Quote:
Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII
After playing around with this chassis today, we found that it could climb a 15-20 degree slope. Keep in mind that this thing has a ground clearance of about an inch and was not designed for climbing.
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Seeing this tells me that a ramp that has an angle of 20 degrees or less is fine. It can be done easily (I'm looking at about 17 degrees for a ramp right now). Also knowing that bumpers need to be a minimum of 2.5" above the ground, if your frame matches that (even 2") then there should be no problem at all.
Also to teams building ramps, look at what material you plan on using and see if the surface (i.e. diamond plate) would make it easy or hard for a robot to climb up it. You can always cut holes and things in it to help with tracktion but remeber that some surfaces are still pretty slick.
Not only does your robot have to support its own weight (if you plan on holding other robots), if you have a second robot on top, you are now holding up 240 lbs or so. Having another robot squish yours would be a very bad experiance so plan on making your robot robust.
As for lifting robots, take into account the changing CG of your robot and the one you would be lifting. Also remeber to have a latching mechanism so when power is disabled the one you will be supporting doesnt come crashing to the ground.
Hopefully some of these tips will help someone. Just thought I would share my thoughts and experiances.