1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXa5uoQ2YwA

Somewhere between 1 and 1.1 second deploy + climb.

Credit goes to 1868 and 254 for the minibot help and inspiration. The hands-on experience at Davis helped ;)

Credit goes to 233/190/1114/whoever else for the ramp inspiration. I swear we won't just bring a piece of steel (bent around a vacuum cleaner) to St. Louis.

See you all at the World Championship!

-Mike

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

thats unreal.

I love the ramp use.
Great design and execution

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

So the ramp is legal because the minibot is the one powering itself up the ramp?

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Loving the constant improvement from your team Mike. Great stuff.


Best of luck in St. Louis!

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Thats awesome! We are in the process of building one also and this makes me even more excited!

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

The real difficulties with this design (there were 3 of them at DC -- 233, 190, and 1089 I think) were reliability of keeping the minibot "stuck" to the ramp while the match goes on. If it isn't in its initial spot every time, the results may vary match-to-match -- and I promise you that there is plenty of contact is some of the games this year.

233 seemed to do it the best; if you have issues in St. Louis, perhaps give them a holler.

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

I was going around school, talking with my fellow team members about this after lunch, and the best way I could describe it was "it's like a Hot Wheels ramp, but with a LOOOOOT more power."

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/r...500-2011-04-14

Try that on for size

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Excellent work, guys. I think people will be seeing a LOT of ramp-style deployments and minibots at the Championship, thanks to teams like 233 and 190. It will all come down to consistency of deployment, I'm sure.

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Wow, that is fast. Can't wait to see it in person.

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

I recall there was another thread where Ether and some other folks had started a discussion on energy and deployment methods such as this. I don't recall what (if any) determination was made. The minibot still must accelerate itself vertically the same distance, hence, providing the same positive change in potential energy, therefore requiring the same amount of work to be done no? Was there some sort of mathematical reason it ends up being faster deploying with a ramp? Or is the minibot propelled horizontally by the hostbot to give it momentum before it makes a transition to the inclined portion of the ramp?

Edit: dumb questions, I wasn't thinking, see below.

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Because it isn't fighting gravity for the first portion of its climb, it'll accelerate faster.

This will more quickly put it into its optimal speed, where power output is maximized.

Re: 1678's Roughly 1 Second Minibot
 

Correct. I hadn't put much thought into it. It's operating at a much better point on the motor curve when it starts out. Anyhow, nice results. :)