What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

My team trying to use forklift

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our team is building a robot. ;)

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

It will move, and it will lift stuff.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

You will find we are more talkative in about 5 1/2 weeks. ;)

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

It's still a hand waving fantasy. But one plan as of last night is a sliding lift that will pick up a tote from the side, and possibly a container the same way. The more solid plan is to have a low arm that will pick up a tote from the side, and lift it high enough to put it on top of another tote. And have another longer arm mounted higher up, that can grasp a container or a tote, and place it on top of a sort of tall stack. The fun part is figuring out how to make the robot so this stuff can be done quickly. We have some ideas...but they're still being worked out. And a few more prototyping experiments can change our plans at any time.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our robot will lift things up and put them down....

also probably move....in a tank-like fashion....

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Tank-like? I thought we were doing swerve drive?

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Good luck.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Swerve around the field, suck in totes, pick them up, put them down, do things with containers, have lots of auto modes that do lots of things...

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Several harpoons on a 6 CIM swerve drive that fire into the containers on the step, and pull them in. As well as a giant airboat fan that blows over the opponent's stacks.

Not really, I've been thinking about a conveyor that goes up from the chute enough to put the containers from the chute into a cage that forces them to stack three high, but there is no bottom to the cage. So after getting three totes, we drive them onto the ramp and open an end of the cage and back out.

Or, a more complex way, that doesn't involve conveyors. To do this we could put totes in upside down, then have them slide on a bar that is the same length as the tote, but pivots just before the center of mass. At the end of the bar is a small lip, so the totes catch, and flip, then slide almost vertically into a forklift that is leaned way back. Do this three times, then just raise the forklift and bam, at stack of three.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Not really finalized yet (which I hate BTW). Probably totes on the inside of the bot, with a lifter for cans and totes.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We are doing a mecnum drive with a forklift type grabber. The arms will be able to both move side to side so that they can pickup totes the long way and the short way. Also the arms will have a curved section in the middle to grab the cans more securely.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

No way, we're doing the same thing. Small world huh?

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

:ahh: What! No way!:ahh:

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

As a CAD designer, I know how that feels.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Confidential. I'd tell you but then I would have to kill you.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Think hay bales!

Doug

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I want to see a hay bale stacking robot! It's a neat way to do it.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

You mean this, our team talked about it but unfortunately we will get a G16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-4vNYG0rOU

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Nope.

This one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6Ei2Zxf4M

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Or this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVWS9gdaY3A

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

But I'm thinking more like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNq8vER5mU

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Scissor Gripper (one on each side): http://youtu.be/nCR9uWjl4kQ

We're still doing some CAD studies before we prototype one up but it sure seems like a cool way to have a huge opening and then grab an object using a neatly packaged pneumatic actuator.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

A little off topic, but it looks like you are using an H drive, am i right?

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Forklift, probably tank drive. Still have to work out the tote grabber specifics, but there will be some sort of grabber. We have plans to be able to shorten the lift structure for practical transportation (doors, vehicles, trailers, and crate).

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We're converting our off-season drive to an H-drive right now actually to test it out first, but that's what we are planning on. Throwing a few omni wheels on a cross support using the clamping VEX gearboxes is so easy we couldn't think of a reason not to do it. We identified being very maneuverable as a high priority for our team this year and the team as a whole doesn't have the experience to use mecanum wheels. Plus I got my fill of using them on 357 :)

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I like this. That's a very interesting way to go about it :)

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We intend to use electrical power to displace objects.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

At our meeting today we tossed a bunch of wheels, box tubing, and motors into a tote, shook it up and we'll see what comes out on Monday. Wish us luck!

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Same, actually. I decided this year that I was going to put everything in CAD before we were finished prototyping, so that we have a base to work from and we could get done with our robot quickly. I only hope the prototypers can get things resolved by the end of Sunday.
So far, I've cadded the drivetrain, a one-stage scissor jack, some arm thingies, an external elevator, and a four-bar linkage. An electrical guy took care of the electrical components. So no matter what design we go with, we'll be almost ready to go.
Unless we decide to chuck totes using a catapult.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our team is attempting to make a big box that hoovers up totes and stacks them inside the bot before farting them out on the scoring platform.:yikes:

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Think this....No stopping, even to get that stack onto the scoring platform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOlA5ILkbU

Rack em', Pack em', & Stack Em! Trailer will be stored inside the bot, unload hitch up and go. We'll drive circles around the competition! (And hopefully our alliance partners).

