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Unread 13-12-2007, 15:07
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Alan Anderson Alan Anderson is offline
Software Architect
FRC #0045 (TechnoKats)
Team Role: Mentor
 
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Re: Preseason Design: What are the Limits?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard View Post
...I can't imagine an entire arm/manipulator being reused.
Can you imagine reusing a significant piece of one? Consider a turntable design, for example, or a robust scheme for driving an elbow with embedded feedback. If the arm were capable enough, it could be reused easily -- consider the wide variety of games played using the same basic human arm.

There was a moment last season when a few of us noticed that our 2007 robot's arm design was sufficiently generic that it could have played the 2005 and 2004 games with only the end "gripper" replaced. Combine it with the pneumatic turret lift we used in those games and it could have played them very well (heck, it probably could have played the 2006 game as well as our actual robot did).

Given a few iterations to merge the features of those robot arms and tweak them for reliability and better modularity of the end effector, I think we could credibly use the exact same arm design for many possible FRC games, and have a finished robot two weeks after the kickoff. It wouldn't be highly optimized for the game, but it would work and it would give us plenty of time to practice.

Not that I'd advocate doing things that way...on the other hand, our 2007 drivetrain was very good, and I wouldn't argue against reusing it completely if it fit the game (and if it weren't against the rules).