Robot Design
 

our team has been discussing a forklift design that will lift up the ball over, the overpass.

What do you think guys?

any ideas would be helpful it seems like an easy happy medium
for stability and you still get the 8 points

Re: Robot Design
 

two words: height limit

Re: Robot Design
 

Yeah, if anybody has any ideas for decent designs, please do share.

Also: Major lack of good defense = lame.

Re: Robot Design
 

Yeah, height limit is the issue but there should something to let the forklift be able to function even without a large height that would still be able to propel the trackball over.

Re: Robot Design
 

What height limit?

Re: Robot Design
 

yeah, after the game starts its an Infinate height limit.

Re: Robot Design
 

Re: Height limit.

I posted this in the main game thread: A sphere supported by rails 32" apart would still dangle far enough below the rails to be accessible by robots limited to 6ft tall. The bottom of the ball would be 5'10" off the ground, I think.

given a trackball center at (0,0)
given a trackball contact point with a rail at (16,y) (the rails are 32" apart)
given the trackball is 20" and assuming it remains approximately spherical, then...

x^2 + y^2 = r^2
16^2 + y^2 = 400
y^2 = 400 - 256
y = 12

So the contact point for the rails will be 12" below the center of the ball. This means that between the rails, the bottom of the ball should be 8" below them, and thus 2" below the maximum allowed height of a robot in the opponent zone. However, this is in an ideal world where the rails are infinitely thin and the ball is perfectly sperical. Since the rails are 1.5" wide and the ball will deform some, the ball may be slightly higher (or lower if it deforms a lot) than where I computed it to be, and the contact space for a robot will be small.

Obviously this is an easy test to run and I'm sure somebody will post their real-world results soon.

Re: Robot Design
 

The only height constraint is 60 inches, a.k.a. 5 feet. That is at the starting position ONLY. There is no height constraint for the duration of the game. just make sure you're lower than 6.5 feet while you drive under the overpass

Re: Robot Design
 

Rule G36 sayeth:
HOME STRETCH Height Restriction – ROBOTS in the HOME STRETCH of the opposing
ALLIANCE can not be more than 6 feet tall. A PENALTY will be assigned for each
infraction.

Re: Robot Design
 

I guess we were both correct. So on your own half of the field, the is no height restriction, but everywhere else, it's 6 feet

Re: Robot Design
 

In the competition "fake game" with the people in the carts they would extend the ball OVER the middle divider, MAKING them over 6 feet to get it over the center bar. This means the home stretch is only one section of the 4 quarters of the field. I don't believe that height will be much of a problem then, however, I do find it silly that you are only restricted height-wise in that one 27x13 ft area.

Re: Robot Design
 

This has probably been posted at least thirty times but... The home stretch is indeed the quadrant immediately preceeding the appropriate alliance's finish line. Also, you could use a two stage lift, but I'm not sure you want to do that.

Re: Robot Design
 

thats much too complicated. we just made an overpass mock-up and measured. you were correct. 8 inches. 5 minutes tops our way though, and no headache...