Re: Realse of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Clark,

I talked to Baker, and we agree it is just a conicidence..... :)

Chris

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Update: I just received a call from El Jorge and he informed me the robot is in good condition and he is continuously checking the auto modes so we will run flawlessly.

(Did not really happen, no imaginary objects were harmed in creation of this post.)

Re: Realse of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Not all are buttons. Some are blinky lights. Ooooh. Aaah. More work was done on this OI after the pic was taken. I was hoping that the students who created this masterpiece would post more on this, but they are playing possum.

This year's arm is the KatsKlaw arm on "the juice". Instead of a 24 dp turret gear (04), this is a 12 dp turret gear with a 3/4" face. Last year's arm had a 20" vertical stroke, and this year's has a 22". Last year's elbow was this wimpy worm gear that broke about 7 times during the year. This year's elbow uses 2 kit boxes, an Atwood motor, some 35 series chain and a go-kart sprocket. ugh.

One night, at practice our 2 experienced drivers were getting out of hand with the arm. They were picking up goals made from aluminum pipe and they even started to pick up our 2004 robot before a few of us mentors started yelling at them. It is a wicked arm. We tried breaking it, and ended up bending the top of the aluminum mast, but after adding some gussets to the weak areas, it is way strong.

Ok, I will shut up now.

Andy B.

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Just to wonder... How bad is your CG? The kit gearboxes are heavy enough alone, but 2?? and an Atwood to power? That's probably at least 5 pounds at what looks like 4.5 feet. I sure hope you guys have anti-tipping measures.
;)

Potential CG issues aside, great looking robot!

--Eric

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Yet another awesome machine by the Kokomo crew.
Looks great, Good Luck in your competitions from friends on Team 47.

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Good point, Eric. We wrestled with this for a while. An early idea was to get a long flexible shaft to transfer the torque from below. But the right-sized flexible shaft for this cost $1000 and was too heavy itself. So, we did our best to cut material out of those gears in the kit gearbox.

Also, we have a large outrigger on the back of our robot. It is shown in the stowed position on our website, but you can see it as it is painted bright red.

Andy B.

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

Why did you not use the more common solution (in FIRST) of chain driving the joint from a lower point?

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

We can tip the robot about 45 degrees to the side by hand before it threatens to fall over. It basically will not tip forward. Backwards is an issue, which we have addressed with the outrigger. In practice, its fresh paint left red streaks on the carpet when our drivers intentionally tried to do a wheelie. :ahh:

We did have one near catastrophe while the driver was getting crazy, swinging a vision tetra around on the end of the arm after activating one of our secret weapons. Skyhook came within inches of slamming its arm against the ground before a quick-thinking team member ran up and yanked the wildly tilting base back down. That situation definitely won't arise in competition, fortunately.

Re: Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"
 

It's being driven from as low as it can be. The extending arm limits our options for mounting motors.