Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

I've seen a lot of cool hooks used for hanging over the last couple and it got me wondering what kind of hooks people are using this year.

If you are using a hook this year:

What kind of hook is it?
What is it made of and how heavy is it?
Did you make it or did you buy it?
How did you make it or where did you buy it?
From current competitions, which kind of hooks have you seen working best?
Does it stay attached to the arm or does it come off when you hang?
If it come unattached how did you do it? Velcro? Shear pin?



My team is using a pirate like single pronged hook made of aluminum on a band saw. It weighs less than 1/2 lb and it comes unattached with either the shear pin or velcro.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

we have a grapling hook made out of aluminum. It was waterjetted by one of our big sponsors American Aircraft. It comes unattached by Velcro. The actual part of the arm is like folded in with our multiplier ball grabber then when we are ready, (it is srping loaded) the second portion of the arm swings out, we position the hook, pull away, and then let the winch do the rest.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Our hook is made out of carbon fiber. It slips onto the end of a long piece of fiberglass that we retract once the hook is on the bar. It's then connected to the robot by a long piece of Spectra. There's a little catch on the hook that holds it on to the bar. Oh, and we cut it on a band saw.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

nothing fancy, a simple caribeaner attached to the bot w/ steel cable....KISS

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Is carbon fiber allowed this year? Best check.

Our hook was just a piece of 1/4 x 5/8 steel bent with a hammer. It was mounted somewhat oddly - sort of horizontally with the hook part down. It would rub the bar and flip up into position. The cable and tube spring tension was all that held it in place. Crude but effective. We got all 4 robots on the bar in one match.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Carbon Fiber is allowed this year since there's no ban on exotic materials like previous years. As long as you can account for it in your $3500 limit you can us it.

Our hook is more than just a hook. For those of you who were at the New Jersey regional you know what I'm talking about. It is aluminum tube (1"x1") cut and tig welded together with four 90 degree bends (two per side) that actually make two points to hook on to. Inside these hooks are two rollers, one on each side, connected by a timing belt to each other. This belt and the pulleys ride on the bar. Connected to one of the pulleys is a sprocket and a chain going to another sprocket and a motor on top of the hook. Once the arm is extended with two pneumatic cylinders the hook reaches over the bar and the cylinders are then retracted pulling us up. Now here's the fun part, when another robot goes for the bar, we just activate the motor and our robot still hooked and hanging can move sideways back and forth across the bar to block the opponents chance of hanging. There's a photo of our hook in the "Pics from NJ", the first column second photo down. www.pbase.com/sscamatt/robot...ew jersey day 1

[EDIT] I'm having problems getting the link to work. "jersey day 1" is also part of the link but I can't get it included. If you go to the "General Forum" then to "Pics from NJ" click the link in the first post our robot hook is shown in the first column second pic down. And if anyone knows how to make the link work please let me know.[EDIT]

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

We definately had the most obvious hook, a CANE! See http://1418.org

(Incedentally, we were complemented on it when we won rookie all-star)

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

http://www.pbase.com/sscamatt/robot....rsey%20day%201

you can insert "%20" in place of any blanks.

www.pbase.com/sscamatt/robot...ew jersey day 1

I visited J&J on Saturday and saw your rolling hook in action. It was very impressive. One match you kept an opponent from scoring by making them place their hook on top of yours. Not supported by the bar= no score.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Here is our hook. It is made out of 1/2 aluminum round stock. IT is just like a body clip.

The diameter of the opening in the hook is smaller than that of the bar therefore it snaps back around the bar attaching us to the bar.

(the only way to get us of the bar is upwards....)

here is the link:

http://www.tahsroboticsteam.org/Pict...n/100_0712.JPG

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Since we had the weight luxury, we went ahead and made our hooks from 1/4 inch thick 1 & 1/4 wide steel barstock. The hooks probably weigh in, at most, about a pound a piece and have 1/8 thick sheet latex glued on to improve grip. They are mounted at the mid-section of our plow/ball grabber with two or three 1/4-20 bolts

We made it by cutting the steel with a reciprocating saw, cold forging it with a hammer, and then radiused it around a pipe. (Yes it was hard to do)

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Here is a direct link to the picture of our robot with the hook/Shimmy on the left.

http://www.pbase.com/image/26627878

And look, in the background!! Itsa ME!! Before I shaved my beard, and still with hair (which may change by next week cause of a bet I made with the team...)


