Re: Grappling Hook?
 

I am not worried about only having one try. With the 20 second time limit, I don't think that you would have time to reload, launch, and lift after missing the first time. Plus a grappling hook could be very reliable if fired behind the bar and banked off of the angle at the bottom of the low goals.

Re: Grappling Hook?
 

The funny thing is, our team started to joke around about this idea because we had a "grappling hook and winch system" in 2013, but as we went through the preliminary design process and started to design the prototype, it seemed more and more practical. I think it will be interesting what will happen this year with that though.

Re: Grappling Hook?
 

We've played around with some grappling hook ideas for past games, although none have ever actually made it onto the robot. If you can, try finding someone from 1592, who designed grappling hook can pullers for last season. They were pretty cool. We may still have the CAD for some 3D printed claws that close on impact around a bar (basically, once the bar hits something inside the grasp of the open claw, the claw closes around the bar), if you might find that helpful I'd be happy to see if we can dig up the files and send them to you.

Re: Grappling Hook?
 

While that might be true, from a reliability perspective I'd take a hook on an arm vs a projectile any day. I'm not saying it won't work, because I think it would, plus it would be very cool to watch.

Re: Grappling Hook?
 

This Sucks.

Q. G18 penalizes an extension more than 15" beyond the robot's frame perimeter. Is plane the measurement occurs in relative to the robot or the field? For instance, a robot uses a grappling hook to climb and tilts 90 degrees as it winches itself up. Do you do the same "virtually transposing the robot to a flat floor" as with R22 to determine if the hook extends greater than 15"?

A. Extensions outside the FRAME PERIMETER are measured in the same plane as the FRAME PERIMETER. As the FRAME PERIMETER is re-oriented (e.g. when a ROBOT drives up the BATTER), the plane of measurement is similarly re-oriented.

I really wish there was some flexibility there.

EDIT:

Smarter people than I can take a look at the geometry below. I used 2.5" to set the robot away from the tower. It seems to me that touching the tower directly behind the RUNG is a penalty as it is 15.7.." inches away.