We also plan on giving the opposing Alliance all "Tote Fever" in the process. (And no G16).




Just kidding...But, it would be a really neat concept to carry out and see develop into delivered tight packed 6 high Grey Tote stacks. (Now just to find the room to drive it).

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Ohhh, I liked that 1 Jim, no trailer to contend with (now we are getting somewhere, that's a real workable solution)...And Team 1339...You get that all in a 24"X48"X78" package...I'll be highly impressed!:D

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Ahhh, yes this to set 6 high Tote stacks instead of 12 high hay bales could & would be the trick....A 78" High tilting Flop Bot! The Front Tote Manipulator is 1/2 of the Flop Mechanism also. And the wheels span the platform for the backup & tilt dump of that 6 high tightly packed tote stacks (3 for Auto+Room to spare for a bin too on the Auto Stack), the way it can roll Totes helps w/ those upside down totes too (rotate those only once instead of twice, then slide and lock them together). "The Wall Building Machine." The Drive Team/Human Player only has to Tilt it back up into vertical orientation again and lift it onto the cart to get it back into the "Transport Configuration."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6Ei2Zxf4M

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Hahahaha, communicating through CD is at least communicating.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our team is trying to act like a pallet stacking robot, like the one in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCH41Icgjoo
we're also using mecanum drive

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Will there be some way to take the vertical loads and twisting forces on the grippers other than the two scissor jacks on each side? Scissor jacks are not very good at taking side loads and probably wont work well when twisted.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Chassis: We built a KOP chassis "long" and modified it into a 5-dualie omni h-drive (4" wheels), probably one CIM per drive train. It's already under 28" wide to make the transport dimensions, but we'll probably cut it down to about 22in so it can drive into the landfill to get the second tote.
Pickup: A rake/contour gauge "hand" picks up totes and containers by the "handles". It's optimized for long-side tote pickups, but capable of lifting a container or pulling totes off the step. Lift will be outside the frame, forklift style, driven by two chains (for stability, not strength). The lift will have a single CIM geared lower than the drives, targeting about 80# lift at 40A. The brake is TBD, but will probably be a pneumatic clamp of some sort and normally slaved to the lift motor control. We plan a "Bottom stacking" strategy, that is, putting a stack atop a single tote. With the KOP chassis and 4" wheels, it stays on the carpet and off of the platform.
Controls: The initial prototype is two joysticks with the Y axes controlling the tank drive trains, one X controlling strafe, and the other the lift. We're planning to program buttons to do some "muscle memory" actions such as line up on a tote, and do a bottom-stack maneuver.
Sensors: KOP camera and a couple of high-resolution rangefinders for navigation, and several limit switches as well as a potentiometer for the lift position. We may also add a current meter to the lift motor, depending on the sampling rate of the PDB meters.
Extras to work on after we get the basic stuff built:
A passive frame at the top of the lift will stabilize tall stacks as we drive.
A skid plate shall protect belts and the strafe wheel in case we run amok and hit a platform.
Autonomous will be selectable between a tote-stack or a simple drive into the auto zone.
A tote-flipper is way on the back burner.
We currently have no debris manipulator; we were planning to have the human players load them into the container, but now we're waiting on an update. As we're already committed to staying on the carpet, we might consider a spoiler to push noodles along the floor rather than run over them.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

our robot is going to stack goats;) ::safety::

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Drive Train: of all of the CAD and driver test studies we've done, a plain WCD with normal front/rear rails works best for us. That 2x1 rail, when placed at the right height, is a BEAST at pushing totes. It's also a BEAST at aligning the robot to the tote if the tote is on the wall. It also just so happens to space the tote perfectly from our pickup mechanism, meaning we can pick up which moving/pushing.

We'll have a RC & tote stacker that can do totes from anywhere, but given that it isn't dependent upon HP loading and partners may be dependent upon HP loading, it will probably work on the field totes.

There are 2 other mechanisms for a field-tote-centric strategy, one which has been given limited consideration and the other which is undergoing prototyping & analysis right now.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I'm just going to leave this here. It's not hugely impressive, but it's a huge step up for us!

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

You may want to add another of those brackets to help stabilize the tote from rolling relative to the robot frame if you don't grab it dead center, or make it a bit wider.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Yep that video was really just to illustrate the concept. If we went further with it we'd probably flip those 90 degrees, change the carriage geometry so that the load would be better handled. Plus that would let you nest a pneumatic cylinder vertically which would work out well with an elevator lift. Odds are we may not go down this path but maybe someone else will now.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Why put the bin on top of the tote when you can put the totes under the bin? That is basically the motto our team is rolling with.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

It's going to be really fun watching all these different robots do their thing this year!

