423 mecanum driving

After six long weeks, several days at our room lost to snow, and hours upon hours spent at a mentor's house to make up for lost time, I present the first test of our robot driving successfully. As you can see, it makes it over the hump and I believe it will still go through the tunnels once it's finished. Now all we have to do is finish the manipulator (it's modular though, so we're keeping it with us).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QufvaVg9Q6k

By the way, this was taken on the morning of February 23, only a few hours before two of our mentors drove the robot over to Eastern Center for it to be picked up by FedEx. Now that's commitment!

[Mr.G]

Looks cool.

[drtysteve384]

our team stayed away from mecanum wheels because we though we would lose traction while going over the ramp...but good job though

Originally Posted by drtysteve384

our team stayed away from mecanum wheels because we though we would lose traction while going over the ramp...but good job though

We decided to use mecanum after several teams posted successful videos of them taking the hump with mecanum wheels. Unbeknownst to me, the manipulator team tried to design the kicker to fit under the tunnel. So if everything goes well, you'll see us climbing the bump and going through the tunnel at NJ next week. Now, to just build a kicker in the first place...

[O'Sancheski]

two questions... 1 do you guys have any kickers... 2 are you guys going to put a guard around the perimeter of your bot so the ball doesn't exceed 3 inches into your frame perimeter.... also the bot looks great... highly maneuverable and you won't have any troubles getting over the bump

Originally Posted by O'Sancheski

two questions... 1 do you guys have any kickers... 2 are you guys going to put a guard around the perimeter of your bot so the ball doesn't exceed 3 inches into your frame perimeter.... also the bot looks great... highly maneuverable and you won't have any troubles getting over the bump

We are working on a kicker right now, we just didn't ship it. As for keeping the balls out, we have to shelves that hang down from the underside of the chassis where all of our electronics are kept. These allowed us to keep the weight balanced, allow almost the entire center to be used by the manipulator, and let us go under the tunnel if we want. I think if we have to, we might just put a simple bar on the back of our robot to keep the balls out.

[Wayne TenBrink]

That handles great. Good luck with the manipulator. You are going to be very busy on your first Thursday at a competition!

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

That handles great. Good luck with the manipulator. You are going to be very busy on your first Thursday at a competition!

Thanks! I'm surprised how well it works, and that was pretty much the first time driving it! Also, yeah, Friday at Trenton is going to be mad busy.

[larrysz92]

Looks Awesome Way to go