Wheels, treads...
 

I heard a guy say that the 2002 FIRST Competition Rules will not allow wheels or treads on robots. How would we propell the bot though? Make a bunch of hovercrafts? Opinions welcome.

LoL
 

LoL!!!!!!!

:D


.......rumors........

You can start working on that hovercraft, but I wouldn't spend too much time on it 'til after the kickoff.

There have been rumors in the past that we would be running our robots on water, but we haven't seen it yet. Maybe we should be working on walking machines just in case we are on carpet but wheels and treads are not allowed

Junkyard Wars
 

This harkens back to an episode of Junkyard Wars when the teams had to make a walking bot. One team took a 4 wheel drive Jeep and basically put a beam between the wheel hubs on each side. I don't remember what the other guys did, but I know it was snazzier and eventually broke, leaving the Jeep to win.

Lol!
 

Hovercrafts - yes! Lol, now THAT would be a challenge!

- Katie

Not likely.
 

I always said I wanted to build a hovercraft, and everyone called me crazy.

Well, who's crazy now? :-) Anyway, I'm not all too sure you could create the lift needed to move a 130 lb. robot around a field - not to mention the lack of control and traction.

Also, I don't think it's likely that we'd see a walking robot competition. Primarily, it's unlikely because I can't think of any walking robot design that moves even remotely as fast as anything we've seen. Walking mechanisms are just too slow to make for an exciting, timely game.

Couple that with the fact that my university already has a walking robot team, and it makes it no fun at all!

But why stop at hovercrafts?! Wouldn't it be so much more fun to throw water into the competition! I don't know about you guys, but I'm looking for the platinum electrodes for the Magneto Hydrodynamic Drive! yeah....you're right, I just wanted to say magneto hydrodynamic drive....

Inventor to the Rescue
 

Build a hovercraft in Inventor, finalize it, and test in on a VR testbed. Then we'll see who's laughing.

Re: Not likely.
 

No, you're still crazy. :p

But, anywho, I think it would really really difficult to do the whole hovercraft thing, although, if it could happen, it would be really cool. The whole water thing, I still think it would be bad if, say, your robot fell over in the water. I don't know, I think it would make things very difficult without treads or wheels. And, I hope it isn't a walking robot. But, I guess we'll all have to see. It's only about a month and a half away anyway.

~Christina

Ever had a moment of "Woah!"? All this talk of hovercrafts on the forum, as i build one. They arent that complicated suprisingly, in about 30 mins i had an 18"x4" frame hovering very well. The problem with the hovercraft isnt making it, they arent stable enough to put manipulators on them, even still it would be kool.



Andrew

Muffin Fans
 

Muffin fans make excellent vector-control for smal hovercrafts. I was using them on my 10x15 inch test-bed, and they work great with the Spike modules.

Heh, back in '99 I said build a hover craft... go right over the puck. Anyhow, I say we go with flying craft... may take a little to the drivers going good, but imaging how fun that would be to do some task in the air... it would be crazy :-)

Curious...
 

Does anyone know of a material from last year's small part or additional hardware catalog that would have worked for a hovercraft skirt?

I'm not trying to say that they would have been feasible, just curious to know if it was possible.

Flexible semi-pourous materials...
 

There are some flexible, semi-pourous sheet plastics that would hold the air and let some out for cushioning and the ability to use the pump constantly. But if you're really going for a simple, easy, cheap, light skirt that works, go with two layers of vynl tarp with evenly spaced holes along the nbottoms of each layer, making sure that the holes are not directly above one another so that you get maximum air cushion. Personally, I like the tarp, because it's cheap and easy to replace when torn.