Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

We use a 4' elevator that goes to 10'. I believe elevators are the most efficient design for this game. We did fairly well with one at STL.

Sam

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

We use a two stage elevator that starts at about 3 ft and goes to sevenish, then there is a two jointed arm on top. Works nicely.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

we use an elevator to go from the ground to about 10ft in the air in about 2 seconds, it has a griper on it that can bring the top of the tube about 2 feet higher than the wrest of the arm. It is my team's first attempt at an arm and we are pleased with it's operation.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

Would the large tie-dyed bag on top of the scissors lift that Wildstang used in 1996 fulfill this requirement? Does anyone have a picture of that machine?

RAZ

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

I think that elevator robots will dominate the game this year. They are fast and effective, and because the tube isn't on the end of a long arm, it will be easier to score with defense being played.

We went with a jointed arm, though. Simpler, easier to build, and it still works if you bend something.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

I see elevator, telescope, and scissor but were is the spine arm selection? :D

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

Here on 868 we used an elevator. We love it, aside from the bearing problems it had at St. Louis which would leave it useless for a match.
(We fixed the problem. Turns out you shouldn't mount a track with screws that are smaller than the holes in the track)

More than just some of them. Seems like half the teams at St. Louis used a jointed arm.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

We have a telescoping arm that pivots about the center when retracted. It gives us the ability to rotate to the ground for easy tube pickup. We only extend slightly to reach the middle spider and can easily reach the high spider. Check out pictures on our web site, www.metalinmotion.com.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

we have an arm with three joints, but we thought about making an elevator with 2 joints. I think that this pole needs to have a jointed arm option.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

I think that if you can make a telescoping arm well (like i believe team 25 did this year), it works well. Yet elevators have less moving parts are are much more simple.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

Can Elevators really have joints?

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

team 343 (us) has a telescoping arm. it works just as well as most people's. our manipulater is pretty cool too.

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

I think, for any mechanical selection, you need to carefully evaluate the corresponding controls selection.

A forklift style lifting system requires far less powerful motors, has far less momentum, and can be eaily set with switches to stop at given levels.

An arm style lifting system requires extremely power motors / gearing because of the torque of an arm at full extension. It has more momentum that is very difficult to damp and control, and has difficultly stopping at given heights unless you have very powerful motors. I've seen some arm teams using the minibike CIM to power their arms. Any of you forklift styles used a motor that heavy? The benefit is that you can reach "over" other robots for the low positions - if your arm is strong enough to take getting smashed in to.

From a lifting perspective, because the forklift style is easier to stop, it can be made to lift more quickly (again, less momentum).

Don't get me wrong. We've got an arm system. In retrospect, from the controls standpoint, I wish we would have gone with a forklift style utilizing a winch for up and down motion.

To summarize - an arm is for reaching horizontally. A forklift is for reaching vertically.

I can't WAIT to see that spine system work. Where are the videos!!!!????

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

There are a few in our gallery.
http://www.wildstang.org/gallery2/v/1996/

Here are some close ups
http://www.wildstang.org/gallery2/v/...ion08.jpg.html
http://www.wildstang.org/gallery2/v/...ion09.jpg.html
http://www.wildstang.org/gallery2/v/...ion35.jpg.html

Re: Elevator vs. Telescope vs. Scissor
 

sorry, i guess i didn't make this clear. we considered an arm that had a mast. Then on the top of the mast a joint that can rotate up and down. off that is a beam that can extend, (like an elevator). at the end of that we would have another joint and our gripper.

here's a very rough CAD we did in week 2.
Attachment 5216
Attachment 5215