Cool Frame Ideas?
 

Does anyone have a cool or neat frame ideas?

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

In a word: rivets.
In two words: quarter-inch rivets.
In more words than that: Quarter-inch rivets in a kit frame, now that we've found an affordable rivet tool for the job. (Blame it on Don Rotolo at BE.)

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

I don't have a frame idea that I want to specifically say, but I have some key concepts that you should follow with any frame.

-Simplicity is Key
-Rivets
-Keep it as simple as Possible
-Rivets
-Make sure it is not complicated to fix
-And last but not least, rivets. :D

No really, about the only thing I can say without repeating what has been said is to Keep It Simple Stupid! (KISS)

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

Bosch Extrusion :)
Its really nice, and reusable between years.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

I've always wanted to make a circular frame out of alumnium tubing maybe like 1/2in or 3/4 in diameter. The shape would make for an easy drivetrain setup and would make it hard for people to push you. Done right it would also have pretty solid stability. We never have the time to protoype something like this and the resources aren't there to bend the tube that specific. We'd have to find someone or someplace who can. Another cool design is a octagon check out 180 Spam 2004. Finally I liked 67's 2005 chasis a horseshoe it was definitely a great concept. Just some thoughts.

Good luck,
Drew

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

Get a piece of foam, carve it into the right shape. Add some spruce spars for extra structural suport. Cover it with fiber-glass or carbon-fiber, resin the whole thing and cover it with seran wrap to get it nice and smooth.

Then peil off the seran wrap an you'll have a nice smooth, strong, and earodynamic frame. And depending how well you squeeze out the excess resin - light too.

I've always wanted to build a robot that way. I <3 Fiber Glass :D

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

Aluminium outer frame, lugged to carbon fiber superstructure. Light, strong, blingiful black and polished silver. Because on 401, we're addicted to mirror polishing aluminum.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

We're working on a frame that goes together easily and* comes apart easily. It will require a lot more machining, but we think it will totally be worth it.

* You can sometimes have one, but not the other. :rolleyes:

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

If you weld the KOP frame together and pull out the bolts, you would be amazed how much weight you save. All those little bits of steel add up! Not only that, but the frame comes out stiffer, and you never have to worry about a bolt coming loose.

If you have someone who can TIG weld, or even have access to a MIG with a spool gun and appropriate wire and gas for aluminum, frames become much less daunting, and a lot of things that seem like problems suddenly disappear. 3/4" thin walled square tubing makes great superstructures!

If you can't TIG or MIG in-house, then keep in mind that somewhere in your community there is someone who wants to weld your robot for you. People who like welding tend to like welding cool things, and competitive robots are generally regarded as a pretty cool thing. Perhaps a local community college or trade school can help you out.

Of course there are many other examples of cool frame ideas... pultruded fibreglass comes highly recommended in some posts. But don't try welding it.

Jason

P.S. It just ocurred to me today that if you covered your robot in competition carpet that from certain angles you would appear to have a very "stealthy" machine. From other angles, of course, it would just be ugly.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

You probably don't want to hear this, but I'll bring it up anyway....

Based upon past years' rules, and the ways that they've typically been interpreted, only the most trivially modified extrusions are actually reusable under the rules. Basically, for a part to be reusable from year to year, it needs to be COTS and unmodified. In the case of extrusions, while the different kinds of custom cuts that are possible make interpretation of the rule a little fuzzy, things like milled slots or bolt patterns are almost certainly going to be ruled as non-COTS, and therefore not legal for next year's robot. So be careful what you reuse!

That's exactly what 188 tried one year (2006). We ended up with a very unconventional welded sheet metal frame. We also had a few too many crazy robot issues happening simultaneously, and nothing on that robot really got fine-tuned very well. Despite that, I'd like to see more of that sort of semi-monocoque aluminum frame—not because it's necessarily the most effective, but because it's an interesting engineering challenge. In the case of the 2006 robot, 188 recruited the services of a local engineering and fabrication company, but the community college suggestion is an excellent one. (As a matter of fact, for teams in Southwestern Ontario, there's a nice welding lab at Conestoga College in Guelph that might be worth talking to—I can supply contact details if anyone's interested.)

