Interesting material usage?
 

So, at this mar championship I got the opportunity to see a variety of "nonstandard" materials in use. This got me thinking .. What do other teams use?

So far I've seen:

C-channel
Box channel
Carbon fiber
PVC
Uhmw plastic
Plywood
Aluminum/steel sheets

What are some of the more unusual things you've used?

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I wouldn't say its terribly unusual, but FRC558 utilized a large amount of polycarbonate sheet this season.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Copious amounts of shiny pink fabric.

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

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Orange barrier construction netting for our catcher, pvc, perforated poly-carbonates

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We used FR-4 plates this year to lay our electronics on.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

take a look at http://www.estoconnectors.com/

My team uses these connectors in our drivetrain and usually finishes the frame in 3hrs.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Team 3824 3d prints a large percentage of its robot including structural elements.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I didn't get a (wood) 2x4 into the robot this year, but there is a pair of 1x4s, they fit perfectly on the top of the kit chassis sides.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We used thin wall corrugated polycarbonate panels this year for our wings. We even ran pneumatic tubing through the channels.

We also added some plywood to our launcher bar after Dallas to prevent some of the bending we saw at that event.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

80-20. All day long. Pretty strong stuff. On our robot, we used 1x1 and 1x2. Very little mechanical issues, but it's fairly expensive.

We've used e-glass honeycomb, cutting boards (cheap source of uhmw), a box fan (with a first allowable motor rigged into it), and many other interesting items.

Though, if you want to go way back to the good ol days (before bumpers and CIMs)... The old timers among us can definitely remind you of how creative we used to be.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

My favorite is when we, The Grapes of Wrath (so named because we hail from wine country in NYS) used a discarded wine barrel for our hopper, thus making our robot smell quite strongly of strawberry Manischewitz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfFGwIBrspM

We were *terrible* at game-play because we thought we could "snipe" with a shooter and failed rather spectacularly at it, but our fantastic human player helped make up for--

Oh, wait, I forgot the first rule of Lunacy!

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Team 781 tries to use hockey sticks every year. This year it's part of our shooter.

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1523s chassis is entirely CNCd c channel and has been for years. also our El Torro pickup uses copper pipe insulation as a grip material (we found it to be extremely effective)

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Corrugated cardboard. Not my team but a local team built a robot this year who's chassis and the main mount for its shooter were built out of cardboard. I wish I had some pictures of it but the memory was full on my phone when I was at the event that they were at. I have contacted them about putting it on display in the lobby at the Washington FIRST Robotics Fieldhouse. So hopefully I'll have some detailed pictures of it to post in the future.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We used a piece of hydraulic hose as the flexible shaft on our 270 degree intake roller. We used aluminum rod inserts for added rigidity for the sections that required it, but allowed for the durable flexibility at the corners. It performs admirably. :)

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I found a picture of the robot built mainly from corrugated cardboard. The photo is really large so here is a link. You can see the cardboard frame behind the bumpers.

http://www.krrobotics.net/images/Ima...4/IMG_0921.jpg

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

That's really neat!

here's the picture cropped...

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How'd it hold up?

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Team 5338 - Robo LoCo used blanks for aluminum levels (essentially I beams) on their robot this year

Can't remember the number but there is another team in our area that likes to try to incorporate a ladder into their robots each year. I know they've done it for at least the past two years.

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1058 had a frame made out of I-beams and an intake made of clear PVC with LEDs inside of it.

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Our robot's shooter is a 5lb dumbbell strapped to a swinging arm.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Artificial Decking material. We made our (rather ineffectual) pickup arms out of this. It's strong(ish) and light. I also saw a robot with a hockey stick and arrow shooter.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Very well, that picture is from their second event. However they did have at least one back up chassis with the manipulator frame just in case.

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We clamped a smallish 10lb machine vice to our robot last year.

