Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

330, 237, 64, 1266, and I think one other team (don't remember the number, but they made it to Einstein--had a blue hook with yellow tubing to it) all had some form of slider, at least in theory. The only ones I personally saw working were 237, 330, and the other team.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

868 :)

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

By most impressive do you mean most innovative, most simple for accomplishing its task, or best operated? Each of these things can be factors in deciding whether or not a mechanism is good, with the exception of most innovative. Although, from experience, I can say that building something that’s really cool for the heck of it can be a lot of fun.

2000:
47 - their clam shell could score a ton of balls and steal a ton of balls from their opponents.
111 – their ball conveyor mechanism has been copied by countless teams, including themselves in 2002

2001:
60 / 254 – simple gripper mechanism that used a single actuator and minimal pieces to grab the 30” balls
234 – their arm that was controlled by the student driver’s arm movements

2002:
60 – grabbed 2 goals, lifted them off the ground, and swung them at 30RPM… scary stuff
95 – 18 balls in less than 5 seconds… dang…
111 – improved and adapted ball mechanism from 2000, as well as 2 goal grabbers and a swerve

I disliked the 2003 game. No matter how well you could stack, you could still have your stack knocked over or otherwise be beaten. It didn’t matter how well you could manipulate boxes. Telescoping or other kinds of autonomous flailers didn’t matter, either, because a scoring zone could be cleared by one robot in a minute or so (given half decent drivers). I thought this was a bad year for manipulators, since the majority of teams realized they should clear their opponents’ scoring zone, then rush to the plateau. In the end, there were some cool things made for dealing with the bins, but I wouldn’t look back at that game in particular when looking for a mechanism to adapt or improve upon.

2004: I didn’t catch much of 2004. I was only able to attend Sacramento and SVR.
33 – great ball collecting robot
45 – good herding robot, and great capping robot
60/254 – probably the best all around robot for the game. It did everything: knocked down the 10 point ball in autonomous, dragged a goal, had wings with passive rollers on them for increased herding area and they wouldn’t get hung up on a ball, 3-pronged gripper for easier ball pickup without needing much alignment and good capping, and they could hang from the floor

2005:
22/56/67/233/245/254/330/etc – kept it simple and basically just lanced a tetra and then deposited it, and did it effectively
217/229/968 – kept it almost as simple but added an actuator to better secure the tetra
16 – the pig tail was cool
85 – if the pig tail was cool, then the corkscrews were crazy cool
469 – the scare factor alone from seeing three of their tetras on top of your cap on the center goal is enough for me to add them

I got to coach two of our practice matches at SVR, and in both matches we scored 8 and 9 tetras. The most impressive part about this, imho, is that our drivers were able to score these tetras on goals all over the field. There was one practice match where we blacked out the whole field by ourselves. When we were trying to cap massive quantity in one match at The Championship we were able to cap 12 on 3 goals plus capping in autonomous.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

In my opinion the best manipulators were 980's and 233's. Both team's manipulator were very simple and very effective and both teams had great autonomous mode.

980 was so fast at picking up tetras from the auto loader and caping them. Also their Auto mode was crazy, they would start with tetra cap the goal middel goal of the end zone, than turn the arm knock down, pick up the tetra and cap it, and like if it wasn't enough they would the go half way to the auto loader. :ahh:

Another amazing team was 233, their telascoping arm was so fast and strong, they were also very fast at getting tetras from auto loader and they could carry two tetras at the same time.

That's just my opinion. :D
Dave

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

I have to agree with 980, although I don't agree to it being as "simple", but what other robot can do so much and stay in one place? The arm resembles a regular human arm in that it can move in any direction possible with the 4 degrees of freedom. Up-down, round and round, that robot was just crazy. For the San Diego Scrimmage they did put on a simpler rigid end for an arm, but nothing beats the arm at nationals. At every regional and competition, it seems like the team is just fixing something on the arm to make it function better.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

Whoever thought of that arm idea was a pretty awesome

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

LOL
That arm design was very simple and very effective. Props to you guys and congrats once again for being the Champions.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

hmmm this is what i thought were the best/most unique in this year's game:

16-Soo quick at picking it up with the pig tail
45-The Arm wasn't able to be pinned and they could release from any angle with their turret and that was great engineering.
56-The Spoon, which i believe was created on accident was lots of fun to watch
67-I liked the entire arm design, flexible and fast, the 4 long prongs suited what they wanted well
111-Able to pick tetras up at the loading station on the fly, very quick to pick up 2, very rare in this year's game.
135-Their ability to virtually slap a tetra on was awesome, the 5 pronged fork was great for picking stuff up too
229-I've said it before and I'll say it again, widest manipulator ever!! definitely deserves credit on this thread.
254-The Shape that form fitted the tetra gave them great stability on the tetra up high and an easy unload

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

spoon???????? well whatever it is yer talking about it was designed that way, of coarse it worked alot better then we thought, but it was built the way we designed it

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

16 For innovation

469, This bot did no impress me until the elimination rounds, It seemed atfirst like it was a Mass Capper(what I call a robot that simply drops alot on with out strategy and cannot stand up to defense) however in elimination it out muscled a couple other bots and played their tetras high and often to win, This amazed me, they were one of the few bots that could cap multiple tetras any where and at any time.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

175 had a manipulator that was very well built for the HP. All they had to do was run up and slap the tetra into the hook and it was latched.

When I saw 85 on Curie and 469 on Galileo my jaw dropped.

I was pretty impressed by 190s capping mechanism in theory. All you had to do was drive up to the goal and press a button.

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

for 2005 I'm going to say 179 just for being so efficient. KISS at it's best there (arm basically that drive was a bit more complicated)

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

Their were a lot of impressive robots this year and I congratulate all teams that competed this year. However some teams deserve some special recognition:

16 - Great job with the corkscrew idea, one of the most innovative designs that I saw this year

56 - Amazing robot guys, your fast and simple device dominated on the field no matter what the odds

67 - That was a great battle in Ohio and you truely deserved all the titles you claimed this year. Your robot design was one of a kind and was just simply very effective. The spikes were a great idea, very efficient especially with the auto loader

229 - Great guys to work with on the field and off. Their robot really delivered with a well thought out manipulator and arm design.

254 - One of the fastest robots that I have seen. Their manipulator design was superb and it operated with a certain grace and flow.

1279 - An ingenious two armed design that was very simple and effective. They were simply amazing at the NJ regional and at nationals.

179 - The fastest robot that nobody could stop. Their simple rake design with an unstoppable base proved to be a deadly combination on the field.

135 - Great allies with a robot that could stack tetras with great speed. The vertical-lift rake was great!

103 - Fast and effective with their elevator type lift. They were quick at stacking while they zipped around the field on their fast base.

I wanted to give special recognition to team 1626 for having such a great rookie robot. They were tough competitors this year and I expect great things from them in future competitions.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THAT COMPETED THIS YEAR!!!!

GO 1403!!!

Re: Most Impressive Manipulator
 

its funny everyone is saying 229 and not 217 didnt they build the same bot??? and 217 made it onto einstein i woulda thought 217 woulda beeen said more than 229, i dunno maybe im stupid and they arent the team that worked together lol