Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I did see 69, 330, and 980, but I wasn't entirely impressed with their "chopstick" design (granted, they were effective, but they did have their weaknesses). The advantage to it was that they could all cap very fast (I knew when 69 picked 330 that they were going to win the regional). I did like 188's gripper (kind of like our's but we have an active 3-pronged gripper). With all of these teams, if you bumped them hard enough, they could lose it. The difference was how easily they could lose it.

I guess the one I liked the best was 69s just because it was so darn fast. They didn't get that #1 seed for nothing!

-Daniel

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Team 997 has a beautifully-machined grabber that can hold and stack at least six tetras at once.

Team 1595 has a double-pronged skewer that was just about identical to all the other skewers I saw, except that their's retracted to drop the tetra. Rather than backing up and risking knocking something off, they place the tetra, the skewers slide back inside the arm, and Bob's your uncle -- the tetra is in place. One of the few mechanisms that made me slap my forehead in a why-didn't-I-think-of-that way.

Team 492 has a simple single-prong skewer. Their claim to grabbing fame is that they use the little globe motor to tilt the holder back against their arm when they are carrying it. It's not quite as strong as a pneumatic grabber, but it's fast, simple and reliable, just like their whole robot. You'll notice it at Atlanta.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

i would say 118 and then 233. 118s chainzilla worked awesome the pneumatic poles that came out of the elbows worked perfect and 233s double hook was also simple yet very effective :D

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I would say the most simplest designs has to be 179's. It is just perfect for their super fast drive train. I also like 188's. They probably have one of the most unique designs I have ever seen with a little more tweaking they can be a very fast capper, rivaling double capper like Beatty and Wildstang.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

The coolest gripper that I have seen was our old one. The way we did it was with two 2" nylon slips that had helix's cut into them. we had a motor pulling a cable the was pulling the very tip of the arm to push the nylon slips. there was a pin in the helix's that when the nylon slips got pushed back it would rotate them. that rotating action gripped our gripper. it was a cool design that ken came up with but it took too long to grab a tetra.


the coolest design that i see that was worked really good was Team Hammond's picker-upper. it can pick up 2 at a time and gives them the stability to cap quick. sure they only cap like 3 or 4 times a match because they use their human player all the time, but capping 2 with that are 4 times a match is a lot of tetras.

i also like 269s arm. they put a tetra onto the upper holder then they go back into the human player zone and the human player puts the second one underneath it.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

33 the killer bees had an awesome gripper. it was an active passive grabber.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

1) 1414
2) 1461 i think is saw on Nasa Tv at las vegas
3) 1414

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Wildstang's tetra grabber is very sweet. That machine can grab tetra from the Auto-Loader like it's nothing.

Team 233 (Think Pink) has a great telescoping arm with a very simple tetra grabber, looks awesome the way it works.

I do want to give credit to team 179 (Swampthing) for coming up with that arm in 1 day. they had a flipper in the beginning which was pretty cool to watch, but it required them to line up the robot in the right place. Right after the scrimmage at their school, they decided to come up with something more efficient and they have proved it throughout the Florida and Palmetto Regional.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I have only been to GTR but while I was there I was able to see 639's awesome tetra grabber. That is the second year in a row I have been extremely impressed by Code Red's bot.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

There are many different designs this year, and for favorites I like 173 (simple, fast, and accurate), 7 (unique, fast, and can stack in auto, plus I like ice cream), 33 (how can you not like them?), and 122 (low center of gravity, stacks quick, etc.)

For me, it's not complexity, coolness, or anything else, just if they can pick up quick, stack quick, and hold onto those tetras! I really don't like teams that have tetras swinging on a little hook, they are hard to control and the tetras like to fall off. I also am not a huge fan of robots who have a tall tower to place a tetra on top, like 111 and 71 this year.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Please explain the active passiveness, and also does anyone have any good pics/ vids of bomb squad's corkscrew?

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I loved 868, 67, and 85 this year. 868's ability to place 4 tetras at once was just awesome to me. 67, I don't know if it was the driving or the device itself, but they made it look like nothing to grab and stack tetras. Like they could do it without even trying. 85 I just thought was cool because it looked like a spring and twirled around. The little kids by me liked it too...

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Active passive. They had an active element to there grabber actuated by a cylinder. It helpd get the tetras easier from the auto lodaer but when they held it it was a passive grabber. They never firmly held it. If you had time and talent you could take it away from them.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Thanks, our grippers are what got us the Creativity Award at West Michigan. It sounds like the Bomb Squad's is similar to our design. Ours was made out of schedule 80 PVC electrical conduit. Carl, the new senior who came up with the idea, says it was inspired by a vending machine.

Team 85 Pictures.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Yeah... I prolly should have just used a picture but what's the fun in that....

NOTE: okay.... the fourm dosn't like a lot of spaces so insted of spaces you get *. Deal with it.