Chief Delphi - Most Unique Features

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Re: Most Unique Features

868's robot is the most unique robot this year! well, IMHO anyway.

Here is a picture of the all the robot's features

We are one of the few tube picker-placers without an articulating arm
Also, we are one of the few robots that hold the tube from the inside, and the only team (to the best of my knowledge) that has a 'kicker' wheel, which picks the tube up extremely quickly, and is has the same effect as if you were to just step on one with your foot.

At BMR, at the start of the match, we regularly picked up a tube and scored it in less than 7 seconds :eek: (after that, it was heavy defense against us, so we weren't as quick).

Also, I like our liberal use of sensors, 2 limit switches to detect when the tube is up on the 'antlers', a range finder to detect when its O.K. to pop the tube off onto the spider leg, and then also the 2 optical sensors that know how high the arm is, and the PID we use for positioning.

Heres a picture with the shell hiding my hideous electronics job :p

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by efoote868 (Post 602756)

868's robot is the most unique robot this year! well, IMHO anyway.

Here is a picture of the all the robot's features

I think I've made it quite clear how awesome and unique I think your robot is, we were honered to be in you alliance at Boilermaker. Good luck at the Championships.

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by efoote868 (Post 602756)

Also, we are one of the few robots that hold the tube from the inside, and the only team (to the best of my knowledge) that has a 'kicker' wheel, which picks the tube up extremely quickly, and is has the same effect as if you were to just step on one with your foot.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27214
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ighlight=wheel

Re: Most Unique Features

When I say we spent six weeks designing our robot I mean we spent six weeks designing our tube manipulator.

We carefuly prototyped every part of it to make sure the final design would work perfectly.

-Urethane belts give extra traction
-belts aranged in a "V" configuration - work like rubber bands
-Made from 9 ply baltic-burch plywood - very light and strong
-Lego tires for added pick-up traction
-Uses two game buttons to sense tube orientation
-All pulleys are covered with individual plastic guards to prevent belts from falling off.
-The belts cannot be removed without dissasembly
-Can rotate, shoot, or suck tubes (or cakes)
-It also looks cool:cool:

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kati_Kat (Post 602403)

does having Jesus on your controls count as a unique feature?

Haha why yes it does! That is a darn nifty feature you have there lol.

As for 102's most unique feature, I'm going to have to go with our ramps. Even though very few pepole have seen them in action, they are pretty amazing. We are hoping to actually show them off in Long Island haha. I mean the robots drive on and we do the lifting... saves the others from having to do more work than they already have to in order to get the bonus points.

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Piecuch (Post 601952)

We designed our robot to do "drive by scoring." Meaning, we were able to score a ringer while still moving, thereby elimating a lot of the defense that would be played against us. The inspiration for this design came from two teams, Wildstang in 2005, and Rhodewarriors in 2006. Both teams scored off the side of their robots, and were able to use their drivetrains to ward off most defensive attacks.

We accomplished the same effect by allowing our grabber to rotate 90 degree to the left and right after picking up a ringer. The picture below shows the extra degree of freedom we have with our manipulator. As I said, in theory this mechanism works great. However, we found it very difficult to actually have any room to drive around in, nevermind a clear shot at any side of the rack. Fighting your way to/from the rack seems to be about the only way to score this year. (Unfortunately...)

Here's the picture of us in "drive-by" mode.

We powered this "wrist" mechanism with a window motor, geared down about 6:1. We tried two different codes to operate it. The first had the arm mimic the joystick position, so the co-driver had to hold the joystick in the position he wanted the arm to be in, with position feedback controlled with a gyro. The 2nd mode of operation allowed the co-drive to only use the joystick to move it to position, just like an elevator or arm. We then used a "home position" button to return the arm to it's vertical position, again controlled by the gyro.

Feel free to ask more questions. Hope it opens up some ideas for other teams.

BEN

Our "Unique" feature is actually a combination of a self-activating wrist which enables us to also do a "drive-by" (ironically we used the same term) and an automatic loading program. The wrist holds the tube vertically and folds back as it meets the pressure of the rack. As enough pressure is applied (caused by forward driving) the limit switches open the claw automatically--loading the tube.

