World's Lightest Ramps
 

So half way through the first day of our district event today, I went with one of our mentors to buy supplies for a ramp. The requirements we had for this ramp were simple, it had endure constant usage for two days minimum, it had to quickly move totes to a flat position, and finally it had to be quickly built with only a pits worth of tools. Here is the kicker it had to weigh in at less than 1.25lb.

I am happy to say that we successfully built such a ramp. Its final weight is 1.1lb and works fast. It is made out of packing tape and pink shop foam from "Home Depot". This ultra light ramp is saving our team and has helped us up our performance.

This exprince has lead me to wonder, what is the lightest ramp you have seen and what was it made of?

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

How about 0 lbs? There are dozens of ramps available on the field...

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

But you get a foul for cutting a tote in half on the field! :rolleyes:

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

I understand the strategy of using a tote as a ramp. However I have yet to see my team keep the base tote from moving.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

Those ramps dont weight Zero though. :rolleyes:

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

however much a gym floor weighs, or maybe a tote, since we use that too.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

would the foam from your 2013 robot have worked similarly?

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

Most likely not. That was more of a packing foam we used on the bottom. What we made today was an actual constructed assembely that needs to be ridged but light. That is why pink shop isolation foam works well. It is way more brittle than the our 2013 cushion, that was like a giant pool noddle.

Just a clarification for others, our teams 2013 robot was just a climber so it had no wheels to drive with. Instead we opted to put a giant block of closed cell foam on the bottom just incase it fell. Lucky for us it only fell twice, both before season.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

There have been lots of lightweight ramp designs posted over the season, a simple search would yield most of them.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

For $10, you can go to Home Depot and buy materials for a ramp, have it weigh 2.8lbs, build it in 1/2 hour, help you score up to 5 totes more, and run your robot on 1 CIM per side on the drive motors (to make weight) and work.
Our driver said on Wed he wanted to build a ramp and I literally laughed.


I stand corrected.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

1551 was weighing a carboard box to use as a ramp. They had a pound of weight to spare and it was under a pound, I'm not sure if they actually used it in a match.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

4mm thick corrugated 'twinwall' polypropylene sheets can be purchased from Home Depot. One 3' x 6' sheet weighs ~3.5 lb per HD website, and I don't think you'd use more than a third of it to make one ramp.

Ask 469 if you see them -- I think their ramp is made of something similar. It worked well at St. Joe.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

It was almost a "FOR SALE" sign for added comedy. But that ramp was retired - the next one will be different.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

Depends how loosely you define a ramp.

If your goal is to just get the totes to land correctly, all it takes is a sheet of some slick material in front of the chute to get the totes to land properly. The reduced friction against the edge allows the tote to just slide forward and land on its bottom rather than rotate about its edge and land on its front.

A 1/16 sheet of polycarb works really well. The only issue is that it'll slide around, so attaching some high grip material/tread to the bottom prevents it from moving too easily.

Re: World's Lightest Ramps
 

Our ramp weighs in at 0.4 pounds...pretty light I would say.
-Ronnie