Ideas for shooter
 

Our team has come up with an initial design for our frisbee shooter (we're yet to come up with a device to pick up the frisbees). It's similar to the shooter in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBg-...u8SDSA&index=1

What do you guys think of this? What is your team planning to do in terms of strategy? Are you going to aim for the highest rack or are you trying to nail as many frisbees as you can into the lower and middle slots? Are you going to shoot the frisbee or just put it through the slot with a manipulator? Good luck everyone!

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

I have thought of the same idea. What do you guys plan on doing to climb the pyramid? And picking up frisbees from the ground. Does any one have any blueprints that they could show us?

We haven't thought about climbing the pyramid that much yet. But for picking up the frisbee my idea is to have two wheels rotating inwards and then we drive over the frisbees to pick them up. Another idea is to have a metal plate tilted towards the ground and we go to a frisbee, tilt the plate a little after some of the frisbee is on the plate.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

Won't the frisbee tilt, and what happens if the frisbee is upside down or slanted against a wall?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

There will probably be lots of missed frisbees on the ground. I think a speedy bot with capabilities to pick up missed frisbees and dump them in a low goal could prove useful. I suggest looking at old overdrive designs to maximize maneuverability for low scoring robots. And maybe incorporate a basic hanging device for an additional 10 points.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

That's another idea that we have up for consideration. I'd say we can get 80+ percent of the bees into the low hoops. But...there's just something exciting about getting a robot to shoot. You know what I mean right?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

I agree. But a robot hanging 10' off the ground with a sticker on the bottom that says "if you can read this, we just scored 30 points" would be pretty awesome as well.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

My teams stratagy for shooting is the middle goal. Much like the middle hoop in last years game, the middle goal is a small distance from what the height of the robot can be (it is just over 4 inches) so far, one of the ideas is to shoot at that goal quickly from very close to the wall.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

anyone know how big of an effect there is if the frisbee is thrown upside down, or any ways people are planning on flipping them?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

We tested out if we can throw the bee upside down, but found that the bee curves a lot and experiences a lot of drag this way. The only way to counter this is to put absolutely no spin on the bee, which is pretty hard.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

ok thanks

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

We tested out if we can throw the bee upside down, but found that the bee curves a lot and experiences a lot of drag this way. The only way to counter this is to put absolutely no spin on the bee, which is pretty hard.
Also do you mind if our team uses this idea here at the AZ Regionals?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

My team had the idea of doing a sort of rail gun design if you can call it that. We have a vague idea of how we're going to go about it. We're deciding on whether to go pneumatic or use wheels like a pitching machine which we did for Rebound Rumble. This will obviously be more guided since it is a frisbee we're shooting, hence the rails. Just wanted to put my idea out here. This is my second year in FIRST and my team's fourth year so we'd like to help as much as we can even if it's just a small amount we can give.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

I am thinking of the same basic idea. But instead of a hard wheel and curve, I am considering something with more give, like 1/2" closed-cell foam for the curve and something softer on the wheel, like waffle tread.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

The only problem with shooting for the bottom goal is that you have a limited ammount of frisbees to score in a match. There are only 51 ish per team plus the ones on the field at the start, that is not a lot of attempts to get a high score, and if you take all of your 45 and score one than the other team only has to score 1/3 or 1/2 of that to tie you.

*edit*

Tonight we built a prototype shooter and had fantastic results!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD9Ic_rBRmk

Theres a video

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

Sure, you're correct. But if you have a team on your alliance that nails almost all their shots to the highest goal, then your team can either score less shots on the low goal or play defense.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

Robot in 3 days wanted to try a linear, 2 wheel shooter because it seems to be packaged a bit cleaner within the new FRC build envelope.

The Results Can Be Seen Here

It seems to work pretty well. You seem to need two or more more wheels to make it work because it doesn't accelerate through the same distance as the circular launchers.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

No problem.

I've been watching some videos of testing frisbee launchers and I have some concerns regarding the height the frisbees can go when launched. It seems difficult for a robot to get a nice arch with the frisbee. Anyone else notice this problem?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

The problem I see is the curvature, won't it be more beneficial to shoot straight and not have to worry about curvature?

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

Is there a way of feeding the frisbees into the oppisite end of the shooter instead of the firing end? This way a bot could back up to a frisbee feeding station and be fed frisbees while it shot at the goals on the other end of the field.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

A breech loading shooter is what Robot in 3 days has for both demos. You could set up a set of polycord conveyors to maneuver the bees to the breech instead of constraining the breech to the feed slots.

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

you could use a cylindrical gravity feeder at the breech with some sort of piston to push the Bee into the launcher

Re: Ideas for shooter
 

Our team is currently prototyping both a linear and curved shooter.


We posted a video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsaWp0URvN4