Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

1714's been playing with our robot a lot at demos and stuff, and we're making some changes for IRI. Since we're such a highly anticipated team and all :P But we have a little of a dilemma.

We have a Long Range Mode now for firing the Empty Cell 6 feet away, so we don't leave ourselves vulnerable for a pin by slamming against the Fueling Station. (We could take off a transmission on a CIM and go 12, but then we overshoot on dumps)

Removing the camera will let us hold 1-2 more balls, so we're doing that as like many other teams we never actually used it. We now have a human loading autonomous bringing us from an initial load of 7 balls to 12, and it's fast enough that we can sometimes snag and hold a robot down with it (and hey, balls in the trailer of the opponent by the HP are just as many points as if they were in our robot, right?).

The tricky part for us is figuring out how to increase the capacity of our robot even further, in under 6 pounds. The rough idea being thrown around was to make the front "diverter" bay wider, but to do that we'd have to use another motor to make a magic ball unjammer (not too big a deal if we can design it) and cut off signatures by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers (much bigger deal, but at least Dave Lavery's is safe! :D ).

What changes are you expecting to see robots make at IRI? What are you making? and do you have any advice for us if you know our robot? (personally I bet more than half the teams will autoload)

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

We auto load

we haven't made many changes in our system, just sped everything up so we can be even more lethal.

it is also fun to look at the team listings too to see who is represented, Michigan is represented well :D just glancing, i managed to count at least 12 MI teams. that is 1/6 the field coming from the Great Lakes State ^-^

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Changes!? What Changes?!

Wasn't the robot supposed to be done back in February? Aw, man... Now I gotta get the kids back together *sigh* :rolleyes:

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Wait, we can work on robots.... OUTSIDE OF BUILD WINDOWS???!!!

It took me all year to get used to it.


-Nick

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Most of our time has been spent fixing the battle damage caused by the Curie Finals :P We will most likely be adding some new autonomous modes to our robot, but no big changes otherwise.

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

We are adding a gyro to improve autonomous and also re-assembling our twin for use by pre-rookies in the Early Career matches.

All together it should not take too much time. (famous last words!) :rolleyes:

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Hi Everyone!

If any team that is staying at the Spring Hill Suites and has overbooked thier rooms, we would love to take over any extras that you might have.

We are about 3 rooms short.

We would deeply appreciate any help with this issue.

Thanks for considering this request.

Al Ostrow
Team 341

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Thank you to everyone that offered their help with our hotel situation. We recently had our problem solved and now have enough rooms.

As always, the spirit and concern shown by the teams on CD leaves you speechless. We look forward to meeting everyone at IRI. :)

Best Wishes!

Alan Ostrow
Team 341

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Final team list will be posted by July 5th.

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

461 will be there for sure! i'm excited, this should be a fun competition to attend.

does anyone know if volunteers are still needed? since i graduated i don't get to be as active in the event as the rest of the team and the underclassmen...

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

heh heh heh, sorry about that... what did we do to you? (we being our driver)

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

LOL, no worries. That's the name of the game in the finals :P We had some broken ultrasonic sensors, broken lexan, broken gyro. All has been fixed now and our lexan now has stitches with a band aid. I'll post a pic of the band aid, our drive team got a kick out of that one.

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Hey, anyone know if it's against the rules to replace the main internal breaker on the power distribution board with a larger (ie. Higher wattage) one?

If not, I have a lot of stuff to do so our robot doesn't blow another fuse during a match... ::ouch::

Our captain just now realized that we don't have unlimited amperage and that there's no such thing as electromagnetic feedback from the CIM motors, and that our two giant fans, onboard compressor, belt motors, drive motors, mini-belt motors, and solenoid setup don't draw more amperage than the main breaker fuse will allow.

So it's up to me, the programmer, to fix the robot so it still has all of those devices, and they still can be pushed up to their limits, without blowing the fuse. Before the end of the month.

I kinda feel like that guy from the Apollo 13 mission... ::ouch::

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

From the website

Robots must meet the design and safety requirements of the 2009 “Lunacy” Game....The Referees reserve the right to Disqualify or require Repair or Modification to any robot that appears to be unsafe or is operating outside of the “Lunacy” rules and guidelines.

I would say no.

Re: 2009 IRI- Who has applied?
 

Have you really had issues tripping that?

We pulled A LOT of juice this year, and never had that issue.