Quote:
Originally Posted by slijin
Does anyone know whether their battery shifting mechanism was particularly useful as a balancing aid? It was something we considered early on, but rejected because we didn't think the ~17lbs of battery and apparatus would be particularly significant, among other reasons.
To answer the OP, 118. Their entire frame was built for passive bridge manipulation, and a good portion of their mechanisms were devoted to balance assists. They had a beautiful system to assist a double balance, complete with lights to indicate an unbalanced v balanced bridge. And that's all before their stinger.
|
I was skeptical of the effectiveness of this mechanism as well. However, given the fact that our battery was one of the heaviest and highest mounted components on our robot, we actually were able to use the weight shifter relatively well. The battery sits about 2 feet off the ground, and at least 90% of the robot is beneath is.
That being said, just to give some perspective, we parked our bot balanced, by itself on one of the bridges on the practice field, and we were able to get the bridge to start rocking back and forth without moving our wheels, only shifting the battery. Much more effective than I had initially thought.