[daniel_dsouza]

We haven't attended a regional yet (we are week four), but we have spent enough time going up/down bridges with our robot to comment here...

Our team prototyped a bridge manipulator that would push the bridge down, and like some of the other posters figured out that using an arm to do all the pushing was not as simple as some thought. The moment we thought we should change designs was when our robot ran over our bridge manipulator...

In the end, we created an mechanism that acts as a ramp, and uses the power of our drivetrain to lower the bridge. When approaching the bridge, the driver will lower the mechanism out over our bumpers, and hit the bridge. The lip of the bridge will slide down the ramp (like so: -evil bridge lip-\[robot here]). When the bridge's lip reaches the bottom the the ramp, the wheels will be able to roll onto the bridge.