Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

I have seen several people mention their having tried this, but it all seems very sketchy. I'm thinking towards priorities in scouting and wondering how common it will be to balance 2 robots much less 3...

Your comments would be welcome! (even telling me I'm a twit will be fine...)

Also, I'm trying to include a poll...

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Balancing two robots on a bridge is pretty easy. At least at the build site with two drivers used to working together. Will see how easy it is at competition & having to work with drivers on a different team & all the noise.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

So long as both teams have good, coachable drivers and good coaches, I don't think there will be any problems with 2 bots balancing.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Yes, but how big will that percentage be (good, coachable drivers and good coaches). Also remember that, for the cooperation bridge, there will have to be vary little ability to work together. Technological solutions will be better than good drivers, IMO. In the case of our robot, we are trying to be able to overcome the innate problems with technology.

Knowing (really guessing) how big that percentage is should determine how much you focus on strategies and technologies around that fact.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

The team having "serious problems" might post here and get some suggestions...

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

We placed a robot that was turned off at the bottom of the bridge, and had our practice bot push it up the bridge and balance, and they balanced pretty easily. Still need to do a lot more testing though.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

We balanced our 2010 and 2011 robots driven by our main driver and our CAD guy (rookie driver). We found that order and orientation made significant differences in the difficulty to balance.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

SO, here's what I'd worry about with that scenario. The other bot has to be able to get the bridge down by them selves. Otherwise you can't be behind them to push them up. What if they can't get the bridge down.

Try putting the other bot at the bottom of the ramp sideways with you above them. If the other bot is omni wheeled or something like that you may need to chock the wheels.

Secondly, what if they have a low bumper and you have a high or visa verse. Can you still push them? Remember they are tilted and you are flat. I haven't really taken a firm look at this yet, so the answer may be, obviously yes.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it...

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Would you mind telling us your observations of which order and orientation seemed good / bad? And did you do the push maneuver or not? I'll certainly understand if you don't want to...

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Yes, we have. Using an old robot as a dead weight, we were able to balance the bridge using a second one. We got it to work via both driver control and code on its own.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Your bumper has at least 2" overlap with any other robot. The second robot drives onto the bridge right behind the first before the bridge lifts.

Hopefully neither robot will be un-powered.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

Right, we did that because we didn't have another robot to try it out with. We did get another robot this weekend, and found it to be quite easy. Unfortunately we didn't have two full weight robots, but it was pretty straightforward once the drivers started communicating constantly through the procedure :P

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

We haven't balanced yet despite having last year's robot on-hand and operable if we dropped in a control system, since we haven't built a bridge. (Other things took priority.) However, we plan to have practice with several different robots by the time we put this robot in the bag.

Re: Have you balanced 2 robots yet
 

I am one of the people who replied as "Having Serious Problems"

Our strategy team has set a functional requirement that we be able to drive to the bridge from any part of the field, lower it, drive up the bridge, and balance in one attempt, all in less than 20 seconds.

We can do it consistently in 13s... one robot... very significant automated assistance... perfect "lab" conditions.

HOWEVER,

The bridge is slippery as heck... those practicing on a plywood surface instead of lexan may not realize how hard this really is.

We put a LOT of effort into PID, including gyro correction, just to be able to climb the bridge nice and straight, without slipping and sliding. Then there was dealing with the slippage and rolling when the bridge started coming down.

Not to knock anyone down, but most videos I've seen of multi-robot balancing take around 45 seconds to do - even on a plywood surface. My guess is that many attempts will "over-correct" and the bridge will rock the other way, causing another attempt.

Right now, where we're at, balancing 2 robots is a 45 second maneuver...

...and to me, that's a serious problem.