Yeah i saw it done but they braced the robot on top of the bar. You cant do that this year. youd have to operate each leg seperatly. it ruins the point of getting past the bar quickly and limits the moving parts for other mechanisms that you might want to use. very inefficient and not a championship strategy.

That is a possibility, but it would have to be one sturdy robot to take all the punishment from flopping over.

We're going under, and we have a stacker. Someone else mentioned a scissor design, which is what we're doing. But no one has talked about lifting a stack from the bottom. You only need to be able to lift a single bin from ground level to, what, 25" off the ground? Makes it way easier than trying to lift a bin to the top. Sure, it's heavier, perhaps less stabile, but we don't think that's going to be much of a problem. Can't get bins around the bars, but also, we don't think that's much of a problem. We hadn't considered people putting bins at the bars to prevent passing, but with each alley being 6 feet wide, it seems kind of unlikely that one would be completely blocked. Think of how many points you would waste putting at least three, more likely five, bins at each alley, and that would only block one way traffic. Same with king of the hill robots. Make your robot move fast enough, and it can either get around or push by any robot suctioned to the hill.

Limbo 'bot
 

Team 706 has decided to become like the CIA, very secret, and one leak: me. We have decided to go with an interesting robot idea. We call it Jack in the Bin 'Bot. The outer cover of this robot looks like a bin, and then, after a while, it just pops out, scaring the other robots into doing what we tell them to. Our other idea was to be a Benedict Arnold 'bot, but the whole non-winning concept didn't work too well. ;) Actually, we decided stacking bins would be cool, controlling the ramp, and also fitting under the bar is the best way to go, of course. What conbination of these things we pick you'll find out in February.

Nice idea! Thanks for sharing with us. Can't wait to see it. With S.P.A.M. you'll find out in Feb. like everyone else. I'm not gonna spill the beans.

Same with us. We had <ahem> issues</ahem> with sharing robot design before the end of the build. i didnt see it as a big deal though. You just have to be sure you're better at doing your strategy than others.

well, i think someone from our team already did that.

I was just thinking, you guys are called SPAM for a reason. You guys are all over these forums. i dunno i found that amusing.

Squarebot
 

The genius engineers back here in the 706 building area have designed another wondrous creation: Squarebot! This robot is just a cube that moves around via weight shifting. It does a whole lot of things, just don't ask me how or what things exactly!
Oh, and I always though team SPAM just liked canned meat. . . . :P

14"bar
 

Hi everyone.
My team has also decided to go underneath the bar and be able to stalk at the same time. All the ideas put up are great but there are many flaws to them. The fork lift it is not as efficient due to the stability that the box will have while going up in order to be placed. Now the arm which will steal the boxes put them over the bar then trying to close your arm up go underneath the bar its just not the thing to do in a two minute match. My team has combined the forklift idea and the arm and has come up with a quite interesting design.

Actually, there's a question I have been pondering about the 14 in. bar. The light must be on top and visible within 100 ft. Won't this take up most of the height limit needed to go under the bar?


BTW, wouldn't going under the bar be much faster than going up the ramp?

The light can be sunken into the bot a little, as long as it is still visible. You could also put it "in" a corner to improve visibility and save space.

(What if you connected the wires with a very loose "twist" tied thing, and when you run under the bar, the light gets knocked off... no damage, less height, random obstacle in the way! LOL, I'm kidding)

Our design was trying to get under the bar, but with what the subdesign groups are coming up with, I'm not thinking it'll go under very easily..

I think quite a few teams might start out trying to go under the bar, but get frustrated with what they have to leave out and scrap it.

I'm confused by all of this talk of robots needing to be less than 14" tall in some orientation to go across that mid-field barrier.

It's nonsense.