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

This. We're going to see an interesting mix of towering 6 foot high stack cappers and short stocky bots that try to bench press the stack of totes.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

My team is hoping to find a happy medium of lifting three at a time and making stacks of six that ways.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We plan on having a elevator system with hooks on it that can pick up multiple totes (5 or 6) and hold them and then put them down again on the scoring platform, there would also be an arm on the other side of the elevator that can pick up cans and put them on top of the stack. check out our engineering journal here

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Moderation is for monks ;->

Seriously, we're building tall so we can build a stack of 6 in the landfill or at the loading station and make one run to the platform, but if we do have a problem with the heavy load, "three at a time" is the primary fallback strategy. Actually, our current RC thoughts are to make a stack of five totes, move it to the platform, then get a noodle in an RC, put it atop one tote, and lift that one tote into place.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I like our chances this year. We are trying things that we have never done before, design and strategy wise. We've always stuck to one type of design/strategy because we knew that it worked and that we could do it successfully. We are kind of straying away from that and trying to perform at a higher level, or should I say a more "creative" level that could potentially lead us to go big or go home.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We are going to put a giant solder iron on the robot and melt a hole in the totes and pick them up that way. ;) :D

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

1885 is going to teleport totes into stacks....EINSTEIN HERE WE COME

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Thanks for the info. Some of the other posts here are trying to be humorous but are not helpful and are cluttering up an otherwise informative thread. I'm mentoring a low to medium level team with only 1 or 2 other adults helping and we can use all the ideas we can get.

Doug

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

It seems that most teams have the attitude that they have invented the greatest thing since sliced bread, and don't want to give away their secrets. OTOH, we learned long ago that posting info about our design early on has two big advantages: 1. If we messed up and are pursuing a lousy idea, folks here will quickly set us straight and help us find a better way to do it. 2. We might help some other teams that are struggling.

YMMV. It's worked for us for almost a decade.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

In that spirit, here's where we are:

Perplexed.

We are constructing both a 4-wheel skid steer (rear omni) and a mecanum drive. We hope they will both be functional by the weekend, though making a carbon fiber belly pan for each is becoming quite the task. We have tested both types on practice bots and each have their advantages and disadvantages. They are sized precisely the same, so we can install the superstructure on either.

Which leads to the next problem. We have spent more time on strategy and design this year than ever before, which is good, but we still feel like there is a broken strategy that we are missing. We are building a cascade elevator with either two or three "teeth" that can grab under the lip of upright totes. There's also a "tooth" for grabbing and placing RC's on top. We want to design a tool for turning sideways RC's upright, but so far are struggling with that. Primarily, our focus isn't on stacking, but on acquiring and using the RC's from the center. That mechanism is pretty far along and looks like a winner.

Still, we keep wondering if there's going to be some strategy that will look obvious in hindsight that is eluding us. Mechanisms aren't the hard part this year; it's choosing the right one for our strategy, and making sure we've chosen wisely. :confused:

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I have the same feeling....but whatever magic strategy there may be that we're missing, we still need to build a robot, and it probably will have to stack totes, and be able to place containers on top of stacks that we or an alliance member make. It also probably ought to be able to right a tipped container before stacking it (or otherwise be able to deal with tipped containers), and also ought to be able to cap a stack of 3 yellow totes on the step, for that extra 20 coop points.

We're still in the design and prototype stage, and time keeps moving along. We do have a sort of working prototype of a "short stacker", and we have a working prototype of a grabber that can grasp containers or totes either upright or sideways. We haven't yet designed all of the stuff that makes these things move.

There are some teams that are pretty clever about figuring out a trick strategy....we've usually been more interested in making a robot that plays the obvious game, hopefully in a relatively fast and simple way.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our team this year is going for the 3 tote Auto, so are design pulls the totes into the robot and a pneumatic piston holds the tote in place as our elevator latches on and pulls it up one tote level and then when the next tote slides underneath the elevator will move down and stack the first tote while picking up the second. Our hope it to keep driving while our robot stacks totes. We are using Mecanum drive this year.

