Powered Game Piece Release

[meakerb]

At the start of the match, an Ubertube is to be in contact with the robot. For most robots that have a gripper or other electro-mechanical means of holding the game pieces, this would involve running a motor to open the gripper and then close it on the game piece.

Then at the end of the match, the robots that are holding game pieces would also have to be "run" so that their grippers would open to release the game pieces.

However, the field system will not allow you to "run" your robot before or after a match. Does this mean that the teams will need to bring their classmates (PCs) onto the field and connect directly to them (teathered ethernet connection) in order to open/close their manipulator hands?

Mentor, team 3221

[Vikesrock]

It would be wise (and perhaps even required) to design a system that does not require tethering to release a game piece. There are a number of ways to do that, including but not limited to:

1) Software control that always opens the gripper right before the end of the match
2) A backdriveable gripper
3) A pneumatic gripper (releasing the pressure vent valve releases the game piece)
4) Designing some type of "manual override" where you can open the gripper without backdriving the motor.

[Hawiian Cadder]

most of the time you can backdrive whatever manipulator you have

[ttakashima]

unless you are using the window motors. worm drive gear box = cant backdrive without power.

you would need to:

4) Designing some type of "manual override" where you can open the gripper without backdriving the motor.

[Chris is me]

Most grippers should be backdriveable so you can force the tubes out to remove game pieces. The only exception would be a window motor based gripper which would need something else to slip.

[NorviewsVeteran]

In '07, one thing we did right was open the jaw with a bicycle brake cable, and it was closed with a spring. This allowed us to manually open the jaw with no problem.