Since the climber never came to, we had spare weight and a higher CoG, so the vice was clamped to a section of our 1" tubing frame, with some zipties for "insurance" to adjust the CoG both forwards and downwards.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We have large catcher panels that are filled with sandwich bags containing polyester beads. The beads absorb some of the force from a long range catch.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I don't think anyone is going to beat 5259 on that one, they used a sombrero and a leg on their robot https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152207162797025

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Our team is using a bike rim that holds the ball in the catapult, paint brushes to ensure a smooth intake with little to no bouncing around, and a rubber duck for safety on our robot.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I got a tour of 131's robot in Boston last weekend, and they are using 3/4" thick PVC foam board as their shooter material. This stuff is light and strong, and they even bored out 1.125" diameter bearing holes in the plates.

Andy B.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Although I haven't been able to figure out for sure what it is yet, 469 has been using this really amazing green material for their intake rollers for the past couple years. While I haven't been able to pinpoint it's exact origin yet, sources point to it coming from Sweden.

Perhaps someone from 469 can pipe up?

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Team 2085 used Urethane Round Belting. We would cut it to length, drill a hole in PVC pipe, and then use a blow torch (or heat gun if we were in the pits) to melt it into the PVC. In some cases the bond was so strong, that when we tried to take out the pieces of Urethane, it took pieces of PVC with it! And plus we can get it in our team's colors :).

Here's a link to the material:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#round-belts/=rjfos8

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Plywood, masonite, duct tape, cardboard and hockey stick( we're canadian).
We win the Canadian western regional.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

4536 is looking to add some memory foam (or whatever the Target equivalent is called) to improve our catching ability for championships.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

While the majority of our robot is rather conventional aluminum tubing, our catcher panels are rather unique. As mentioned in our Behind the Bumpers video, we use fiberglass rods (like the kind you use to mark your driveway in the winter) to support a combination of bumper cloth, syrofoam beans, and shelf liner.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I don't know if corrugated aluminum counts but we use it in some applications.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

1712 has a screen door and memory foam on our robot this year. :cool:

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Not really boundary-pushing or anything, but perhaps interesting:

• 80/20 and C-channel get a bad rep for being really heavy, but our robot is made almost exclusively of them and is about 87 lbs this year
• We have duct tape, wood, zip ties, and sliced pool noodle (not in bumpers) in important, visible, and structural applications. Finalist at TC district, and qualified for CMP! :cool:
• These stars from Andymark; is anyone else using them? Great for the intake.

If we want to include some of the past, a plastic broom handle became part of our 2010? robot.

EDIT: The post after about the wrench reminded me that we needed a spacer at Escanaba to help our shooter: we used a sharpie. It was replaced by the wood mentioned above for TC.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

After the LA regional we figured out that we needed a rachet for our intake wheel. We didn't have one lying around, so for the Las Vegas regional, we had a racheting wrench attached to the wheel. (It worked like a charm)

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Our 2012 robot had a large extendable guide to make quick layup shots from the fender. The guide was made of sheets of pink foam insulation glued together and cut with a custom foam cutter that we made. That pink creation was covered in garolite (basically plywood made from fiberglass sheets) to protect the foam, add rigidity, reduce friction with the balls, and give a color we liked more. The whole assembly was very strong, enough that we made a backup but never had to use it, and very light. Under 6 pounds if I recall correctly (but it's been a few years, so don't quote me on that).

Here's a picture of the final product from the back:
http://team1732.com/gallery/var/albu...g?m=1359315011

and from the front, extended:
http://team1732.com/gallery/var/albu...G?m=1362712348

Aaand, another showing off the sleek parabola:
http://team1732.com/gallery/var/albu...g?m=1359314629

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We've used lots of carbon fiber, some fiberglass, brass, titanium, acrylic, and polycarb. Still waiting on a chance to work with magnesium.

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We needed ballast for the rear of our robot last year so we used a 7 pound 1" thick piece of steel that I had been using for target practice. Most likely the only FRC robot ever with a 50 BMG bullet hole:)

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We used ABS tubing (sewer pipe) as our intake roller this year, and we laser cut our own plywood gussets to hold our robot together.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

While aluminium isn't that exotic of a material the places we use it are kind of odd. One of our sponsors donated literally 500+ lbs (5000$+) of military grade 7075 hardened aluminium out of their scrap bin.

