (took the impellers from both) and mounted them into one modified housing for the same shop vac. We first built the mounting out of acrylic which failed miserably because the vibration sent spider cracks through it after 10 minutes of use. We switched to wood for the second version. There are two fisher-prices powering it with belts. We can run full power on our robot for 10 minutes before the battery gets too low. There is also a pneumatic dump valve which releases the ball *just* before it is kicked.

robself705

20-02-2010, 22:56

Well, I just finished our final video! I hope you all like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vom2grpMvUg

n_ambrogi013

21-02-2010, 00:26

Holy cow, that is a beautiful kicker design! I'm assuming that the kicker puts out the same force every time, and you vary the distance only by raising/lowering the entire assembly? I love it.

robself705

22-02-2010, 07:10

Here is the final video :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV2V9Kgzhrc

robself705

05-03-2010, 16:04

Holy cow, that is a beautiful kicker design! I'm assuming that the kicker puts out the same force every time, and you vary the distance only by raising/lowering the entire assembly? I love it.

Exactly.

Sorry about the double post too guys.

Austinmead

15-03-2010, 16:18

R1ffSurf3r

15-03-2010, 16:34

what powers the front roller?

robself705

15-03-2010, 17:21

We mounted the two fisher price motors on machined aluminum brackets. We then cut out a wood housing to mount the motors on and the bearings for the shaft. We turned a custom shaft on the lathe to mount two shop vac impellers onto. We mounted the impellers in the original housing from the shop vac which was bolted to the wood frame. The fisher price motors have shaft extensions pressed on to them on which are belt sprockets, the belts connect to the center shaft. The belts are tightened by rotating the motors outward on their metal brackets. Im sorry, I don't have pictures because our bot is in a crate somewhere, but the video is high res so go to the run over and pause it to see what I'm talking about. Let me know if you have more questions.

The roller is powered by a cim motor and belt mounted to the inside wall of the robot.

Sixis

15-03-2010, 19:29

any chance you guys have vids of your regional? i really want to see your robot in action

robself705

16-03-2010, 18:56

any chance you guys have vids of your regional? i really want to see your robot in action

Yes actually, it is uploading right now. I will post when its done :)

robself705

17-03-2010, 07:39

Here is the video of us in action, thanks to everyone who made this possible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf4SRK7Whm8

GarrettF2395

22-03-2010, 21:22

How are you controling the kicking air piston?
In the vid it looks like you have 3 solinoids feeding it air. Mind explaining your system for me?

robself705

22-03-2010, 21:57

How are you controling the kicking air piston?
In the vid it looks like you have 3 solinoids feeding it air. Mind explaining your system for me?

Sure, we have one large piston (12in throw, 1 1/2 in diameter) this piston is hooked directly to the kicking foot. The foot is held back by a car door latch rated for 700 lbs of force. Once the kicking foot is latched, the large piston is pressurized (while already half extended). When we are ready to fire the piston attached to the car door latch is pulled, this pulls the door latch open, releasing the kicker and allowing the air in the piston and the surgical tubing to pull the kicking foot and strike the ball. There is also a dump valve for the vacuum which opens right before the kicker is released so the ball can be kicked without the vacuum holding it. There is one more piston that raises and lowers the whole mechanism to adjust for a distance kick, or a ground hugging scoring kick.

GarrettF2395

23-03-2010, 01:11

Wow, thats a really awesome idea. How is it that you guys are able make the piston actuate so quickly though? When we thought of doing something similar, we decided we couldn't get the air OUT of the piston fast enough for it to work. Was this a problem for you guys?

robself705

23-03-2010, 07:33

We actually have the piston pulling the kicker, but its the same issue. That is why we pre charged the piston to 60 psi (so half of the piston is already filled). That way the force is already built up by the air in the piston and it actuates much quicker.

Chris is me

23-03-2010, 07:48

Your kicker sounds very similar to my team's. My guys must be doing something right.

A little tidbit: The optimal precharge distance for a piston is ~30% of its throw. It's not that big a deal, but if it's an easy tweak, you may kick even farther.

What piston do you have on your car door latch? My team spent several days working with a gate latch and various pistons, so it'd be nice to compare notes :)

How much surgical tubing did you guys use?

Bruceb

23-03-2010, 08:54

Well, we are precharging at something like 30% of throw. I think it is an 8 inch piston with something like 2.5 inches precharged. We use a 3/4 inch piston with 1 inch of throw to pull the trigger. Plenty strong. When we use the entire 5 feet of supplied tubing we wrapped it around about 6 times I think. When the kicker is latched the tubing is about 18 inches long and it retracts upon shooting to about 8 inches.
Bruce

robself705

23-03-2010, 13:59

Once we got our bot back (late April, early May), I'm thinking about taking the kicker apart, taking pictures and writing up a tread on how it works because there have been a lot of questions about it. Also, if I was on another team, I would sure love to know exactly how it works!

Mori1578

23-03-2010, 14:23

Team 1578 is actually using the same kicker mechanism! :)
After trying several ideas (spinning leg, a motor-elastic kicker) with no luck, we decided to make a pneumatic-elastic kicker.
We used a pretty large piston, loading the kicker to its place and than used a trunk lock (from a real car.. took 5 or 6 car shops to find one :P) to lock the kicker, and a small piston to open the lock.
Once the kicker goes into the lock, we open the main piston and a moment after the small one for opening the lock.
The surgical tubing was placed on the top of the kicker axis and the piston on the bottom. I think that this is where we were wrong - i think we should get it to the same place on the top with the surgical tubing.
Another thing we should try to change is the size of the piston - we had a -HUGE- problem with them - we got them a week before ship day and didn't have too much time for prototyping, experimenting etc..

Right now we can make a goal from second zone or getting the ball from third zone to first (the ball is not fast enough to go over the small goal bump).

Edit :
btw, i just LOVE your possesion mechanism! using both main methods together is a great idea!

robself705

24-03-2010, 13:39

Team 1578 is actually using the same kicker mechanism! :)
btw, i just LOVE your possesion mechanism! using both main methods together is a great idea!

Yeah, it makes it a lot easier to grab balls off the wall and moving balls.