I am extremely proud of my team's improvements this year as well. For the last 8 years I don't think we have ever changed our robot throughout the season, and boy we should have. This year we made some significant improvements after each competition and it showed.
Starting off at the Pioneer Valley district event we were putting up
one stack of four and another stack of three, occasionally capped. We were having trouble aligning to the chute and the totes would slide all over when stacking. Unfortunately our lift motor failed in the finals and we could only make stacks of two.
Example match.
For Seneca we added aluminum tabs to make sure the top totes were aligned and meshed with the the bottom tote.
We mocked them up using combination squares and replaced them with some angle. It worked great for totes, but the recycling containers would tip forward when grabbed. Two PVC four-bar guards were added to prevent our stacks from tipping. We ended up making
two stacks of four, one or two capped.
Example match.
At Upper Darby we brought a new top claw that would hold the RCs while stacking and redesigned the tote tabs to keep the can upright. Both worked very well and allowed us to
consistently make two noodled and capped stacks of four and an uncapped stack of 2-4 totes. We saw the need to increase our output in the finals so we attempted stacks of five but the can would sometimes come out of the top claw.
Example match.
Last weekend at MAR champs we made some modifications to the top claw that allowed us to easily make stacks of five totes. It worked well and we only dropped one stack/can in our first QF match. We also added two fiberglass rods in front of our claw to prevent the totes from sliding too far into the robot. They also helped align the totes surprisingly. Both of these improvements allowed us to make
two noodled and capped stacks of five and one uncapped stack of 2-6 totes almost every match that we wanted to.
Example match.
Now that our season is over, we plan on working on our three tote auto and moving the top claw up so we can make stacks of six. One of our goals for next year is to start using CAD so we can go through more design iterations on the computer instead of building.