Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

Yes, I believe from the center of the home row it would kind of ride the goal down.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

Thanks for the props Veselin. We put a good chunk of the 6 weeks into those due to build member losses and we are very proud of them and the entire drive train.

Mechanicalbrain.. if your are referring to our trannies in your most recent post, we made them. They were a design adopted from a 70's Hodaka motorcycle. The 2004 whitepaper can be found here.
A picture of this years trannies can be found here with a list of differences from the 04 to the 05 design.

//edit:
//Its kind of off topic but I really really needed to say thanks to some people on my team.

I can't talk about the transmissions this year without mentioning Cliff Mock and Brad Rigdon. With our team's personnel loss in mentors other than themselves, and lack of interest in students Cliff and Brad had their plates full. They really inspired the students we had and lead us students through the build of robot especially the transmissions. Most impressively they never took over build. It was always an even mix of work between the students and mentors like Cliff and Brad. For that, being one of the students, I thank Cliff Brad and all of the mentors on team 222.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

I was talking about the actual ball bearing gear shifting device which was possibly the coolest way of shifting gears ive ever seen! I think it would be cool to do it using magnetics (like how electric release brakes work). actually thinking about it that would be really cool.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

Thanks everyone for the comments.

First off as Henry stated, we the transmissions in our high school shop. Most everyone on the build team was involved with making the transmissions mentors and students alike.

I had the fun job of making most of the 1'' shifting shafts. :p

Also as Henry stated we got the idea of ball bearing shifting from a Hodaka motorcycle transmission that was produced back in the 70's.

We took that concept from the Hodaka transmission, which was a 5 speed, used our creativity and then figured out how to make it work on a robot.

We did have several ideas for shifting them, from Globe motors to servos, but we ended up using Pneumatics for reliablity/simplicity.

Several teams this year that used this shifting method include 1143, 571, 469, and there are more that I can't remember at the moment, please let me know if I missed you!

If any of you have questions about the transmissions just feel free to email me rigdonbrad@gmail.com or AIM bsrtunkpa.

233 did have a really cool arm design, I got my first chance to see their 2005 robot in action at IRI.

I have been thinking about make a new white paper on the 2005 transmissions and making other white papers such as how 222 builds simple aluminum robot frames that with stand constant abuse. :ahh:

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

allright, we know all of the well known teams have been listed, so why dont we list some of the non-wellknown teams...

I reffed in pittsburgh, and a few teams really made me say...wow...

(the NY yankees team)= they had the most simple turret and capper i have ever seen

MOE= im so suprised nobody has listed them, most consistent capping bot ive seen.

Also,

(kaizen blitz)= one of the powerhouses at BAE this year, it was really one of the neatest robots.

CHUCK 84 (yes, i know its you know who's team ;) )= AMAZINGLY simple, capped effectively, and just rocked at PARC.

108= Dont leave fin hanging! really neat looking robot, heard it did well also.


those are a few i noticed, yes of course i noticed teams like 233, 67, etc. but also those teams who are not "kingpins" yet.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

The motors attached to the wheels were what drove the wheels. The motors attached with chain adjusted the direction in which we moved.

Yes, we had a 3-wheel swerve/crab drive. We started upright and fell over, like we did in the 2004 season.

Our website was just updated. There are probably more pictures of the wheel assembly and I know there's video on there that show the swerve drive in action.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

Please look at HOT's website under mechanical they have a great page on that robot. Very well done team 67 the website, robot and everything else one of my favorite FIRST teams. My other favorite designs include 233 that shifter on that robot is genius :yikes:. 222 always very good. 217,71,179 and 1114 just to name a few.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

I would like to congratulate my own team 1002 for a very unique drive train. I would also like to recognize 330 for simplicity and the BEST for a ver effective manipulator and method for delivering Tetras. I would also like to recognize Milton HS ( I forgot the number, they are from atlanta) for actually capping in autonomous ven if it was just on the practice field.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

i would like to recognize team 233 for their awesome dive train and awesome are and awesome people and awesome everything. team 71 for their awesome arm system. team 111 for their awesome concept. team 1114 for their crazy mentor and awesome auto mode. team 65 for their awesomely simple dive train and cool skewer. team 271 for their awesomely tall arm. team 330 for being one one of the best robots i seen this year. team 45 for being one cool team. teams 383 and 903 for teaming up with us at Midwest. and every team that registered as a team this and turning first into one awesome thing.



Stevie

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

I think that 383 had a very smooth robot, extremely efficient and maneuverable. My favorite auton mode was 66, they stunned us all at the Championships by stacking the center goal with the vision tetras, even if it was only consistent in practice!

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

There are few teams I would like to recognize...

