pic: 1559 so far
 

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

i love the spacer on the kitbot transmission output!!!! thats awesome.
What are the skids on the right of the robot made out of?

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Plastic 4" spherical casters borrowed for last year's robot. Worked well then, hopefully they'll do the same this year if the team decides to stick with em. Pretty cool stuff.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Whew, looks heavy. Do you have a final weight estimate?

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

I think there's gonna be alot of heavy robots this year.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

wowzer, the first thing i notice is that sheet of meatl. looks like the metal i picked out for our frame last year, is that a honeycomb light weight metal? Ya got a turret, which looks sweet, ya shooting from a low area of the robot? 2WD, with the trannies far away form the wheels, why's that? Looks great guys and i can't wait to see ya'll at FLR.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

As a mentor I'm not quite sure if the tranny design is finalized yet. Right now the team is trying to see if the design will work first of all. We tried this out last year and had to change it so I wouldn't be surprised if we end up going 4wd, but don't quote me. For this game 4wd--maybe with omniwheels on one set--would make sense.
I forgot what the board is called but its really light with corrugated plastic in between to thin sheets of aluminum...light but incredibly strong.
Weightwise she's not so bad right yet, but it will definitely get heavier. This is just the beginning.
The actual shooting mechanism will be mounted on top of the turret, hopefully coupled to the camera (camera should actually be mounted TO the turret). It should sit just on top of what you see now.
It should all be put together by next Saturday. That is, if all the parts come in. Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

so, ya guys will be able to load and pick up from the ground?

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Yup, underneath it will have a belt drive from front to back and then one going up to the hopper. None of this is built yet, but its all designed and ready for production.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

That honeycomb aluminum looks like neat stuff. I might have to get a little and test it out. The ball casters you have, are those Spherical Wheel brand? I wanted to get some but I can't find a US supplier.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Can you tell us where you bought the composite aluminum laminate?

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

The composite aluminum and aluminum extrusion on the turret is from MiniTec Framing , a company right down the road from the high school in Victor, NY. That stuff is awesome, and they give reasonable prices fo FIRST teams...it still isn't real cheap though. The casters came form a huge magazine...i forgot the name of it but if i heard it I'd know. Sorry, its been a year.

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Looks great. 1559 had a solid robot last year, I can't wait to see your newest creation at FLR 2006.

If you guys put the driven wheels on the same side as the ball-intake, it will make it easier for the driver to control. (Typically, dragging the casters behind is a more stable configuration than pushing them out front. Try it if you don't believe me.) Plus in this manner, the robot would pivot about the ball intake, making it WAY easier to maneuver around sucking up loose balls on the field.

Also,
Not to nit-pick... but the COTS ball-casters from last year ARE legal; the custom aluminum plates fabricated out of Kitbot pieces are NOT. In accordance with the rules, you will need to make new versions of those plates for 2006.

-JV

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Really? Last year 1293 ran a caster in the back, which made it a bona fide pain in the neck to drive forward. (Unique experience. Your robot may be more or less of a pain in the neck. Offer void inside and outside of the 48 contiguous states.) Of course, the pivoting concept makes good sense at the same time. I guess there's only one way to find out which way is the way to go.

Either way, it looks good!

Re: pic: 1559 so far
 

Generally speaking you want your drive wheels on the front and you want your center of gravity to be a lot closer to the drive wheels than the casters. We made the mistake of having the center of gravity in the center of the robot one year and everytime we made a sharp turn the robot would fishtail (I think we corrected by moving the battery mount a little further forward). The ball casters will make driving easier because you don't have to overcome the swivel bias that you have with the swivel casters. We used sliders last year to avoid this problem and I was suprised how well they worked.