Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Thanks guys for the compliments. One of our design guys works at hardware store. As you know FIRST "haunts" you where ever you are. He found one of the dog leash loooking things you drill in to the ground. I know there's another name for it. Anyway he ended up bending PVC with a heat dryer to make it.

I personally thought 135's rake grabber was really effective. You guys where awesome in the final matches. I also enjoyed watching 111's robot pick up two in one motion from the auto. loading zone. 1024's design was very effective and very fast. Thanks for the high score at Boilermaker.

Jackie

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Yeah...that was us!

It has a pivoting middle finger that, when lowered, can go into the tetra and then be raised, ripping it off the autoloader. Once raised, the finger is the middle spike of a trident. Pictures soon.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

It was just part of our strategy... Unless we needed to run across the field we didn't. I think at Lone Star we may have only done it once, and that was because the opportunity was just so open. Every other match we did fine just controlling two rows and we never needed to go run around further away from our starting place.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I must say that the best tetra grabber would be team 71's. In addition to storing and lifting multiple tetras, team 71 was able to stabilize the dangling movement with a cone. It was very well thought out and performed greatly.

I am partial to say team 857 had the most unique grabber. They were my favorites at the Midwest Regional because of their grabber. Able to manipulate the shapes of the tetras in order to stack three or four on the robot's "back", team 857 could slide tetras up and swing them down onto the goal. It was a very keen concept if I may say so.

As far as the best hold on a tetra, I would say team 537's grabber accomplished it relatively well.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

A little off topic, but 1641 COULD be stopped, but it took a really good pusher, or sometimes even two, during which our alliance partners were capping away. :)

As for the fall, we were only capping one at that point, and we were just seeing if we could go higher than the other machine. Turned out we couldn't. Didn't hurt much, actually, one little piece snapped off and everything else was just fine. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, 64 (Gila Monsters) on the opposing team caught us on the way down. :)

That was the only time we tipped the entire competition, and it's not going to happen again, after some upgrades on Thursday at the Championship!

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

56 and 237

all i need to say

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Sorry about pulling you over bee's, believe me, it wasn't intentional.

I have to say that the most unique tetra grabber I've seen is 85's. Their two screws are just cool to watch in action.

I think that 868 was one of the most effective I've seen, they could almost always get 2 stacks of 4 and were hard to play defence on.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I was impressed with several simple but effective grippers at both GLR and West Michigan. I was especially impressed with several of the rookies at WMR. Unfortunately, I'd probably get the team numbers wrong if I attempted to list my favorites.

I put the composite picture from our pit display on my website: Pierce Family Website. With any luck I'll get more of the pictures loaded this weekend.

P.S. Yes, Carl was reminded to wear his safety glasses after the shot.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

The corkscrew idea is great! very stable but still able to quickly uncap,
it seems that baxter also demonstrated this concept.
It will be interesting to see the device at Nationals,

http://baxterbombsquad.com/

Does 85 or 16 have any complaints about the speed or consistency of using the corkscrew?

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

There are many good things about the cork-screw.

Very reliable. When we grab a tetra we won't drop it until we want to.

Easy to pick things up. Off the ground, human player or auto load

Easy to let things go. When we got stuck in other people just un screw them. big window for a drop zone on a goal.

Durable. PVC can take a lot of abuse!


Some bad things.

Tetra sway can be a problem.

Auto load zone is touchy.


Way to go Carl It works just like a candy machine!

Mr.Y

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Thanks for the compliments guys. BOB (85) is a fun robot to drive. Eric and I have put BOB through alot of tough matches with only minor repairs. The screws have been incredibly reliable and durable (still on our first set). The only thing that I can see as a problem with the screws would be the swaying. Usually as the arm is brought down with the tetra centered over its target it stops swaying but once in a while it'll miss and I'll have to make a corrective movement which takes time. Otherwise the speed is great we haven't had a tetra fall off or get pulled off yet, however we have intentionally unscrewed them to avoid being pulled over. Auto loading is becoming less of an issue as Eric and I figure out the best procedure. It just takes time and practice on those short practice Thursdays.



Have a great weekend and hope to see you all at the Championship, feel free to stop by our pits and chat.

-Carl

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

team 237s gripper was pretty darn cool looking and preformed well as always. 103 didnt drop many tetras either and we went to two regionals they were at.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

Ours was most definitly actuated. It bent at the wrist and was attached to a extending boom on a 270 degree turret.

We were number 1 seed :( I'd say 69 and us were extremely evenly matched, one on one.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

135 has a quick and effective method of picking up tetras and stacking them.

I believe our method of picking tetras up is effective. We can stack vision tetras which i didnt see too much of.

Re: BEST Tetra Grabber
 

I was talking about the SoCal regional. I haven't had an opportunity to see your gripper but I might at championships :) .