pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

I'm liking that ramp design... seems to be popular among good teams.

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

What is that grabber made out of? Is it some sort of custom plastic?

I love seeing all these teams able to both score on the rack and lift other robots. I thought they would be few and far between, but they're popping up everywhere!

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

Very nice overall 1504 plain, simple and to the point on this one. A few questions how do you actuate your ramps and are you underweight? Ohh and to reply to the guy about robots with ramp that can also score, my team doesn't have ramps but our definition of scoring is probablly completely diffrent then yours. :D Good luck to the 1504 squad at regionals and I hope to see you at nationals.

-Drew

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

great job guys. Where are you playing this year??

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I think ALL teams are good.

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

We'll be at Great Lakes, West Michigan and the Championships

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

The grabber is made up of both lexan and aluminum tubing. The lexan was heated and bent on an angle to create the portion that goes between the ringer and the floor. The aluminum tubing was bent in a number of directions via pipe bender, this portion is what is actuated by a pneumatic to grab a hold of the ringer

Edit: In this picture the gripper is upside down as neither the pneumatic nor the chain to change the angle is attached

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

are those ramps going to slow you down, or be a problem when you are competing?

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I like the color scheme, reminds me of a giant penguin ;P

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

TO answer few questions:
1. How do you aactuate the ramps?

There are two pistons, one for the ramps and one for the platforms. The first piston (for the ramps) is located on the center of the chassis. When it releases, two cables are then released and slip through a small hole in the platform, allowing the ramps (assissted by spring loaded hinges)to unfold. The second piston, for the platforms, is located on the boom of the arm. it pushes the "locks" for the platforms up, allowing the ramps (assisted by spring loaded hinges) to fall to the ground.

as a side note, the feet deploy when the ramp is unfolded.

2. are those ramps going to slow you down, or be a problem when you are competing?

As of this moment, the ramps dont slow us down much at all. They raise our center of gravity a tad, but we think its worth the 60 points.

3.I like the color scheme, reminds me of a giant penguin ;P

This wasn't a question, but i will adress it anyways. We decided that this year, we should paint the robot. It wasn't easy to find time to paint (and let it dry), but we like the end result. We were going to the penguin look, and im glad to hear that it resembles that.

Thanks for the comments and please feel free to ask more.

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

I really like your robot, hopefully we can play together like at IRI (Only with better results :) )

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As other people have been saying, I really like the ramp design. The first one I saw with it was the Bees, and it was an idea I hadn't really thought of prior to that. Now it's popping up everywhere, and it looks stable/robust/all that good stuff. Hope to see you at Nats!

Re: pic: 1504 The Desperate Penguins
 

Great ramp design.... Very effective.... i think that you guys have a great robot here, and i think that it will do very well.... Good luck at regionals!

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wow thats a big ramp... wat motor r ya usein