pic: Final 2011 Drivetrain

[Joe Schornak]

After viewing this robot design, and the request for veteran tips within, I decided that it would be a good idea to put together a robot design guide, so that we can all learn to design effective robots in the future.

BEHOLD! Joe Schornak's Robot Design Guide

[nighterfighter]

Freshmen with drills and jigsaws ARE a cheap alternative to a 5 axis mill though!

[DavidGitz]

This is pretty awesome, and loving the Picard Maneuver reference. A small part of my mind wonders though, if this poster wasn't trolling. Then I would feel bad, on a couple different levels.

[Bill_B]

Probably planning on milling the bumpers out of solid pool noodle stock, too. Ever wonder how they drill that hole down the middle of pool noodles?

[SudoSammich]

I'd have to agree with luke on this one, swerve drive seems a bit ambitious for a rookie team, especially a rookie team with only four weeks of the build left. 5 axis CNC aside, you still need to be able to accurately assemble, program and learn to drive one of, if not the most, complicated drive system usually attempted in FRC.

It's possible, I suppose, but at that point I'd imagine the professional mentors you have would be doing more of the work than the students, as a rookie team's students generally wouldn't be able to accomplish such a feat. While I've seen rookie teams compete at the top levels of our regional in the past, it was due to the simpler, more solid mechanisms that worked well together and a good driver. Additionally, by the sound of it you haven't really started to BUILD your robot if you're still working on CAD sketches at this point, and that's no small undertaking. Best of luck if you try to pull it off, but I'd be very cautious to first look at a crab system two weeks into the season.

P.S. 2.2 seconds on the minibot? I remember seeing that a 5 lb minibot utilizing ALL the power from a tetrix motor (i.e. no loss in the system, which is just a wee bit impossible) would climb in 6.5 or so. Conservative estimates from that landed a competitive minibot at 7 seconds. It's entirely possible I'm not remembering the thread correctly, but 2.2 still seems a bit extreme.

[Chris is me]

On the off chance that you guys still aren't trolling, you guys still have quite massive delusions of grandeur - a two speed decagonal swerve drive is ridiculous, especially if you haven't started building or control yet, and especially if you're a rookie team.

Also, trolling CD is a terrible way to get your team attention - mostly because it's the bad kind of attention.

[kenavt]

For reference on team 3815:

https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index....ils&tpid=52979.

Their (only) sponsor is "Automation Direct": http://nfrobotics.byethost2.com/?page_id=75

Website: http://raiderrobotics.co.cc/.

Frankly, from their sponsor, I doubt if they have the resources to pull something on this scale off. If anyone could.

[Creator Mat]

Where would one get a block of aluminum that big? We are sponsored by caterpillar and are able to order material through their tool room, and off hand I'm pretty sure we couldn't get our hands on a block that big (regardless of price).

On another note even if this isn't a troll post (i'm pretty convinced it is however), it is a fun thought experiment on way out their ideas. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if a veteran team or two experiments this off season with a non circular wheel just to see what happens.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by kenavt

For reference on team 3815:

Website: http://raiderrobotics.co.cc/.

Also for reference, this site seems to be redirecting to a porn hosting service currently.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by SudoSammich

P.S. 2.2 seconds on the minibot? I remember seeing that a 5 lb minibot utilizing ALL the power from a tetrix motor (i.e. no loss in the system, which is just a wee bit impossible) would climb in 6.5 or so. Conservative estimates from that landed a competitive minibot at 7 seconds. It's entirely possible I'm not remembering the thread correctly, but 2.2 still seems a bit extreme.

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Gotta call shenanigans here...

You say it's averaging 2.2 seconds, which means in some cases it's actually going faster than that. Are you adhering to all the minibot requirements? Is the pole you are using for testing regulation size?

In our tests, and from my observations of other teams minibot postings, 2.2 seconds would be far, far, far and away the fastest minibot I've encountered. Considering A. the requirements that everyone must use to build the same minibot and B. the number of teams attempting the same challenge with said requirements, it seems unlikely that someone could build a minibot that is simply THAT far superior than any other.

As they say, pics (or in this case vids) or it didn't happen...

-Brando

Maybe he wasn't so crazy after all...

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Maybe he wasn't so crazy after all...

Heh. For those of you that didn't compete in 2011, the fastest minibots of that year were at or just under 1 second from deploy to points. A 2.2 second minibot I would definitely consider "slow" by the end of the year.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Heh. For those of you that didn't compete in 2011, the fastest minibots of that year were at or just under 1 second from deploy to points. A 2.2 second minibot I would definitely consider "slow" by the end of the year.

And yet... in the overwhelming majority of matches even a 2.2 second minibot would have won the race.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

And yet... in the overwhelming majority of matches even a 2.2 second minibot would have won the race.

*the match

[BBray_T1296]

The minibot I built climbed the pole in roughly 5 seconds, yet we lost only 1 quali match (in Dallas, our 2nd regional). Every time our bot TOUCHED the pole, it scored*. One match at Alamo, the minibot fell out of our poor holder, was RAN OVER by another robot, and I walked over to it post match, zero damage.



(* except when the battery cable was knocked out and we lost by 1 point in eliminations (grr im still mad))

[BBray_T1296]

Also, booooooooo to whoever ressurected this thread