Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

While we see a few motorized carts come in every year, be advised that some venues do not allow them for insurance reasons. Some venues just want to minimize the amount of damage to the venue and some will make a blanket statement about all carts when one really bad design shows up. Be advised that the people you have to satisfy will be venue staff, event coordinator, regional committee, UL Safety Advisors, FTA, Head Ref, and possibly LRI. I rarely have seen a motorized cart come in a second season, never a third.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Really? We've never had any complaints, and last year was the fifth seaon for ours.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Consider yourself lucky.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

How long did Truck Town's powered cart(s) last, Al? I remember them using those carts in '03 at Houston (where I also remember hearing that they couldn't handle the ramps).

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

I haven't seen one in a while. The truck belonged to GM as I remember so it was a sponsor ad more than anything. It is the team built items that seem to have grabbed the most attention lately. I can tell you horror stories of some that I have seen.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

The last team to bring a motorized cart to FLR was ordered to remove it when they pulled into another team's pit to back into their pit.
As a lead que I have and always will hate motorized carts. I think they are unnecessary and stupid. The time spent on building one could be spent on designing a better robot but teams that build them are like Tim Tebow fans no matter what people say about them they'll build and use them anyways.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Powered robot carts are an accident waiting to happen.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

When Truck Town came to Palmetto in 2006, they had it with them. It stayed parked on the periphery of the pit for virtually all of the regional; it was much too large to get through the pits and to the field safely. So it lasted at least that long.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

The key would be to incorporate a charging circuit directly into the cart - plug in the cart when you get to your pit and your done! For a bonus, have the cart charge several robot batteries as well, so you always* have a fresh one handy.

*well, until you forget to plug in the cart, that is...

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Creating a Powered Robot Cart would be a great project. However, it should be just that, a project. Having a flashy robot cart (in my mind) would be great for demonstrations and presentation, if it looks nice enough to be driven in front of people. Perhaps even give your audience a chance to drive it. It seems like something that could be a huge hit.

However, its use at competition would be extremely limited. Keeping it powered could be a real pain, especially while making sure your robot is adequately well-off, battery wise. Secondly, most carts are big enough as is. If you have an even bigger cart driving through the pits, it would be hard to make the necessary turns, and probably too easy to bump someone standing by their pits. Getting bumped by a regular cart is a shock enough, imagine this big ol' motorized cart running by you. I wouldn't feel comfortable. Then, as Ed and other said, your cart has to be easily movable by the field crew, as well as needs to be quick to get on and off the field. I just don't see how a motorized cart can fulfill both of those things.

In my opinion, building a powered cart could be a great experience for a team, and great learning experience, and a great project overall. But there place at competitions... Well, I don't see why they need to have a place at competitions. If your robot is too heavy to be moves on a manual cart... you have bigger problems to deal with.

-Hope this helps,
Leeland

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Last I saw it was tucked in one of their closets but that was last year.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

@Koko Ed: I believe that was probably the very same one that this thread was started about, 4 years later in 2011.

Its been with us to WAT and GTR consistently for the last 4 competition seasons. There have been minor concerns voiced by the UL/BrucePower Safety team, and by queueing staff, all of which have been addressed successfully (except FLR2011)

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Our team (1899) started using a powered robot cart last year and we have found it very useful, and have not experienced any of the problems others are describing.

We used an old powered wheelchair base, but removed the chair, and instead added a platform for the robot to sit on with room to place tools and other equipment.

It is controlled by the original Wheelchair controller and is mounted near the back of the cart. The controller allows us to change the speed of the cart, and since it is a wheelchair base, it can turn on a dime and is extremely maneuverable.

If there is a team out there looking into making a robot cart, I would suggest giving serious consideration to modifying a motorized wheelchair.

Here is a picture of the robot cart from the front:
http://www.saintsrobotics.com/wp-con...s/img_1509.jpg

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

Agreed. Ours is a wheelchair base only we have a welded steel frame.

Re: Powered Robot Carts
 

I would think it would make a wee bit more sense if you could disconnect the geardrive from the motor so you could push it on your own and still be complient with use on the field, while flipping a switch to engage the motors for a boost up ramps or lage bumps.