pic: Team 980 "Thunder Bot" in action
 

looks really cool...
interesting strategy

How fast can it get up the ramp?

We don't plan to make a mad dash up the ramp. But we do plan to knock down bins into our scoring zone before anyone else. Although we can drive up the ramp in high-gear, we figure that there will be a lot of congestion and will generally power our way across the ramp in low gear (as shown in the picture).

The arm on the top telescopes out to over 13 feet. We will be knocking down the bins from our starting position during the autonomous period.

We had some trouble at the Chatsworth Scrimmage with our arm continuing to rotate out over the referee area. However, we solved that with limit switches. It works perfectly now.

I remember that. If some of those refs hadn't bent down they wouldn't be with us today. They actually stopped your match for that. :D

PS. See you in AZ

We had a "close call" the night before the Chatsworth scrimmage - my wife (who now suffers from a mild case of "robo-phobia" :eek: ), deflected the arm with her own when it rotated in the wrong direction. (Unbeknownst to the team, the connector to the arm direction switch had come apart).

So, after Chatsworth, we put in a limit switch to halt and stow the arm after completing a sweep of the bins OR if the arm were to rotate in the wrong direction.

Very nice
 

Very cool robot, guys, the video is amazing - really fast arm.
I guess great minds think alike, eh? :D
Now for a bit of 'spying': How's that telescoping arm actuated? It is really really really fast!

Great job! :)

Re: Very nice
 

I guess that means that your team has an "arm robot" also. What Regionals will you be going to? Any pictures?

Our arm is actuated by centrifugal force. It will contact a bin in 2 seconds.

Sorry if anyone had trouble looking at our web site yesterday. The Pacific Bell server was being a problem suddenly. We have moved the web site. It should be fine now.