Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

Still doesn't take away from the fact that in the last 9 hours I've had two aneurysms and blacked 32 other times due to this stinking rule. I actually almost had it once. And because of the loss of about 3.14 years of my life due to the mental strain I can officially claim that we still don't like this rule. :-( lol

For those of you not worried about this issue, I implore you make sure you check your design in every position, this really is quite the issue. I do agree this is an extraordinarily restrictive rule and as far as I can remember quite possibly the most restrictive as far as an individual task goes since I've been in FIRST.

Ohhh and p.s. your robots in the animation broke R16 too Dave :-P J/k but seriously..... bah humbug

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

Paul, if space is tight in your trailer then please leave the 80" cylinder at home and bring your tools instead. :)

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

I'm now worried that y'all are worried. I've been having no trouble with the 80" circle so far. I haven't gotten to our manipulator yet, but everything seemed reasonable the last time I looked at it.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

I want to see that cylinder. I'll bring the tools if it's a decision between them and the cylinder....

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

We found by drawing that an arm pivot has to be in the upper rear or front limit of the 5' tall 38" deep box. Even with that, the robot must wrap around the ball some to grab it. It came down to a choice of fewer laps and hurdle or faster without.

Besides, without the rule, it would be too simple:)

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

Thanks for the reminder to check this....looks ok for us.

2" per line on the graph paper, might want to double check the size...I drew the robot 28 x 38 plus 3" of bumper, we try to build a couple inches smaller to be safe, then it grows to max size at the last minute.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

That's what I threw together in Solidworks the other day. The rectangle is a robot with full bumpers; the smaller circle is the ball. The angled lines represent a rudimentary claw.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

I think this rule pretty much makes a flot-bot impossible.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

Piece of Cake; Who says your robot has to be 38 long or rectangular?

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

who says you have to reach around the ball? :)

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

What you have there looks very similar to what I have in my drawings, but with that in mind unless you turn your claw you really can't reach in front of your bot, that to me is the annoying part. You've got a few inches of play, I'm confidant it can be done, just none of the ways I feel are all that simple. I guess you could build a very robust elevator near the front of the bot but then you have a significant amount of weight cantilevered on an elevator which in my experience, elevators really don't like that. I'm a kinematic linkage guy myself, but if to many linkages they can seem to be pretty wobbly which is no fun.

I wish FIRST had went about this a bit different, Its ok when they limit Engineering, but really hate when they limit design and creativity, I feel like they are kind of forcing our hand in a way. But I hope I'm completely wrong. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with, Heck I can't wait to see what we come up with.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

It said it must fit within an 80" cylinder, it never said where the center was.

so by the wording you could have a robot quite a bit larger than you thought, however this'll probably be fixed.

So yes, for now, it does not say that the center of the 'bot is the center of the cylinder, just that it has to fit IN the cylinder. Nifty circumvention, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

Good catch on this one Dan. Hello from the Tokyo airport on the way to Singapore. Rather be with you guys building.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by this, if you look at Madison's drawing it's pretty clear. The rule states that the robot at all times must fit in a 80" cylinder, no mater where the bot is located in the cylinder it must fit.

Re: Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.
 

I think he perhaps means have the cylinder be angled to the plane of the ground. Some portion of your robot could extend rather far, but not close to the ground, and some portion near the ground could not extend very high. Though I think thats a bit of a 'lawyering' of the rule.