pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

It looks mighty big, do you have to park sideways in the homezone? I imagine you don't have to lift anything. How do you knock the ramps down? What angle is the ramp? Looks good

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

Hi Nate, The ramps deploy off the sides of the bot so we just need to drive it straight into the home zone. Our alliance partners have to approach it runing parallel to the end wall however, so positioning is critical. We're also worry about what effect tubes laying on the carpet may have. The ramps are deployed by a 64:1 banebots gearmotor turning a lead screw that drives them over center. The ramps then free fall to the carpet. The impact is cushioned by a pool noodle on the big ramp and 1/2 inch dense foam on the smaller one. We've done drop test on the ramps and so far so good. The ramp angle is 20 deg. The 12 inch high parking area is 76 x 37 inches.

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

That answers my questions, I think it is going to take more time to have robots go parallel, but the robots can be fairly close with this design when going up.

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

Is that a diamond plate platform, if it is, you might want to put some clear paint on it and sprinkle it with sand, remembering from last year, the ramp was pretty slick.
good luck
malhon

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

It looks nice but a bit heavy. How much does it weigh?

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

It weighs 75 LB without the electronics....Looks can be deceiving:yikes:

The diamond plate has pretty good traction. We may sandblast the area where the wheels will ride depending on how our tests come out.

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

how exactly did you hook up your lead screw to deploy your ramps? Does the nut actually come off the end of the lead screw? (which would mean that you couldn't bring your ramps back up, but that's probably okay)

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

Hi Richard, Yes, the nut actually comes off the screw. The nut travels 28 cm from down on the screw til it comes off. That takes less than 5 seconds. Once clear of the screw the now over centered ramp free falls to the carpet. We have installed a bolt and wing nut to hold the ramps in the retracted position while we exit the field following the match. Once back in the pits we'll rethread the nut and be ready to go again.

Re: pic: Need a place to park a robot?
 

My concern comes from the gap in the middle of the top platform. If an approaching robot is not of the traditional chassis shape, it is possible that the other robot could fall into the hole.

Our robot is 3WD, with a center wheel in the back. It looks to me like we would fall into that hole.

Are you planning on covering that hole with plexi/Lexan?