Hats off to team 67, the HOT team, for showing FIRST something that hasn't been seen before. Championship gold and chairman's award, both at the same time. Their machine was just so perfect. This was the first robot I have seen with 3 directional wheels.

Team 330, Beachbot, have I ever saw this simple machine that won the championship. Basic six wheels drive, with a VERY simple PVC... yes PVC arm.

Team 233, (personal opinion), the best robot I have seen in FIRST this past season. That robot is engineered so well, it is very hard to find any mistake on that bot.

Team 33, as every year, their robot was very competitive as well as built so right for this past season's game.

Team 179, Swampthing had a very simple robot with a killer chassis. It did what it needed to do and they did it well.

Team 25, 61, and 173, they were back again to compete with modified/better chassis they have been using for the past few years.

Team 269 had the ability to go up very high, also stack 2 tetras at a time. It was amazing to watch you guys play.

Team 217 and 229... almost same looking robot, very effective for competition.

Team 1114 (and the other two teams that had the same robot), I had a chance to see team 1114 in action very closely. That robot was the best Canadian robot I have seen.

Team 1305, another amazing Canadian robot I have seen in FIRST. Very effective, simple drive, with a simple arm.

Team 1251, the Techtigers did very well as a 2nd year team. 2 finalists silver under their belt this past season was awesome. If you left them alone, they did what they do the best on the field.

Team 65, the Huskie Brigade, as every year they came back with a very effective machine.

Team 222, Tigertrons, came back to compete with their ball shifter again. That bot works very well.

Team 118, Chainzilla was another amazing robot to look at. Full of chains, running around the field like it is the kind of the field. They dominated this past season. It was very hard to win against you guys during semi finals.

Team 103, Cybersonics, chairmans award winning team came back to compete with another very competitive machine.

Team 16, 6 wheel drive with the corkscrew to hold tetras.

Finally, team 108, SigmaC@ts, my old team, for having a very simple machine. The machine was student built and it felt so good to see it go out there and dominate Curie Division. Thank you Team 108, you guys have shown me what FIRST is.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

I'm going to throw a few props towards 330 and 980 for their simple yet game winning designs. Both bots were very effective in this year's game.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

I'm sorry if this is viewed as a personal affront to you, or to your team, which it is in any way shape or form not meant to be. I respect yourself and 696 for having put countless hours of work into that machine, which we had the privilege of competing against in Southern California.

However, that being said. The entire year, I have been witness to you relentlessly plugging your six motor drive train. This is again, not an attack on your creation, but perhaps there is a reason why no one has mentioned it? Teams have had it before, or like you said, it was not the most useful for this years game. Just because no one mentions it doesn't take anything away from it. Take 188 for example. We had a gripper very similar to 469S, albeit with the capability to hold 2 instead of 3. This was made even more unique by the fact that in concept and design and fabrication it was mostly done by a sophomore, along the way, he had to convince the leadership of the team and the mentors about the worthiness of his idea. In competition it proved to be reliable at times and disastrous at other times. It worked perfectly when we used it in practice matches and for no plausible reason, dropped tetras in competition. It was a good effector and I believe one of the more unique ones in FIRST this year. That being said, 71 and 469 (to only mention 2) both had the same style of gripper and both robots have been mentioned. Did myself or the person that designed it (Philip W.) jump onto this forum and mention ours being incredibly similar in concept and design? No. Thats the bottom line. Plugging your own design when people are recognizing others, especially when you are such a seasoned member of the forums just doesn't cut it anymore.

330 - Awesome driver, great bunch of people to work with
22 - Even more awesome driver (he hosted myself and our operator), Elegantly designed robot, student coded, a class act all around
191 - nice usage of PVC, rivaling that of 71
1114 - smooth machine is all i can say
1305 - mentioned before




And yes, for the record, 188 had a six motor 2 speed drive train circa last season, designed by Tristan Lall.

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

The team with the skateboard arm was 1398, NASA and W.J. Keenan High School here in Columbia. (I still tip my hat to them--this second-year team won EI at Palmetto and the Judge's Award at the Championship.)

(Yes, I had to drag this thread back from the dead.)

While I'm at it, I've got to recognize about half a dozen Florida teams, including 233 and 1251 (both packing insanely effective telescoping arms), 179 (slow down!!), and (just so the Yankees don't think I'm biased towards the South) 25, whose robot this year was plain awesome in every aspect of the game. Speed, style, and versatility. (Hauling students around...interesting....)

Re: Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.
 

The one team that I noticed hadn't been mentioned yet is 254 ( I think that is the number) the Cheesy Poofs, they were dominant in Galileo and had an extremely fast bot with a simple gripper, their bot was simle and elegant yet played the game as well or better than nearly every other bot I saw.