Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

Ya I guess that's like a week worth of late nights by now. If I read this thread earlier, I probably would of posted the idea sooner, sorry about that.

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

No worries,

Conversations like this one are why we post everything we can. By being open we get input we would not otherwise get. I personally hope more teams share in the future. in essence we are crowd sourcing our development and design process, and remember the knowledge is cumulative. We now have two or three years worth of advice behind our team.

So back to the idea of shooting and climbing,

We have our community vote on which robot we should build. The community really wanted us to focus on doing one thing well this year and decided a climbing robot was our best shot for this years competition. The community gets to hold us accountable a week from tomorrow so hopefully we won't dissapoint them!

Edoga

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

In the name of being as open with our failures as we are with our successes...

The design as it currently stands does not work. There is too much flexibility in some places, and not enough in others. The system doesn't move the way we expected it to, nor does it react the way we wanted/thought it would.

Also, it is too heavy...

I am sure there is a team out there that could make it work, just not this team given the resources we currently have. So, we are back to the drawing boards, only we don't have 6 weeks...We have 4 days.

We still plan on climbing. We hope to get something working before bag day, but more likely we will be designing our climber using our withholding allowance and assembling it on the first day at competition, something we had hoped to avoid. The good news is that we have access to a tower at our neighboring team and we know what we need to know in order to make something work...We just hoped to have something working before now.

I am trying to keep the kids happy and feeling good. We did take on this incredible challenge in order to grow as a team and as individuals...

We will post revised plans as we make them.

Edoga

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

Hello, everyone. Updates on the robot will be coming soon, but for now I'd like to take a moment to post links to our awards essays for this year. Our team submitted to the Chairman's, Entrepreneurship and Woodie Flowers Award this year.

Chairman's
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0mN...it?usp=sharing

Entrepreneurship
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0mN...it?usp=sharing

Woodie Flowers
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0mN...it?usp=sharing

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

So the design for the new pole climber based on the prototype we developed is finally about done. Inventor says it will weigh 28.55 pounds. which is pushing the 30 pound limit, but not breaking it, so I'm pretty happy. We are really hoping that Bowman Manufacturing, our material sponsor has 2 parts left in it. We are really hoping to have this design really work for us so turning our current 0 point robot into a 50 pointer.

We still have to work out the hook system which currently looks like it will involve spring mounted cutouts that will slip past the cross bars as the robot pulls itself up the pyramid's corner pole.



Here is an image of the metal drawer box. It has mounting holes for the polycarb slides we hope to mount along the bottom rail, and adjustable holes for mounting it in the robot at the competition. There is talk of mounting the drawer system on a bearing so that it can tilt. There are holes for that also. We are especially happy with the fact that making this out of aluminum means we get to "bring the sexy back". :-)

Personally I hope the spring based hook system will be flexible enough that the climber will be able to climb regardless.

Edoga

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

Hey teams,

It is finally here! The reveal video that we've been waiting for.

Here is the website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_681sK4N48

Enjoy!
-Chris

Re: Team 2980 2013 Open Source Robot
 

Rachel M a member of our team posted this on our facebook.

Here is a link to our robotics dictionary, where we are translating practical robotics terms into Spanish, Turkish and Japanese to help promote communication at FIRST regionals. The dictionary is incomplete, but growing. If you or someone you know would like to contribute to the dictionary, please contact me or reply to this post. Until then, enjoy:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0mN...it?usp=sharing