pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

The long awaited follow up to the seven stack creating rookie wonder Simbot Sally is here for all to see. Presenting GM & Simbotics, Team 1114's second creation, Simbot Simon.

Here are all the wonderful details:

- 2 wheel, 4 motor (drill and f.p.) strafing drive system, steering with the globe motors.

- 4 independent pneumatic wheel lifters to get us on the decks.

- Omni directional sensors on each each wheel to detect the deck, and automatically raise and lower each wheel. (There is a manual override)

- 13 ft reach on our arm, with 3 degrees of freedom (shoulder, elbow, extension)

- Carbon Fiber gripper

Here's a link to some video of us doing our thing.
www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~imackenz/1114_chassis.wmv

We built two robots, most of the video is with our practice guy.

If there are any questions, please post away.

The team will be competing in Pittsburgh, Long Island, Toronto and Atlanta. Come by the pits and say hi.

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

WOW! honestly, I can't think of a better way to describe that marvel of a robot. I have two questions, first, what is the mechanism for telescoping the arm? Is it threaded rod attached to that chip motor? And second what are the non driven wheels? How do they work?

Once again, Nice work! Cant wait to see it @ the Hershey Center

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

The telescoping arm is raised and lowered via a ball screw powered by the CIM. It runs way smoother than I ever would have expected it to.

As for the non driven wheels, those are just simple ball casters. Initially we wanted to go with four independently controlled gear boxes, but we just didn't have the weight or the motors. We then considered having separate steering modules for both the front and rear wheels, but again we just didn't have the weight for four gearboxes. Also, we didn't want to limit our mobility by having pairs of wheels linked. Eventually we settled on the two, two motor independently controlled gear boxes. We felt this setup gave us the most agility and the least weight.

We chose the ball caster because we liked how the didn't resist movement in any directions, compared to swivel casters and omniwheels. The debate over omniwheels was big amongst our team, with myself being one of the most notable supporters of the omnis. Considering how the ball casters have performed so far, I can definitely say that I've been silenced.

If you have any more questions come find me in Long Island, Toronto or Atlanta.

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

Whoa! For the second year in a row, 1114 astounds me with their awesome robots. That's a pretty cool swerve you guys have got there...really, really impressive; its a lot more than can be said for our team's drive train :rolleyes:

How fast does it go?

And how do you guys control it?

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

wow that robot looks great... does that picture show the robot capping the goal from BEHIND the stationary goal? or is it about to hang? Beacause at the regionals I saw a lot of cappers putting the ball from the front of the net...if it just capped from behind i'm at a loss for words

can't wait to play you guys at canadian regionals :)

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

We can cap from the floor, the lower deck, or the upper deck. It gets a little crowded up there sometimes. Theory6, you did pretty good yourselves this past weekend. A good capper/hanger and a good ball catcher can go a long way this year. I can't wait to see your machine in action at the Canadian Regional.

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

cant wait until long island to see you guys in action

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

Knowing that we've impressed the Cheesy Poofs makes me feel very good about what we've done. Thanks.

Our top speed is about 11 ft/sec, but we rarely have found a need to travel that fast on this year's congested playing field.

The joystick controls are fairly intuitive, with the joystick position creating a vector which represents speed and direction of travel of the robot. On the bottom of the joystick we have a finger dial which is used for changing the orientation of the robot. Basically, if you never use the dial the robot should never deviate from it's original orientation. It's pretty cool. Come check it out when you have a chance.

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

Very nice. That bot looks awesome, I wish I could see it before Atlanta though, too bad SBPLI and UTC are the same weekend. Well I really can't wait to see another great bot from 1114.

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

nice robot there buddy... wish if it was that easy for our bot to move around like that!

Re: pic: GM & Simbotics, 1114 -- Simon Capping A Goal
 

very nice!! see ya guys at nats again??... if so see ya guys there.... hopefully we are next to each other again that was cool.