IMO it seems like this sounded like a scoiuting attempt, and not a help attempt. If you are having design problems ill say this. Break down scoring into actions and figure out what your robots need to perform. If you are looking at landfill totes the resources (totes) aren't all in the same orientation.This game was really well designed. But the wall of tasks is absolutely doable but the best way break a wall is to look for weakness. If you want more specific help I know a lot of people would be happy tp help (me included)

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

four totes at a time. Then four cans at a time... then....

http://application.denofgeek.com/pic...derman2/01.jpg

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Don't worry there is absolutely something missing and its either the game breaker, or I am missing out on GDC laughing at my feeble attempts at cracking this game open.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Our current design has been updated to include 2-4 CIM motors depending on how many we want to use to drive and 2 pneumatic pistons capable of lifting 45-50 lbs each. Something like this. We are trying to keep it simple this year but we will see how much longer this lasts...

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

I truly believe that the key to this game, at least at the 20-90 percentiles, is time management. So many game pieces, so little time.

• Get your robot working quickly driving and stacking
  • Unless you have a "conveyor belt" design, you have to drive
  • You have to stack; the platforms aren't that large, and the big points are for putting RCs up high
  • KISS - fancy stuff later if there's time
• Practice, practice, practice
• Write code to automate alignments and frequent motions
• Practice some more
• Write autonomous code
• Figure out how long it takes you to do each thing - including driving and waiting for the human players to feed you game pieces
• Figure out
  1. What's your highest-scoring way to work the landfill and step (with maybe an occasional trip to a human station)
  2. what's your highest-scoring way to work a human station (with maybe an occasional trip to the step)
• Run timed drills on both of those
• Watch videos, adjust, and drill some more
• Make a video of each strategy so the scouts and your alliance partners know that you can really do what you say
• Work out resource allocation for each match with your alliance partners
  • Play to everybody's strengths
  • Don't run into each other
  • Maybe manage some teamwork
• Get out there and score as many points as you can in two minutes and thirty seconds!

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

confirmed...

http://imgur.com/FgOiIV7

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Standard kit chassis, forklifts on an elevator, nothing too radical for us. The biggest debate right now is building a simple arm to grab containers or adjusting the fork width to use the same mechanism. Going to stack only moving one tote high, then grab bottom and repeat, hopefully we will keep the robot height under 42" so we can leave our forks permanently on and move the robot on its back to satisfy the transport configuration.

One thing we are doing different is we are going to grab totes from the wide side, we felt the blocks that extend down 1-2" around the handles are a sturdier place to hold from than the lip of the totes. We're also toying with grabbing two totes at a time for each layer since they are arranged nicely in pairs in the landfill, and the approach from the wide side facilitates this since there is no need for a middle support. If it doesn't pan out we'll cut the forks shorter for just one tote. I hope it works though as I really want to see us trying to drive around with two stacks of 4-6 totes in tow.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Posted a photo today of the Boltbots design entry this year . The robot is constructed entirely from recycled material . Lifting frame is Tele-Power poles from office renovation dumpster , Green Street sign found in a ditch used at the top for support brackets . 80/20 was acquired from a local collage scrap bin .

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/41182?

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

* C-shaped drive base w/ 4 wheel tank drive powered by 4 CIMs
* Internal stacker w/ 2-stage scissor lift powered by Dart Actuator
* Fold-out clamping acquirer with wheels set up for intake and expulsion
* Linear guides for stack stability

This is all under construction now... We have some ideas to add later, time permitting.... Our prototyping leads us to believe we'll be able to stack a recycling bin on top of five totes internally and set them on a scoring platform in under 30 seconds... We'll see what it actually does in a week or so.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

This morning I would have said we were changing our design to a snow plow.

Now the weather looks like the 'snow' will come a day early when it's warm and thus be mere rain.

Weather presents the major risk with attempting anything mildly complex using in-house machining - we have the schedule, labor, tools and skill - but for at least 1 week every season we don't always have weather on our side.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Two robots. That's all I'm going to say for now.

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

4 lead screw lifts each with a pair of fingers that can lift totes from the end or sides or RCs. Lifts 4 different objects to different heights simultaneously. 45 deg. angled omni drive. Is capable of capping a four stack of totes.

Doug


http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/41197?

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

We are taking pieces from each of the Ri3D competitors. You can probably guess which aspects. Instead of trying to create an entire new mechanism to complete the tasks, we are spending all of our time making what we have work better. It worked very well for us last year and we are sticking with it

Re: What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)
 

Hmm let's see.

Zero sponsors
Zero mentors
Six students
One coach
A drill
A screwdriver
A wrench
And a sawsall.

We're here to compete!

Our bot will do everything except fly!

And we're working on that too :)