Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Anyone else fail miserably?

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

I haven't done much research into what it'll take to hurdle a trackball, so I'll ask: What sort of setup were you using? The approach may make the difference.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Yes, we failed miserably, with several bores and strokes. Pneumatic punches alone are most definitely not the complete answer.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Do we need to actually hurdle the ball over? Can we just move the arm over the Overpass and drop it? Just curious and i haven't heard anything about it.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

330 found that out in 2006... The first designs we tried then were ram-type, and even the pneumatic one didn't work.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

We tried many bores and doubled the FIRST allowed air pressure. The best purely vertical height we got was a little over a foot. I think we'll be seeing a lot of bots carrying the ball over, rather than shooting.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

No, you would not receive points for this. You can not be in control of the ball as it passes over the line.

Jacob

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

There is some debate about this--for one thing, the animation disagrees (but that happened several times). For crossing, you are correct. For hurdling, we need clarification.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

The way I read the rules, the "no possessing ball while scoring" rule only applies to the two points for crossing the line, not the six point bonus for hurdling. I could be wrong, but I think you would recieve 6 points for this.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Here's what I found in the manual:

HURDLE: When a TRACKBALL CROSSES a FINISH LINE while passing above the OVERPASS
and then contacts either the floor or another ROBOT before re-contacting the originating ROBOT.

CROSSING: The act of a TRCKBALL or ROBOT passing through the plane defined by a line (i.e.
LANE MARKER or FINISH LINE) when it is projected vertically upwards. A TRACKBALL or
ROBOT shall have CROSSED a line when all parts of the object, while traveling in a counter-
clockwise direction, have completely passed through the plane.

It appears that your arm placement relative to the finish line is irrelevant when hurdling (as long as you follow the other rules).

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Kinda like trying to punch a pillow across the room?

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

our piston attempt (with our strongest piston mind you) sent our mentors further than the ball, so this probably isnt a great idea.

however, maybe if you held the ball while applying the piston, the released the hold? would the elastic properties of the ball propel it?

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

We're looking into the possibility that a spring might work. Ideally there will be a whole lap to charge it up.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Keep in mind the amount of energy required just to launch the 10 pound ball 6.5' into the air. I don't think that much energy can be safely be released at once on a FIRST robot.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

But maybe for 2-3 ft??

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Can you say motor driven catapault?

I dunno, two fisherprices and two CIM's might launch the thing pretty far.

-vivek

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

I ran the numbers (taking into account both elastic losses and air friction) to launch the ball 3.5 feet straight up in the air (i.e. from the top of a 3 foot robot. I'm not sure if you'd want this much force higher up) and while it would work theoretically with a 2 inch bore, 12 inch throw cylinder, the tanks would have to be fully charged to 60 psi....each time. And this is even launching it straight up, somehow relying on the robot's momentum to supply enough horizontal velocity. It doesn't seem like a reasonable design to me.

--Ryan

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

I believe that a lifter and then some sort of pneumatic piston setup which launches it a few inches would be best.

i.e. an elevator that lifted it up above the overpass and then a piston makes it roll over the over pass.

-vivek

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

That's true. But then we have
Does that imply a valid "CROSS" must be done to get the 2 points? Another question when Q&A gets up.

Re: Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?
 

Yeah, we are thinking bout an elevator based on pneumatics...