While I usually subscribe to the theory that if you need to make a part out of 7075 (other than shafts and gears) you are doing it wrong it's often cheaper / easier for us to make parts out of 7075 that have no right to be (encoder mounts, jigs, soft jaws).

We're also adding some carbon-fiber/wood composite and delrin parts for champs.

Our shooter has surgical tubing on it, not for power, but to make the arm come down after a shot.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

And it is very cool

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Not sure anyone uses more wood than 58

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In some parts of the world bamboo is a structural material. Anybody ever use it on a bot?

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First team to find a use for pure sodium on their robot gets disqualified for unsafe materials.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I really wanted to use casting material, like the kind doctors use when you break your leg. It is a strong, lightweight fiberglass that you can mold to any shape after you get it wet. Dries as hard as a rock, and I doubt that the robot will care too much if it makes it itchy.

It even comes in a variety of colors.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Team 2485 wrapped our 1/16 wall aluminum in carbon fiber to retain yield strength while saving weight; it turned out to be a good call when we weighed in at 120.0 in Vegas.
We also used Kevlar in places where we anticipated impact; it's flexible, and we figured it could absorb some of the impact.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/img...754f9616_l.jpg

Here's a photo of our bot; both the carbon-wrapped aluminum and the Kevlar are immediately noticeable. It's nice that black and gold are our team colors too... plus carbon fiber has been a bit of a signature of ours since 2011.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

This year alone we've managed to find a use for arrow shafts, ratchet straps, garage door railing, a ratchet wrench and spearfishing elastic bands

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

In OCCRA, Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association, we used a trailer hitch as weight!

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Even though in the 'real world' its really common, there aren't many robots with steel structures. 1108 has a top-roller pickup and front supporting frames made of square section steel tubing and we weigh-in at only 92 lbs.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/img...6f147894_l.jpg

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We used some steel angle this year because of the forces involved with our catapult--and we're glad we did!

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We've used carbon fiber/plywood composites for years for electrical panels and other flat panels which require strength/stiffness/light weight. Yes I know that carbon fiber is electrically conductive, but there are fixes around this.

This year, our ball pickup frame is fiberglass pultrusion, with the ends filled with an epoxy-carbon fiber composite to prevent collapse when tightening through bolts. The technology comes from Gdeaver (see earlier post this thread). This construction provides a ball intake which flexes elastically when stressed, rather than breaking or permanently deforming.

We've learned that in some cases, we can replace steel components with 7075 Aluminum (similar tensile strength, but still soft). Also that if welding is unnecessary, either 7075 or 2024 Al provides high strength (again, if there is no abrasion). 6061 Al remains the only real aluminum option for welding.

1640 uses a range of polymers on our robots. Polycarbonate and polypropylene are big ones, but nylon, acetyl, polyurethane, polyethylene and PMMA are used as appropriate. Don't get me started talking about rubber.

I love materials!

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Hex cel honeycomb aluminum. We were 2 alliance captain on carver this year our awesome can grabber was less than 6 pounds total weight. The robot can be seen at ftchartland.org.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

For our can burglar this year, we used an old fiberglass fishing pole. We had some issues with it breaking when our hook was too heavy, but overall it was a great material to work with as it was very lightweight.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Our team used insulation foam for our ramp construction this year. To reinforce the foam (particularly in the case of side loading) we placed thin steel wire within the main structure. It looked atrocious, but it generally worked well, and increased our stack output significantly. Also, I was able to stand on the ramp without it breaking.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

This year we didn't use anything interesting. Last year we used a bicycle rim and plain old rubber bands on our robot. The year before we used a leaf blower.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Some pink isolation foam.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We used kong dog toys as part of our intake rollers, which worked surprisingly well. The top is almost a perfect press fit for a half inch hex shaft.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

we had a fair bit of parts on our robot that were machined out of nylon, like sprockets, and such, last year we had a bearing/motor mount made out of nylon. we also use plenty of aeroplane tape, all of our electronics are held down with it :).

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

What is aeroplane tape?

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Our 2014 robot used a cocacola bottle to hit our limit switch which had been positioned to low.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I believe it's referencing this type of tape:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_tape

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

1868 had a ramp for the human player station that we built out of cardboard from one of the pool noodle boxes and packing foam this year.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

This made me do a double take when I saw it in queue.

