I would say this is how not to climb the corner. Actually we drove up the corner. For most of the season we were a cycler and our caterpillar drive did not work. It was only on Saturday at worlds that our system really started to work. It was an intense obsessive effort for the entire season. This is a video of it in action. It was taken by a Gopro camera mounted under the robot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=O4GK4HfHiBM
Notice that the 2nd leg does not release when it should. The season is over but we are still trying to dial it in.
This is a 3D model of the drive
http://wiki.team1640.com/index.php?t...terpillar2.jpg
We poured an unbelievable amount of resources into it but it works - kind of.
This is a link to our website detailing the project.
http://wiki.team1640.com/index.php?t...erpillar_Drive
Note the state machine diagram at the bottom of the page. It stressed our programmers too.
I don't consider it economic success. Given the resources pour into vs. the contribution to points in the competitions. It's a looser. How ever if we look at the skill sets and knowledge that our students gain from this design build project it's huge. Really huge. It forced our students to really step it up. I'm proud of their accomplishment.
After surviving the caterpillar drive project, I can't help feeling the GDC is evil. They created the pyramid climb thing knowing full well that teams like us could not resist the challenge and would jump at it. They knew the pain suffering climbing the pyramid would bring to teams. Well done GDC, well done, You got us good.