Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

Well, I would say, "Hey, we have bumpers." And I can always install a parachute...

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

...at which point Ether would post a pithy comment about the math underlying the parachute and why this is unwise. ;)

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

re: "I simply use a spring loaded a "jumping" mechanism that would catapult my robot towards the top rung. While in mid flight, the robot reaches out and briefly touches level 1 and 2 in that order, then grasps on to the top rung."

There are some tough challenges here. The amount of power required to have a 120 lb (150 lb w/battery and bumpers) robot 'jump' ~9' is ridiculous and extremely dangerous. The skill level required to do this and touch the levels and then grasp the top row is outrageously difficult. You're much better off just grabbing the bottom row and picking up an easy 10 points.

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

Is it more realistic and safer if my robot is 60 lbs including battery and bumper?

Anyways... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

This year's rule limiting horizontal size AT ALL TIMES to staying within a 54" cylinder is very severe in light of the sloping nature of the climbing challenge.

How many people realize that if your robot is a cube of just over 31" on a side, then your diagonal is already at the 54" size limit.

So suppose that during climbing your robot flips around or swings some as it transitioning levels, well you better not have a very tall or wide robot, or you are going to have one of your diagonal dimensions exceed the 54" diameter limit.

We are thinking of having our robot lean over 30 degrees onto the pyramid corner, and establish a contact zone that bridges the dihedral angle, for extra stability as we transition the rungs, especially at the point where robot sits on only one rung while reaching for the next

However, we then realized that this 30 degrees of lean over will SEVERELY limit what our initial footprint can be.

Has your team taken this into consideration?
What is the longest DIAGONAL dimension of your robot going to be, and how will robot movements during climbing cause this dimension to GROW in the horizontal projection of its length?

There are going to be a lot of penalties for teams who overlook this.
I see people talking about deploying gripper arms to swing themselves upward, but I suspect that unless they are very small, they will exceed the 54" horizontal diameter limit.

Many other ideas being described are not taking this factor into consideration.

My own opinion is that with this games design, there should have been some horizontal expansion allowance for robots in contact with the pyramid.

-Dick Ledford

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

Maybe I'm missing something here... when a 31" cube sits flat on the ground its diagonal dimension in the horizontal plane is ~44". Or are you referring to the fact that when this cube is rotated 45 degrees from the horizontal plane then its diagonal dimension is ~54" horizontally? Depending on your climbing method your robot may not ever rotate to 45 degrees, given that the pyramid is 60/68 degrees based on your approach.

The 54" rule certainly makes the challenge harder but I think a lot of designs could still be done if the mounting location of the climber is changed on the robot frame. Remember that your initial frame doesn't have to stay parallel to the ground while climbing.

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

We had this amazing idea.. Then became stuck because of real estate

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

I am referring to the cube's diagonal as being the segment going through 2 corners AND the CENTER of the cube, not the FACE diagonal going thru the center of any face.

Yes, if you can maintain proper orientation in the 54" cylinder, this can be handled, but robots tumbling out of controll are going to rack up plenty of technical fouls.

-Dick Ledford

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

That makes more sense, I was looking too literally at how a robot might lean to get on the pyramid.

Robots tipping over are going to generate quite a few penalties this year. 30 point climbs will be huge match swings not only for the amount of points they score but for the penalty points they could cause if failed.

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

a lot of team doing like robot arm for climbing mechanism

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

GDC has a fun definition of "continuously".

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

I don't think my team is capable of doing this, but one idea would be to "somersault" up the edge of the pyramid. I think this could be done pretty quickly and effectively, and I am even placing a bet that some of the top teams will do it. One example would be team 148's mechanism to grab onto the pole, lift itself up, then have a second arm on the other end of the robot grab on, the first arm would let go, the robot would flip using the second arm, and so on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hTyXQUgYLE

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

I keep seeing this suggestion, and I keep wondering what exactly the plan is after the second bicep curl leaves the robot 4 feet in the air with its wheels facing the pole.

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

Presumably, you'd just grab back on with the first arm again and repeat ( assuming arms with 180 degrees of rotation)

Re: Climbing Mechanism Ideas
 

To get a proper handle on what we were dealing with, we drew out on large, taped-together pieces of paper a 54" circle, a template of our robot frame plus bumpers, and a top-down view of one "zone" of the pyramid corner (post-bottom to knuckle-top).

We had more room than we thought, but less than we might want.