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Hey All!
Just wanted to make everyone aware that there are now 4 preview pics of this years RAPTAR Robot in the gallery. They can be found here:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6214
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6215
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6216
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6217

Any Questions/Comments are appreciated!
Note: It's not done yet...
See you at VCU & Nats!

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looks like you are going for ball herding. I see a mount for an arm, so presumably you are going in for hanging and/or large ball manipulation.

It looks like you wont be able to get on the platfor at all; you are too wide to get around the stationary goal (from my experience, anyway, looks like you are 3' wide or so, assuming you are using all of the 3'x2'6") and with those wheels you will have a hard time getting up the step. If you had more ground clearence, you might be able to, but not as it is now.

But, as you said, it is unfished, so what else can we expect, subsytem-wise?

Oh, a question about your electronics: is it safe to mount them on a conducting surface? We used wood last year because of this (we graduated to LEXAN this year!)

Re: 1132 Previews
 

Yeah, ball control is our primary strategy.
We do not plan on even touching the platform. So, we designed our drive based on last year's design. It is 3' wide, as you suspected.
We have a plow (similar to last year) for herding. It's a set of wings that extends around 5' wide.
We also have 2 goal hooks for grabbing a goal. You can see the supports on the front of our bot in a few pics.
Finally the arm. It is used for capping. Right now, we're designing it to work just with the mobiles. Once it's complete, if we have the time, we plan to try and expand it to cap the large goals.
As of now it drives like a champ.

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Sorry for the double post, but I have some updates
Well, first off we weighed in at 91 lbs w/o our battery. The goal hooks (not pictured) were installed at the time of weighing as well as 90% of our plow, and everything for the arm pictured thus far.
So, predicted weight 105 w/ battery, leaving us roughly 25 lbs for our arm.
Not too shabby.
Also, I'm hoping to upload some links to video clips within the next day or two of us in action. I hope to edit this post to do so, so keep checking back every now and then.
Later!

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It looks like you didn't use your multi-drive system? any particular reason?

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Yes, there are a few resons:
1. Lack of resources
We didn't quite have the resources we needed to put it together in time this year

2. Strategy
Reviewing the game, we determined that the multi drive would not be a sufficent advantage and it would require a major design change.

3. Pre season design/strategy
It looks like my thread from last fall was removed, so I'm going to put a link to my paper here. I put up a paper last fall on strategy, both in the design and functionality. I've gotten quite a few good comments on it.
Basically, we're sticking with what we're good at, what we know works.
Trying new things is great and all, but when and why are two important reasons. Just check out the paper...

I have to say though, that I am very pleased with our standard drive this year. The design improvements have done us justice, and it operates much smoother than last year.

Here's a link to the paper:
http://raptar.net/stuff/RobDesNut.doc