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A small pneumatics spreadsheet
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I recently graduated from college with a physics degree and so now I don't have much to do. At least, until January 9th rolls around. This spreadsheet is some of the fruits of my boredom.
The basic jist of the thing is an ideal gas calculation of a pneumatic system. Three layers of varying complexity are included. 1. The simplest layer is has no onboard compression capability and only a single cylinder. This sheet will calculate the number of actuations that cylinder may undergo while stored pressure exceeds working pressure; it calculates the number of actuations before the system no longer works with full pressure. This sheet might be nice to get a feel for how much firing a large cylinder might effect your system. 2. The middle layer can provide a decent first order approximation of when the stored pressure of a robot with up to 8 cylinders will fall below the working pressure of those cylinders. The time it calculates is based simply off of how much air, on average, several actuators will use per second (given each actuator's distinct pressures, volumes, and actuation rates). This sheet is a reasonable approximation of if your robot can make it through a match and still have air. 3. The last layer provides a fairly simple simulative analysis of a robot's pressure during a match. Each actuator has several parameters: extension and retraction volume, working pressure, and a default state. One may enter the times (with 1/2 second resolution) at which each actuator fires. A graph of stored pressure vs. time is generated. This sheet is only really applicable if you have a pretty good understanding of what your robot looks like and how a match will unfold. Speaking as a former operator, you don't know how the match will unfold. But you could at least enter in how it is supposed to. My apologies for the wall of text, but if you give me a pulpit I tend to preach. I hope you enjoy, and have a boisterous build season! |
Re: A small pneumatics spreadsheet
Neat stuff! A few suggestions that pop out at me:
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Re: A small pneumatics spreadsheet
Thanks for the feedback GeeTwo!
The air volumes in the original copy were just there from me playing around with it to see what would happen. Integers were just a lot easier to type than small fractions and everything is nearly proportional, so they were nice test numbers for me. Quote:
While the old sheet assumed that you had taken the volume of the tubing into account (or were at least comfortable with ignoring it), the new sheet has the option to include a specific quantity for it, based on the tubing's inner diameter and the length of tubing. The middle complexity sheet only assess air balance, and so never shuts off the compressor. The assumption therein is that t=0 is the first actuation and that the pressure never returns to the maximum storage pressure, which at least in my team's history, is par for a match. That said, the more complex sheet does shut off the compressor when the maximum storage pressure is attained. Cheers! |
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Re: A small pneumatics spreadsheet
Great information.
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The two years prior the compressor was on for short bursts at a time. So, both situations are good to have accounted for. Did I mention, thank you for tabulating this for us? |
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