Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Who do you think had the best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?

Off the top of my head:
67--Such a cool arm
1986-- built in teeter totter talons are brilliant.
1114-- they can lock into other's bumpers

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

25 did a wheelie to tip the bridge every time. It was so awesome to watch.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

1986 had some pretty sweet arms. I never got to see them in action since they were on a different field, but based off their video they seemed extremely effective.

I'm personally a fan of bridge manipulators that just ram into the bridge to lower it rather than having to push down onto it.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

I saw one team, I forget who, who had their battery mounted on a rack and pinion so they could move it back and forth, helping them redistribute their weight to different places. If anyone knows what team this is (I saw them at MAR), please speak up. It was pretty cool.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

I think you have to include 33 in this discussion. With the manipulator on front of their bot they were able to lift/support the bridge for others to climb and balance. On the back they had the original "Stinger," something that many teams quickly tried to copy and implement.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

FRC Team 1986. Nuf said

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef3Ie2Qft8I&feature=plcp

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

While not the team you had in mind for this, Team 1730 over in my neck of the woods were able to move their entire shooting tower forwards and backwards for balancing.

Team 25's wheelies were amazing to watch, especially on Einstein.

Team 159's simple ram actuated by a winch and spring system worked out amazingly well in Denver and won them an award.

937 from Midwest has rack and pinion method of weight shift

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Does anyone know whether their battery shifting mechanism was particularly useful as a balancing aid? It was something we considered early on, but rejected because we didn't think the ~17lbs of battery and apparatus would be particularly significant, among other reasons.

To answer the OP, 118. Their entire frame was built for passive bridge manipulation, and a good portion of their mechanisms were devoted to balance assists. They had a beautiful system to assist a double balance, complete with lights to indicate an unbalanced v balanced bridge. And that's all before their stinger.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

My favourite has to go to 1986. Their talons are just so smooth and well thought out.

2056 comes in a close second though. The fact that their stinger was outside their frame perimeter helps keep more wheels on the bridge whilst still being able to use the stinger (when bridge real estate is there of coure) was a big booster in my ranks.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

You just like the alliteration.

My favorite bridge manipulator, and I never do this, is our own.
In terms of bridge balancing mechanisms in my book it's gotta be 469's. I saw them coop in like 3 seconds in a MSC match with it.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

We did some math, and I think it turned out that we would be able to move our CoM less than 6", so we gave up on that plan around day 4.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Lots of Lee's Summit love going on in this thread.

1730 and 1986 are sister teams from the same school district. We've got some bright students over here.

I definitely like 1730's passive manipulator. One of the most innovative robots I had the pleasure to see this season. 1986's system is pretty slick too. Both fantastic bots.

But maybe I'm a little biased...

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Team 4019 from the L.A. was always fun to watch. They would do a wheelie... but with mecanum wheels and a giant stinger in the middle of their robot.

Team 701 had a very effective bridge lowerer/raiser/table/intake arm, that also seat-belted a piggy backed robot.

Also 67's 'Utility' arm was amazing this whole season, but everyone knows that.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

Nah. You aren't biased, you just love your sisters! And while this seems like I'm being self centered, I do think that we had one of the best bridge manipulation systems. We use our entire robot as the appendage (see attached pic)

And we have done some research and found out that we are ranked in the top 20 in the world for teleop points so we have determined that we did not make it to championships this year purely because of bad luck and/or the Woodie Flowers curse

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

I was skeptical of the effectiveness of this mechanism as well. However, given the fact that our battery was one of the heaviest and highest mounted components on our robot, we actually were able to use the weight shifter relatively well. The battery sits about 2 feet off the ground, and at least 90% of the robot is beneath is.

That being said, just to give some perspective, we parked our bot balanced, by itself on one of the bridges on the practice field, and we were able to get the bridge to start rocking back and forth without moving our wheels, only shifting the battery. Much more effective than I had initially thought.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

One of my favorites would have to be 2056's manipulator/ball gatherer. It was used in unexpected ways when they would shove it under the bridge to aid the balance.

Some people have mentioned 1730's passive manipulator. For those unfamiliar: http://youtu.be/g_7ljqbIdi8?t=15s
I like the idea behind this design. I haven't seen anything like it other than theirs but if someone has go ahead and bring it up. With video/pictures

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

I really liked 233, Team Pink's bridge manipulator. They just pushed it down and it covered right over the bumper, eliminating user error.

Re: Best bridge manipulators/balancing mechanisms?
 

On our robot (team 1099, the disco techs) our shooters, ball picker upper, mechanism to move ball in shooter, electrical board and battery (over half our wait) moved, allowing us to move a large ammount of wieght while also changing the angle of our shooter. This helped while on the bridge alot!