How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Ah, that glorious engineering question- how do we get this thing in the air?

I understand the ball is 24 inches wide and ~2.5 lbs. If anyone has more detailed numbers or tolerances, please add them.

Pyrotechnics are right out. They would totally set fire to the fabric. I'm sure the first thoughts everyone has are catapult arms. I was thinking about this and one of my sketches caused another problem appear. If arms are used to launch the ball, their own unladen weight will slow down acceleration of the ball or require a huge force to move.

I'm thinking broadly now. What if you used some much smaller arm that hits the ball and the impulse sends it flying? What can we come up with here?

Other things worth consideration:

The springs offered as part of the voucher http://info.vulcanspring.com/first-robotics-competition
They are constant force flat coil springs, not helical coil springs as you might picture.

How quickly will it be necessary to retract/ prime whatever launcher you have?

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Welcome to the forum!

There's always this option.....

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

flywheel is out of the question due to the fabric ball. Our team is seriously considering the low goal.

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

I have considered some sort of pneumatic launcher. Team 1114 used one in '08(Overdrive). It actually works very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYNEAL_dK6I

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

The flat coil springs could make for a good dampener when trying to catch the ball.

As for launching the ball, my first thought was a pneumatic impulse hit to get it going. That idea is now retracted from my head since I realized there will be a great need for power regulation when launching. There are a few more ideas I have but they still have to be realized on paper before I go shouting them out.

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Thanks for the welcome.

Yea, that is a question, how do you vary power for a shot vs a pass? I like a variable impulse system with different points of retraction for different range.

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Wasn't pneumatic, though. I checked earlier today.

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Looking at something very similar to this with adjustments for catching and making sure we can score in the 1 point goal.

Something I have been trying to solve is whether a linear system of shooting or a parabolic system of shooting will be best. By this I mean the flight path of the ball if shot at the 10 point goal

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Any shot you take than launches the ball into the air will take a parabolic path. For linear I guess you could... push/kick the ball into the front or side of the low goal?

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

We're looking at our 2008 robot design (there's not much left of the robot to look at, unfortunately). It worked....and this year's game piece is light and small, relatively speaking.

What I meant more was like the path it took in the shooter. Like a circular shooter we saw in rebound rumble or a linear one we saw in ultimate ascent. But thinking about it, a circular shooter would be massive. Probably not feasible either

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

To clarify on what Eric has said, a 3/4" aluminum rod is propelled forward by surgical tubing. The whole set is pulled back by a winch with a dog gear, when the dog gear is released the rod is launched at the ball.

here is exactly what they describe. http://simbotics.org/first/2008#robot

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014
 

Does a pulley spin free on a shaft when dog gear is released?
If so, this lowers peak velocity of ram, since rotating winch pulley/drum stores energy as unwinding cord spins it up to peak rpm.

A better system, when triggered to shoot, will have the contracting surgical tubing be accelerating only the ram itself and whatever low mass tension element(s) are attached to the ram.

Plus, what happens to the winch cord as pulley/drum spins free when ram fires? Does it reverse wrap, such that the next wind gets done continuing in the reversed wrap direction. If the ram travel is small, not so many turns of winch will be needed, so less chance of cord getting tangled up during free spin.

If variable power shot is desired, reversing the rotation for alternating shots is useful, for when a multi-turn potentiometer is used to control cutoff point for desired amount of wind, since the pot only has a limited number of turns over its full range. Winding opposite ways for alternating shots keeps the pot from hitting its end of range.

-Dick Ledford

Re: How do we launch this thing? 2014