pic: Week Three 2009
 

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

Maybe I'm missing something, but if your robot only has two wheels, how can you satisfy <R06>?

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

I guess that if the trailer hitch has enough support in that direction, then everything might work out ok...?
But it still has to balance to fit in the box, right?
I smell a Segway-drive!

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

From looking at a few pictures on the teams site. Looks like they are going with a 3 wheel design, with a single wheel in the front. Pretty good work done here in only 3 weeks. Looks good, keep up the work.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

That's a lot of progress for 3 weeks! I'm trying to figure out if it can pick up from the floor, or if its purely payload specialist loaded.

Let me know if you get video of this posted.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

That's one nice-looking robot! Is it human-loaded only? I dig the clear sides. (:

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

This may be a premature assumption, but isn't it impossible (with the current configuration shown) to legally protect the back end with bumpers? There isn't 6 inches of space on either side of the trailer hitch to mount bumpers too, so both sides of those two rear corners can't be protected.

Besides nit-picking at this years bumper rules, looks like a pretty cool bot. Does it have two separate shooter "chutes" for balls to flow out of?

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

Oh my goodness... I was simply admiring the robot until the question about the bumpers came up.

My concern was initially over rule R8 part I, "Bumpers must protect all exterior corners of the bumper perimeter" as the corner between the trailer hitch section on the angled side piece is a corner and, with bumpers on only one side, would not be protected. However examining the reference figure 8-2, this design would be in keeping with the figure specifically referenced by the rule. I'm not up on all my bumper Q&A's, so perhaps there has been an answer to this already... but ARE the rear corners of the robot adjacent to the trailer hitch in figure 8-2 protected by bumpers? Do they have to be? If that hasn't been answered you might want to get an answer on that one as when a drawing is inconsistant with a wording, the wording takes precedence.

My other concern would be R18 E, concerning the trailer bumpers contacting the robot bumpers before the trailer tongue contacts the bumpers. It may be that this happens in this design, it is hard to tell without seeing it with bumpers on and a trailer attached.

I am assuming that with bumpers on the front of the robot that 2/3 of the bumper perimeter is covered?

Jason

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

The 2 corners on either side of the trailer hitch do appear to be exterior corners of the BUMPER PERIMETER which cannot be protected by BUMPERS on both sides of the corner with the pictured design.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

There is no real need to go after these people if you look at the pictures on the teams site. It's all valid. So take some time and look at the pictures.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

I would take a pause before you declare that "it's all valid".

According to the rule book, <R08-I->, all exterior corners must be protected.

According to this Q&A (part 2):
"2. As indicated in Rule <R08-I>, all exterior corners of the BUMPER PERIMETER must be protected by BUMPERS. Both "sides" of the corner must be protected."
source: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11159

According to this Q&A:

"An "exterior corner" of the ROBOT is one where the BUMPER PERIMETER forms a vertex...."
source: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11270

From those, I have drawn conclusions about the robot frame designs I've been working with. I'm not the ultimate source of what designs are valid/not valid, but be aware that these Q&A responses are there and are very specific.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

Ah yes... the double barreled shotty... :D

A design very similar to ours. Looks awesome!

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

To be so far along but with the bumper problems. You need to take corrective action next week.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

Pictures http://www.team1322.org/robotics_08-09.htm

Yes we will have bumpers on the angle corners. The trailer will make contact just before the trailer tong hits. We are hoping to be able to turn sharper with this design. That bumper segment is about 7 inches long. <R08> figure 8-2 shows an angle bumper. We are only human player feed. They say do one thing and do it well, we can load 20 balls and shoot them two at a time approximately 15 feet with camera assistance. We are balancing most of the weight on the two drive wheels, the rest of the weight (just enough to keep in on the ground on forward motion) will be forward on a single caster.

Re: pic: Week Three 2009
 

My concern was initially over rule R8 part I, "Bumpers must protect all exterior corners of the bumper perimeter" as the corner between the trailer hitch section on the angled side piece is a corner and, with bumpers on only one side, would not be protected.

Jason[/quote]


Would that not be an interior corner as apposed to an exterior corner? When the trailer is attached, that area becomes in inaccessible.