pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

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How much did the carbon fiber actually help? I'm interested as to see if our team should use them. We're currently using aluminum for the kicker assembly, but perhaps this will help significantly. But ours is completely pneumatic, so perhaps not...

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

Neat! I hope the added follow thru remains within the bumper perimeter :)

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

We have yet to complete testing while using the carbon fiber, but it appears to be giving us an additional 4"-6" in height and about 2' in distance, which is significant as far as we are concerned.

During testing we discovered that the follow through on the kick was very important, and the little bit of extra given by the follow through is definitely what is needed.

As for staying within the perimeter, we will not be violating the 2" rule, and we will only be outside the perimeter confines of the robot for a fraction of a second, so we will be good to go!

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

How, or should I say where, are you attaching the surgical tubing to the robot and the kicker? :confused:

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

The surgical tubing passes through the i-bolts at the bottom of the kicking leg. Both ends of the surgical tubing are tied to the front of the chassis.

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

OK, that makes sense as long as the kicker arm is mounted at least 3 inches behind the front of the frame.

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

I would epoxy some washers right onto the CF part, it can crack very easily with fasteners going through it.

Looks sick though! I love CF parts, it's an incredible material.

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/noted

Thanks!

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I should have noted that I not only read about it, but found out about it when a vibration experiment using CF failed on me in college:eek: .

If you ever break it you'll learn what "catastrophic failure" really means! :D

Re: pic: 1747 Answer to Teaser
 

You may want to look at the carbon fiber laminate over birch wood core material from Dragon Plate. Their analysis is that you only need the CF at the outer surface - not solid CF- to get the suitable stiffness characteristics. May also help further with your energy transfer issues too.
LINK => http://dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=3

For our kicker element, we are using an ~12" equilateral triangle, in a vertical plane, made from 20mm square tee slot channel. A widened toe at lower front corner contacts the ball and is beveled for some loft. This triangle pivots from its top corner, and has a vertical 1500lb line (1/8" x 1/4" - synthetic, low stretch) attached to its rear corner. It also has a forward travel limiting tether attached the low front corner.
The synthetic line is bungee pre-tensioned to ~50 Lbs of pull, and a CIM driven winder can draw line further back to reach 100+lbs tension. Triangle kicker element is accelerated very rapidly with minimal arc of travel to give full-field kicks. Triangle kicker element reaches high velocity and has ZERO FLEX on contact with ball (triangle is the ONLY structural shape) , thus acheiving maximum compression of ball's surface during ~1/100th second of contact with ball. This high sustained velocity during short (1/100th second) period of contact with ball is more important than follow through, and is is the single most critical factor for long distance shots that we have yet determined.

-Dick Ledford, Robotic Colonels Mentor