It's one thing to be able to pull a vehicle while it's in neutral. As M pointed out earlier, you only overcame static friction if it was in neutral.

Pulling a vehicle while it's in gear is a totally different story.

Also, as stated earlier, we had robots routinely pulling a truck, in neutral, at Cal Games, this year, as a side event.

Very cool stuff.

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removed a little confusing word
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Yes that would be us, the team with the fastest time...as has been stated numerous times, not that impressive of a feat though...

Cory

Ability to generate massive power
 

using all 3 of the motors provided in the last years kit it is possible to create 3 horsepower without tripping the breaker, geared right you would be able to pull quite a hefty load. Not to mention the drills are bigger this year.

Erick

yea ok...
 

i think i'll believe that when i see it..sorry but that's just how i see it...:D

Re: yea ok...
 

See this picture:

And also, this is of the final results for the truck pull competition.
Both of the pictures are from the California Robot Games.

:ahh:

You resurrect a dead thread so you can post an emoticon?

Are you kidding me?

I want my 30 seconds back.

a lot of robots could pull trucks last year.... i know ours could.

Have you tried pulling one in gear? I think that there is a slight chance that your bot might be able to pull it. (If anyone can, its probably you guys) I doubt it can be done though..

Cory

towing a car..
 

Who want to see truck pull at Cal Game this year again???

I want to see posts telling me you are interested!

I will bring my VW bug...bet it could be pulled in gear. Low compression VW engines!!!

And Ken, i woul love to see a truck push, because the robots are designed to push, not pull. They depend on traction, and the high mounting point of a rope lifts the bot when its under tension.

Unfortunately, because of different shapes and sizes of robots, this really wouldn't be possible. Some robots like WildStang are angled and won't get a solid mating surface.

You could permit a team member to weigh the robot down like 93 did in their video. Either that or bring with a set of lead weights to standardize the weight of each robot.

Personally, I prefer the letting the teams decide, because they know best how much traction their robot needs. More weight isn't always best, because then the more you have to accelerate.

Also, I hope that's a manual VW and not an automatic. The torque converter might hinder things, as would the planetary transmission (as most automatics use these days). Challenge: The robot who starts the engine the fastest wins!


The other option is to bring a full size weight lifting machine (those multi-function one's with the leg press). Connect the leg press to the robot. The cables on these usually come from a pulley that's positioned at ground level, so if anything the robots would have more traction. The robot that can "leg press" the most weight wins.

It went ok last year when we use a cable to hook the robots up with the truck. Pushing seems to be a better idea, we just need a straight surface for the robot to push at.

Remember an idea for a traction measurement device? We can easily use something similar, by using a piece of wood with right angle support behind it, so the robot will always push against the wood against a straight surface, and the back of the wood will attach to the car some how.