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Unread 29-12-2003, 11:41
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Post Should this mechanism exist at all?

Quote:
In the past we found it very difficult or impossible to turn our robot in high gear with 4 wheel drive.
I guess I'd just like to offer a few cents on this, because I have no doubt that this is common problem. There's a few different schools of thought. I'll offer my own. I'm sure others will chime in.

Pneumatics are an excellent but limited resource, often underused and underappreciated. I noticed that last year a number of teams had a "trick wheel" to aid in high-gear steering. I think the only reason that they could "get away with" using a pneumatic for this mechanism is since so few teams actually had any sort of complex manipulators that required penumatics.

Essentially, I think that using a pneumatic in this situation (unable to turn in high speed) isn't the best use of this resource. I'd rather try to properly design my high speed setting such that I could turn without this device. For better or worse, in almost every game that's been played so far, I'd rather just go 9 feet per second (faster than more than 70% of the competition) in high and have a spare pneumatic to use, rather than go 12 or 13 fps and need an addition device, which upon failure means that I have effectively neutralized my transmission. I know it depends on the game... but in principle, I think there's a more sound approach.

Just my pair of pennies...

Matt
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Matt Adams - Engineer at Danaher Motion
Team 1525 - Warbots - Deerfield High School