Quote:
Originally Posted by Joel J.
I haven't seen alot of bad robots that were bad because they tried to do everything, though I do not deny their existence. I've seen alot of bad robots because of a poor gripper, or a poor drivetrain. Usually, it has been a poor gripper. By poor gripper I mean slow grab, poor hold, slow release, awkward release onto the rack, holding the tube vertically or worse, etc. Also, there are a few that attempted to be ramps only, but failed, or ended with sub-par ramps.
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Don't be dissing on the vertical tube handling, man. As soon as there's video of 868's robot online, I'll show you how much vertical tube handling rocks.
But yeah, I'll agree that I've seen a lot of terribly inefficient grabbers. Seems like it takes most robots 10-15 seconds to pick up a tube.
Grabber mistakes I've seen:
2 flat, parallel pincers - The tube flies out when you turn
Grab from the top - You have to aim in 2 directions now
Nothing on the robot to help align the tube - makes the driver aim more
No positional control on the arm (Potentiometers are cheap, people.) - Makes the operator's job incredibly difficult
Lack of tube sensors - Makes the driver react, rather than the robot.
A few sensors and a bit of programming goes a long way. It also helps quite a bit if you plan ahead and design so that sensors are possible.