Starting With Ubertubes
 

My team is using a claw this year. The claw is driven by a motor to open in close. How are we supposed to put the tube into our claw without going into telop mode? Are we allowed to force the tube into our claw or do we have to set it on the robot?

Thanks
Team 3038

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Your robot must be touching the ubertube at the start of autonomous, you won't have a chance to put it into teleop mode on the field before the match so you would have to probably put it into your claw somehow or you could have your program pick up the tube before continuing to score in auto.

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

It has to start touching your robot whether it be a bumper of on your claw within your starting zone. You cannot power up the robot when it is one the field and if they are giving teams the ubertubes early has not been stated and is highly unlikely. If the claw is driven by something other than a window motor or a motor with a worm gearbox you should be able to open it by hand. If not you may have to adjust your auto program to pick it up off the ground.

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Ubertubes are somewhat compliant. Can you squish it into a semi closed claw and then have it more fully close as the first command of autonomous?

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

yea we could and what about starting in to the ground about a foot away from the robot

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

As long as the ubertube is touching your robot, and your robot is in STARTING CONFIGURATION then I don't see a problem.

As for the original question: That should have been answered when you were designing your claw.

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

im just the programer they build it and i make it happen so ill make it work

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Another option is to make the claw open up with a pin or something of the sort. Our claw is connected to a pneumatic actuator and so all we do is pull the pin out, open the claw, put the tube in and put the pin back in. Then in auto we wait a few seconds for the compressor to give us enough air clamp on the tube tightly and go. Don't know what your set up is, so I don't know if this could work for you, but it's a lot nicer than creating a program to pick up off the floor.

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Our claw works the same way but just from simple testing, we were able to kind of just jam it in the claw. See if you can do that.

Otherwise, try having it on the ground, touching your robot. When the match starts, back up a little and pick it off the ground.

Good Luck!

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Our robot had the same issue with regards to setting an ubertube at the beginning of autonomous.
Our claw has two pins on opposite ends which hold it in place on the extending arm. As we remove the lower pin, it allows the claw to open by rotating upwards, placing the tube in the exact spot we want, then forcing the claw shut, and keeping it there with the pin again.

Re: Starting With Ubertubes
 

Something to think about:

If you can't get an Ubertube in, how will you get a tube out to comply with <R17>?

I'll add another tally to the pin idea. This is what we have done with our window motor powered claw to comply with <R17> and as a bonus it lets us put the Ubertube in easier.