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Unread 14-03-2012, 12:55
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joek joek is offline
Team Welder and CAD tech
FRC #2052 (KnightKrawler)
Team Role: Mechanical
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Irondale H.S.
Posts: 231
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Cool Re: The afterthought bridge manipulator

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Raia View Post
After our first regional this year, our team has learned a lot about this game.
One thing we (and quite a few other teams) didn't see coming was the difficulty of lowering those bridges.
Our bridge arm was the last system to be designed, and was not given enough weight/space allotment. For that reason, we ended up having a "you lower it and we'l follow you up there" robot. We tried at least two different designs both powered by a window motor, to no avail. Then again, with 5 pounds of weight to spare for a manipulator, what can you expect?

I'm curious as to who else was in this boat, and if they found a way to overcome this problem. It would be interesting to discuss last ditch bridge manipulator implementations, and their effectiveness.
we re-designed our manipulator twice, our final design is capable of holding a bridge level with three other robots pushing down with weaker devices on the other side (happened once at lake superior)
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2012 Record (13-2-0)
lake superior regional finalists- thank you WAVE (2826) and Blue Twilight (2220)