pic: Our best 2011 robot design

[Garten Haeska]

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[548swimmer]

I would recommend you make sure the joint where the arm slides is as close to flush as possible and extremely well braced. We had a similar design in 2007 and occasionally had issues with the gripper binding at the joint.

[Garten Haeska]

yea there will be alot of trial and error when making it, but thats just the fun of it! thanks for the info!

[Jacob Paikoff]

Very interesting, very cool idea. I hope it works well for you guys.

[Tytus Gerrish]

Wowh! i hope that works. i suggest making a structure around that hinge to prevent torsion, and bending in the x and y.
how does the elevator work, pulleys?

[nikeairmancurry]

Our lead mentor came up with something very similar...

[Garten Haeska]

torsion? and yes i was just too lazy to put the pulley in and i didnt put in a couple of cylinders just cuz i dont want to give away our entire robot.

[Jeffy]

Sweet, not something that came up in any of our design meetings. Thats Nice!

[sanddrag]

I must say, in a decade of doing FRC, I've never thought of or seen that before.

[Hawiian Cadder]

our team tossed around a similar idea, but we realized that a hinged arm does exactly the same motion, and doesn't require a slide.

[Garten Haeska]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I must say, in a decade of doing FRC, I've never thought of or seen that before.

Is that a good or bad thing?

[LLogan]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I must say, in a decade of doing FRC, I've never thought of or seen that before.

Our team did a very very similar design in 2007.


Here our lift is folded down. That piston actuates so that it becomes vertical.


Here is the lift unfolded to its full height.

IIRC, we were either seeded #1 or first pick that year, but we lost in the semifinals due to heavy defense.

We never tipped over, but we got pretty darn close a few times according to older members (I wasn't around in 2007). The inability to retract our arm to a lesser height was something our team regretted, I think.

I also believe we had some difficulty lining up the slides when it extended... can't really remember.

[DiscoKittyPrime]

One of the team members on my team came up with a similar idea but we decided that our luck with aligning slide rails like this wouldn't help (bad experience from '07 i believe). Best of luck to you and hope it works for you.

[Zholl]

Originally Posted by Garten Haeska

Is that a good or bad thing?

That really depends. Just because someone hasn't done or seen or thought of something before doesn't mean it's good or bad. Whether it's good or bad will depend largely on how much you've taken any potential risks or problems into consideration and how well you deal with them when you implement it. You could have the greatest design ever, but if it's poorly implemented it won't work as well is a mediocre design with great implementation. There are certainly going to be some risks and potential issues with a design such as this, especially since it is a somewhat unorthodox approach, but it has potential, and if you pull it off well people will take notice of the fact that you did something different and succeeded

[548swimmer]

Just make sure the joints are really stiff, and you'll be fine!