Team 3307 climbing idea
 

So, our team has decided that at the time being, the easiest way for us to get our robot up is with the aid of some pneumatics. So, we attacked last years robot (Rebound Rumble) to the strongest cylander we had. It lifted the robot, sorta slow, but our compressor was also very small (one that plugs into the cigarette lighter of a car)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOMYH...ature=youtu.be
Here is the link to us lifting our robot, and the amazement we had when one of our prototypes actually worked as planned!

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

I don't see how you can do anything more than a zone 1 lift with this sort of design - and I'd argue that there are far easier and faster ways to achieve a zone one lift. But I recognize that this is just an early proof of concept, glad to see it can be done.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

One major issue with this is security; what would happen if something went wrong with the pneumatic? What if you run out of air? What if there's a leak? When you're that high off the ground (level 3 being 90 inches!) you need to make sure that there is absolutely no risk of system failure.

This could work very well as a level one climb, however. Plus, in the event of an emergency (fall) the distance is only one third, and the damage sustained from the fall would be much less severe.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

I hate to be 'that guy', but ::safety::

Maybe it's because we just had safety training at work, but the ladder should have a spotter, everyone needs glasses, and there was nothing but gravity holding that battery up.

Please be safe, folks (directed to CD in general) ::ouch::

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Amen. It's only been a few days and I already feel like an old man reprimanding all of the new kids for not wearing eye protection while testing prototypes.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

We did the math on climbing with pneumatics and found the air charge rather prohibitive.

Did you do this lift with pre-charged tanks? It seems strange to me that it didn't just pop up if that's a 2" pneumatic. (Hard to see in the video.)

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Gee, you post a friendly video to share some inspiration with other teams and the repliers are so busy advocating eye protection and explaining why it won't work that they forget to say "Cool idea" and "thanks."

Cool idea. Thanks. Our team has been inspired in the past by videos like this, and I'm sure you're helping someone. And I'm pretty sure you know how to use storage tanks, too... but wanted to do this lift slowly and safely.

I see no reason why this couldn't be a very good way to lift up a level. Maybe you use it to go up level 1, maybe you use it to go up to level 2... but you can't make it to level 2 until you've conquered level 1... it seems a few posters have forgotten that. There is no rule requiring a climb to be done using a single mechanism, is there?

I think you could actually double the power of your lift by ganging up copious quantities of surgical tubing along with your pneumatic cylinder. Use air to extend the cylinder, strectching the tubing, and the tubing will help retract the cylinder. In fact, if it all fit inside your starting measurements, you could start the match with the cylinder extended, and simply vent the cylinder at the end of the match allowing the surgical tubing to do the lifting for you.

Oh... wait.... then you could use a second cylinder to climb the next level the exact same way...

For a faster acting mechanism we used pneumatics to launch the trackball in 2008. Inspired by videos and photos just like this posted by other teams, we would lock the cylinder in a partially extended position, pressurize it, then release it when it was time to launch.

Yeah, it used a lot of air, but man, oh man did that ball fly!

Keep up the good work... and thanks for sharing.

Jason

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

As encouragement, 857 is currently planning on using a very similar cylinder to lift into zone 1.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Check out some videos from Break Away. There was a lifting portion that year, and I know I saw several teams at our regionals (10,000 Lakes and Lake Superior, I think) that used pneumatics to lift their robots. You might get some further inspiration from those.

Great work so far, keep it up!

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

i would advise against pnumatics for some thing like that we had a pretty big compressor lat year on our bot and one little leak will absolutely ruin life for you

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

This is the same idea our team is working on. Most of our team is young and inexperienced and seeing this is very inspirational. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

As I stated this was a prototype, we probably not even use this method to climb, this was the first thing we even came up with after not even one full day of planning/thinking. And as a few of you noted, its to show that the piston CAN hold up a 120 pound robot, for those of us who can only get to level one.

And the air tanks were not filled when we started it.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

I Think more 5 min. to cheek your counting tube will help,
I use Pneumatics many time it is stuffy my team.

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

let's play mad libs!

I would advise against ______ for something like that. We had a _______ last year on our bot and one little ______ will absolutely ruin life for you.


Being wary of leaks is certainly good advice though.:)

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Thanks for all the comments! We had never used any forums before, (me being the only one who really does) and this year I branched out to find help and feedback. After seeing all the safety comments as well, we will start doing more to be safe :P

Thanks again

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Where are these videos available on the WEB for the Break Away?

Re: Team 3307 climbing idea
 

Here Just select an event and click on a match with the video symbol next to it or here and open the folder for the event and you can download matches from 2010

Hope that helps