"the tube tosser"

[ouellet348]

My team is playing around with the idea of making a small system to kick tubes away from us in the feeding lanes and scoring zone as the grounded tubes made maneuvering an issue a the Bayou. Using as little machining as possible as it is time constrained and we only have two kids to work on it, (however they are our two best machinist and the team captains), what are some simple solutions to this problem ? We have a surplus of weight to play with but heavy doesn't really mean effective. The current idea is using a servo and music wire to "swipe" them aside but I doubt the standard KOP servos from years past have the power or that this is a great idea. Any help or ideas are hugely appreciated. Thanks !

P.S. We're attending week six at boston so time is of the essence !

[ouellet348]

P.P.S. also ideally it should be designed so as not to violate the herding rules when we are holding a tube and trying to score

[zachmartin1806]

Do you have any pictures of your robot? How you design the mechanism is dependent on the design of your robot and how much weight you have to spare.

I've seen a team that made a feeder robot (I know, it's amazing I actually found one!), and their robot just got a light grip on tubes, and catapulted them almost half way across the field (The round ones rolled). So, I expect a similar device could be used to throw tubes out of the way. You could also create a mechanism that could pick up tubes in the feeder station (such as Ubertubes), and fling them into your opponent's zone. It's hard to maneuver around a strategically-placed tube!

[RoboCat2005]

Have you considered using the window motors instead of a servo, a little bit more weight but would probably be a little bit stronger and last longer.

[The Lucas]

Have you considered something similar to a cowcatcher? Just be careful not to use it on other robots or you could get a G48 penalty plus yellow card. You could probably tie it to your arm so you dont need another motor to raise it

[PAR_WIG1350]

Belts around bumpers (like the kind used on some roller claws). If anything gets between you and an obstacle, it is moved out of the way by the moving belts.

[Hawiian Cadder]

i think maybe a blower would work, get a leaf blower or something like that, replace the original motor with any combo of the higher powered motors from this year, and mount it so that it blows the tubes away.