One last thing about welding aluminum: by virtue of the way aluminum heat-treatment works, fusion welding (i.e. when metal melts) almost invariably results in a weld that is weaker than the base metal. So even though you might be welding 6061-T6 extrusions, you might have to use a welding rod that deposits 4043-O filler metal* (which is far weaker). There's one thing that would be even more impressive than trying the fully-welded chassis: building a frame jig which would hold the entire frame rigidly while you heat-treated it in a large oven, back to a high-strength T6 condition.

*More precisely, it's actually -F with properties equivalent to -O, because it wasn't deliberately annealed, rather it just came out that way.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

I agree! See team 330's 2006 robot (shooter frame) and 2007 robot (ramp frame). You can't put a lot of holes in, though; it has to be welded.

[quote=dtengineering;650586]If you can't TIG or MIG in-house, then keep in mind that somewhere in your community there is someone who wants to weld your robot for you. People who like welding tend to like welding cool things, and competitive robots are generally regarded as a pretty cool thing. Perhaps a local community college or trade school can help you out./quote] Some machinists are also like that... In the case of some SoCal teams, one such is also an instructor at the local community college. Shop use and he could make parts for teams--not a bad deal.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

1024 has used fiberglass in numerous applications for guarding fragile components...

Maybe the best and most visible use was to guard our camera in our 2006 robot. One of our members was also on the football team that year and brough his helmet in... which he sat on the top of the robot over the camera. I looked at it... yes it worked but... then i picked up the helmet... well lets say we could have had an extra frame rail in the robot. :ahh:

But I digress. Yes, I agree with fiberglass being a spectacular robot material. It's easy to work with and requires a tiny amount of equipment to do well, none of which is costly. It's also easily repairable (west systems makes a great repair kit which can be bought in bulk if you plan on using fiberglass a lot, a hefty investment at first but well worth it + lasts you through a lot of holes/cracks).

1024 will eventually try experimenting with carbon fiber... as soon as we get someone to donate/get cheaply a large industrial oven. :o

Our 2006 robot was probably one of my favorite frames ever... it was simple but it worked. The cool thing was the frame rails (machined out of 1/2" thick 6061-T6 post-consumer aluminum) also had the bearing nests in them for the tracks, and the end of the frame had a tongue-and-groove section to allow for track tensioning (the last part of the frame was a seperate part that slid into it). The two frame rails were joined by a 1/16th inch thick aluminum sheet metal box that was riveted to both sides. Held together great through a season of slamming into the ramps at the last second... man I loved the 2006 game. :o

-q

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

Anything from 1501 is pretty much a sweet frame design whether it be monocoque like previous years or their sweet chromoly design this year.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

2007 was the first time 342 didn't use a extruded aluminum (FMS) frame and we won the Palmetto regional for the first time after competing for 7 years (couldn't have done it without 1319). FMS is useful, but a major pain in the butt. Our whole pit and transporter are made from FMS and we constantly have to tighten stubborn bolts.

Re: Cool Frame Ideas?
 

222 has a prototype bot to play the 07 game built from 80/20 quick frame and 1/16" lexan. The quick frame is basically 1" aluminum square stock with .060" wall. The connectors used to assemble the frame are made out of nylon. The prototype bot is going to its second competition this weekend(we won BE 6 last weekend thanks to our partners 1626,25 and 1923 for picking us) . It's been through one competition and so far so good. I will be writing up some more detailed information on this frame when we disassemble and check for stress on the nylon joints. So far we're convinced the 80/20 quick frame makes a good, strong, light, and easy to assemble frame. I will post more information as soon as I can.