This system is complimented by a series of auto settings that put the 4 axis arm into load position with the push of a single button after picking it up off the floor, human player or wall.

We think that the beauty of this design is that it essentially takes the sway of the rack and height out of the equation. Similar to top-down loading you are given a greater room for error and still hit the target. The difference is that side loading took out the sway factor--though the top-down loaders seem to be quit fast.

We worried too about the pushing and shoving around the rack so we went with the elevation, rotation and extention capabilities to hopefully overcome some of that. If pushing and shoving prevent this at times, we can easily resort to front loading even over another defender--in theory ;)

We'll see at the Long Island regional and in Atlanta.

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by rees2001 (Post 602360)

Anyone else have a pair of Reeboks on their robot?

I'm not talking sneakers, 2 RBK 6k stiff flex hockey sticks. Nice & light and made to take a beating.

the one on the left

We do, but we covered the RBK logo because they aren't our sponsors. I think they are the same sticks as well and we even use 2 like you. Our arm is raised with a ball screw and nut.

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisMcK2186 (Post 601832)

uniqueocity(yes, it's a real word).

[English Nazi]Not a real word. (see this). Sorry bub. [/English Nazi]

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koko Ed (Post 602328)

The most unique feature on our robot is it's claw which is similair too but nowhere near as cool as the '05 claw.
But at least we have the only manipulator that can give the other robots "the finger"!:p

Ours can, too! Well, if you have an imagination anyways.

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koko Ed (Post 602328)

Our arm has an index finger and a thumb, so we can sort of point at stuff...

Hey, Look at that!

Re: Most Unique Features

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII (Post 602775)

When I say we spent six weeks designing our robot I mean we spent six weeks designing our tube manipulator.

this was easily the most unique feature at SVR. not only does it look awesome but it works very well. this feature made Team 100 the team to beat on tube scoring at SVR

Re: Most Unique Features

Um... our arm has a auto-retract and auto-wrist leveling feature to stay within the 72" rule. We also use something like 10 motors (I'm not sure, haven't counted in a while). Our drivetrain has 6 (or 5, not sure), our arm takes three... so maybe it's 8 or 9 motors. Hm. Our shoulder joint uses the fisher price motor but if you look at it the linkage should not work... I don't have a picture but you can see it in Atlanta. Even I had to take a second look at it. Kudos to whoever guesses what I am talking about first! LOL.

Re: Most Unique Features

868's robot intrigues me the most out of all the robots I've heard about. I look forward to seeing them do work in Atlanta.

Now allow me to toot our own horn. While I don't find our robot completely groundbreaking, I'd say we have a pretty unique robot.

Our drivetrain is a true swerve drive, with each wheel being independently steered. In addition, we have 3 speeds available to us, and the modules are constructed mostly of round tube. I don't have any pictures at the moment, although a lot of pictures were taken of them at Detroit and Great Lakes by others.

In addition to a 3-speed swerve drive, we also have a huge ramp with enough room for three robots with a 14º incline. Our arm has a section of ramp on the back and folds down as well to make more room. My favorite features is that the flag is mounted on a section of ramp that unfolds, so it has a spring in it to self-right when we deploy our ramps.

We also have an arm that can score quickly and effectively and on all three levels. It's a combination single pivot and single stage telescope. I'd say its capabilities are on par with some dedicated arm bots.

Plus, one feature I have yet to see on any other robot is our tennis racket electronics board. It started out as a random idea that actually provided several benefits. By several I mean two: it keeps our electronics well ventilated, and it's easy to change out burn out victors and spikes, as they're attached by zip ties.

Again, none of this stuff is truly groundbreaking or exciting, but the fact that we were able to stuff as many features as we did in a 119.8 lb robot is pretty nifty in my opinion.

Re: Most Unique Features

One of the most unique features on our bot was that our manipulator was cut out from a spackle bucket. :yikes:

Delphi "Driving the Future Of Technology" Award. :D 2007 NYC

Re: Most Unique Features

I have to say that ours would be our suction device "Project Easteregg the Suction Cup Alien named Paul"