How's your ramp?
 

Our team is designing a ramp that can hold two robots, I was wondering if anyone else was designing a similar robot. If so, I would like to hear some ideas.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

Are you just focusing on ramps, or will you have a manipulator as well?

I believe most teams will have some type of strategy for end game (either being able to climb steep ramps or deploying their own).

Ideas for ramp deployment:

Gravity, Springs, Screw Drive, Pneumatics

Ramp Structure:

Folded, Rolled up, Sliding out, Lifters

Re: How's your ramp?
 

What my team is doing is creating a ramp that is deattachable. So before we go into the match we see if our other team members have ramps or not.:yikes:

Re: How's your ramp?
 

We can climb on robots this year????!?!?!?!
:eek: :eek: :eek:
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I am interested to see some of the designs that you can come up with when you get a bunch of FIRST-ers together and have giant robots climbing on each other

Rock climbing anyone?
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Re: How's your ramp?
 

The TigerTechs 963, are using the ramp design, Our "Bird" will have a "wingspand" of 12 ft. It will use Mr. Gravity and just some simple but durable cables to hold the "wings" up. We will be able to hold 2 robots aswell. Big Robot huh?

Look out Buckeye Regionals. Here Comes the Flying Tiger.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

I didn't think detachable parts are legal? Did you guys post a question somewhere on the GDC forums that allow you to do this?

<G40> Detaching mechanisms - ROBOTS may not intentionally detach parts or leave multiple
mechanisms on the field. Violations will result in a 10-point penalty per incident. If an
intentionally detached component or mechanism significantly impedes access to the RACK
or an ALLIANCE ROBOT during the END GAME, the offending ROBOT will be disqualified
from the match.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

Chris,

I suspect he means detachable, as in, "we don't need a crazy huge ramp this round, let's take it off the robot and run without it."

Re: How's your ramp?
 

I believe he means that the ramps will be detachable before the robot is placed on the playing field. As long as the robot includes all of the possible configurations during inspection and meets all weight & size requirements - it is okay to do that.

Agreed that the rules say you can't detach parts on the playing field - in this case a nice modular design ramp might be a good idea - IF, you can agree to whom will be the ramp while developing a match strategy - then detach the ramp from the robot if you aren't the ramp so you will weigh less and remove other potential problems.

The thing that needs to be considered is contingency situations, where the designated ramp bot is unable to "be the ramp" and someone else might be able to do that if they did not detach their ramp and leave it in their pit area.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

ah ok...I get it... yeah that makes sense now. Thanks!

Re: How's your ramp?
 

team 1757 is designing an ambitious pair of pneumatic driven scissor lifts under a pair of "wings". if all goes well, we should be able to lift both of our teammates to the full 12", but i can't make any garauntees!

Re: How's your ramp?
 

How are you going to take 20 psi pneumatic cylinders and lift up 2 120 pound robots?

Re: How's your ramp?
 

now, that my friend, is a good question? Our thoughts also.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

The operating pressure of the pneumatics system can be as high as 60 PSI at the pistons. It's quite plausible that a properly sized piston can be used to actuate a lift.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

well our team 1388 was thinkin of putting two ramps off each side of our robot so two robots can drive up each side, and have a spring loaded bar that pops up hopefully a foot up the ramp. so when the other robots drive up the ramp and the bar will pop up as to keep the robot from sliding back down when the power turns off, so that way you can hold two robots at a foot each, but i dont know what ur design is like

Re: How's your ramp?
 

we thought about that as well, in general. However, as we are anticipating a weight problem already, we are just shooting for 45 out of 60.:D

Re: How's your ramp?
 

Has anyone thought about not using a ramp? If a robot could make itself wide enough and lift itself high enough it could then lower itself onto a stack of game pieces and pull up its wheels from the floor. I figure that two doughnuts stacked would be high enough.:yikes:

Re: How's your ramp?
 

Not legal - check the rules.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

As long as we can keep the rest of our robot anorexic enough, we plan on having 2 ramps fold down off of our sides. Our alliance members, if able to, would climb up the ramp, but not on top of our bot. Then using a pneumatic foot, the part of our ramp on the ground will raise, turning the ramp into a platform. The upside is that the system only has to lift half the weight of each robot, and it has built in outriggers. Downside, is that it relies on our alliance being able to climb about a 19 degree slope... we are trying to devise a method to decrease that.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

Do you get extra points if you do it fast enough that your alliance partners catch air? ;)

Re: How's your ramp?
 

We look to be adding ramps along the front in such a way that our robot provides about half of the platform for our partners, and a seperate platform provides the other part.

Of course, we're focusing on our arm first, so if we don't have enough weight we'll toss off the ramps and go arm only.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

We are in the process of designing a forklift-type lift mechanism that would hinge down to be level with the top of our bot (13" fromthe ground) at the end of the match. The prongs on the lift that hold the pool tubes during play would be the proper length to support it. We are going to have a ramp fold down in the back that will allow our alliance partners that are narrow & long to drive up onto our bot and then on across onto the back of the forks. We also probably will have a ramp out the side, so that the occasional wide & short bot can get up behind the first. in the case of two long bots, one would just follow the other up. In our preliminary figures, the forks will be 50 some inches long, which allows for very comfortable space for the other bots' bumpers. It looks like our forks are going to be 5" wide. I personally think that this will be plenty wide enough for a competent driver to get and stay on. The issue right now is finalizing the actual lift design with a pivot at the base.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

One design being drawn out right now for our team is a 4-bar mechanism on each side of the robot, starting out collapsed. then, you could say the vertical legs, will be pushed upwards each by 2 2in bore 8 in stroke cylinders. Its more promising than a ramp because it gives more space for the arm than an accordian ramp design, A drawing can give you a better picture as to why, but i do not have one at the moment.

Re: How's your ramp?
 

We did some calculations today and found you can just barely lift 2 170lbs. robots with 4 pneumatic tanks and 4 2" bore pistons (2 on each side of the robot) at 60 psi. We've decided to use 6 pistons to overengineer the mechanisms. If our calculations are correct, everything should run smoothly.