I'll have to keep this in mind for future angled game pieces.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

On Carson, I saw a rookie team on my pit tour (don't recall the team number or name) with a lift frame made from an aluminum ladder. Light, strong, square, low effort. Genius!
This year (Recycle Rush) we used:

• foam insulating tape as a gripper for our tote flipper.
• While we pulled it off before competition, we converted a tape measure into a string potentiometer to determine our lift's height. In a brief fit of elegance, we used a backwards volume control knob as a hub for the potentiometer.
• By drilling a single hole in each, we turned some thumb screws into combination lift chain mounts and tensioners.
• We spring-loaded twenty 10-32x3" machine screws in some c-channel to make a "contour gauge" style tote/RC pickup that could pick up one tote from the long end, or two from the short end.
• We designed (but did not build) a lift brake from a KOP wheel, a pipe strap, some carpeting, and a pneumatic cylinder.

A few of the other items we have used or prototyped with include:

• strap hinges as pneumatic cylinder mounts
• a T-hinge and a turnbuckle as a belt tensioner.
• Lego League motors, shaft, and wheels as a frisbee intake control.
• Pool noodles for lots of strange things, including Oscar the Grouch's eyebrow and lower lip
• the cap from a can of Bengal Roach Spray (Guaranteed to Work!) as a ball lifter
• Bungee cords as springs and for management of moving wires
• More automotive electrical components and accessories than I could list
• A rubbermaid tote to keep the rain off the controls of our t-shirt cannon

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Oh god, was it the one with the foam underneath to strengthen it? Because that thing left bits of foam everywhere!

I was part of the reset crew for Carver and had to keep going back across the field because there were little white spheres stuck to things that had gone totally un-seen until *right before* matches.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Easy and effective, yes. But it wasn't on their BOM. I had to explain to them how to list things at "market cost" even if they were donated.

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At least you asked to see their BoM...

Our inspector said "nah, don't worry about it" while i had BoM in hand.

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See, I had good reasons to suggest covering it in tape... *cough*Elizabeth*cough*Elena*cough*

Sorry for the mess. Hopefully we won't be using styrofoam again, but if we do, we'll make sure it's all properly covered. I'm not sure if we'll see you again, so this is our apology to all Carver field reset volunteers who had to deal with our ramp:

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I saw a rookie team use these chains with attachments at Champs:

http://www.peerchain.com/product-cat...ultural-chain/

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Team Tators used Bamboo from my garden in the CalGames 2013 offseason as a frisbee blocker cheesecake for our partners. Covered it with pool noodles and folded it over with a net inside. Provided the perfect combination of inexpensive rigidity and flexibility. Loved the look on the slot feeders faces when they saw us installing it!

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3467s can grabbing arms were made from shower curtain rods.

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1806 used fishing poles as canburglars at GKC

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We used 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" angle to build our ramp.
After making it, I now firmly believe that angle is magic. The ramp weighed very little but could hold around 50-60lbs easily, and it was just a big triangle supported by smaller triangles made of angle.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

Found a picture on my camera - It was team 5549, Gryphons.exe from Falls Church, VA.

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

I think you mostly just discovered the power of the truss. Triangles are magic when it comes to making something stronger.

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I'm not sure if anyone is using it for FRC yet but graphene seems to be the new miracle material:

http://vorbeck.com/graphene/vor-x

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vor-x-Graphe...p2054897.l4275

Re: Interesting material usage?
 

We used Tetrix kit parts on our 2014 bot on some of our axles

In one of the iterations of or 2014 bot we used the latex ring from the base of a condom as a belt to transmit rotation between a VP and a absolute encoder. It worked reasonably well but since it was used for position PID on arm we didn't want to risk loosing count as we didn't have a method of quickly re zeroing.

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Please tell me that made it onto the BOM... that's awesome.

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We valued it at under a 1$, it was donated by the school guidance department :D.

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We used a chain-lift, and to keep the totes aligned properly we used poster tubes.
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...89&oe=55C52C5F