Edit: A link would be nice to include! :-D
Edit 2: A working link, that is...

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

We made ours outta steel 3/8" bar stock. We then bent it on the 'ol brake. Looks like it was made by Jesse James himself. It is kinda the shape of the top of a pimp cane.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

our 2 hooks ( 6" apart ) are 1/8" alluminum plate. they were originaly 2 1/4" plates, but we reduced it to save weight. we cut them on the band saw :D i cant believe it actualy holds the weight of the robot, but it does....

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Ours is some sort of wall mounted hook made from tubular steel we bought from home depot. It surely weighs under a 6 ounces or so, and it has not come close to thinking about failing yet. It sits in a little holder and comes off when we hang and is attached with 3/16 steel cable (total weight, around 4 ounces.) I think that is KISS.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

We have hooks made out of 3/8" polycarbonate. Here's a picture.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

Attached is a pic of a prototype very very similar to the one people will see in Canada. :) Maybe we'll get out some more pics of our robot soon.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

We had a three prong grappling hook for a while, but at Philly we changed it to a two pronged hook with two little pieces that would go taut when there was tension on the hook. After this hook being knocked out when uncapping the 2X ball, we velcroed it in. Ours is inside our arm and comes out with tension and then the arm goes back down and the winch does the work. We are definitely going back to a 3 prong hook though, it's stronger and more dependable, but this time we are going to make it out of something stronger. As to materials and weight, I'm not sure anymore.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

I'll try and get a picture later on, but I would like to describe our rather funny hook.

We have bosch extrusion with aluminum gussets (stronger than anything we got on our chassis :p ) and a piece of surgical tubing ziptied to the interior to increase friction. It's rather ugly-looking, but it sure is easily replacable.

Also, I like #852's hook... very, very cool... was that a spare you were carting along when you went up during award ceremonies, or were you winning Motorola Quality for something that accidentally snapped off your bot? ;) (just kidding)

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

This year we used 1/4" steel rods bent into hooks. They have worked well for us, are light weight, and are easy to replace if they get a little bent.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

donno is this is considered a hook but its how we hang..

http://www.valleytech.k12.ma.us/robo...UCFReg2100.JPG

its just extruded aluminum. nothing special its very light too it weights about .5 pounds per foot.

our original hook was aluminum..

http://www.valleytech.k12.ma.us/robo...4_212hook7.JPG

made in machine shop at school. very simple but our over all design was 40lbs over weight.. so we changed it to the extruded aluminum. worked very well and now with that we can guard the top plat form and hang at any moment.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

our hook is a almost exact representation of captain hooks "hand". it's made out of i believe 1/2" aluminum rod and fits on a track that is on our "boom". it serves as a 2 on one function considering it's Afro Engineered (sorry joel) for grabbing the 2X ball. It was made at our lovely sponsors/engineers work place Universal Studios. Therefor meaning it's built to last (was not created in any part by ford).

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

What kind of hook is it?
Double sided hook

What is it made of and how heavy is it?
We made it out of 3/4 in aluminum plate. It is kind of heavy (don't know actual weight)

Did you make it or did you buy it?
We made it.

How did you make it or where did you buy it?
We cut it out on the band saw.

From current competitions, which kind of hooks have you seen working best?
Ours worked every time.

Does it stay attached to the arm or does it come off when you hang?
It stays attached to the arm.

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

haha everyones is so complex... ours worked wonderfully, its just a standard bike holder that you screw into your garage ceiling and hang our bike on i think we purchased it at Lowes or Home Depot like another post mentioned.... it swivels on our robot (so nothing binds). too bad we only got to use it in L.A. this year (no nationals for us....)

Re: Wat the Hook Gon Be?
 

we didn't have a hook, i just liked the topic title of this thread lolz