Drive Systems

[cricket66]

What is the bumper height restriction this year. I see nothing in the specs.

[tlivingd]

Originally Posted by cricket66

What is the bumper height restriction this year. I see nothing in the specs.

R01, blue box


[R01] see the whole rule as trimmed for content......... The Frame Perimeter of a Robot is defined by the outer-most set of exterior verticies on the Robot that are within the Bumper Zone, which is between 2 and 10 in. from the floor. Minor protrusions no greater than ¼ in. such as bolt heads, fastener ends, and rivets are not considered part of the Frame Perimeter.

To determine the Frame Perimeter, wrap a piece of string around the Robot at the level described in [R02]. The string describes this polygon.

Note: to permit a simplified definition of the Frame Perimeter and encourage a tight, robust connection between the Bumpers and the Frame Perimeter, minor protrusions such as bolt heads, fastener ends, rivets, etc are excluded from the determination of the Frame Perimeter.


Why this isn't in the bumper section i'll never know.

EDIT: Howdy neighbor! :-)

[tlivingd]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Depends on how high you lift the chassis.

Also, you'd need to be careful of 'articulating' bumpers.

Please see:
[R30]
Bumpers may not be articulated.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by tlivingd

Please see:
[R30]
Bumpers may not be articulated.

Exactly why I mentioned it

[Grim Tuesday]

May our 14" mechanism expand in the bumper zone outside the robot?

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

May our 14" mechanism expand in the bumper zone outside the robot?

I would assume so. My POV regarding this is that the bumper zone is only a bumper zone when there are bumpers present. That sounds a bit confusing, but what I'm saying is, you have your bumpers set with the openings, then you have an arm(or whatever) at the same level as your bumpers, then yes, its seems like you can expand there(if that's what you're asking)

[joek]

Originally Posted by Ninja_Bait

Our team is also coming up with ways to jump the bump, but I'm actually surprised that people think mecanum will be used by a lot of teams. HDPE floors? Bumps? Bridges? Those will not be nice to your poor Swiss wheels.

their actually one of, if not the strongest wheels out there (an aluminum and steel sandwich). that said, you probably should use hard rubber rollers, as the soft one might get chewed up. also, u will want 10", because the boards are 4" high...

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Exactly why I mentioned it

they never said that the part their attached to can't move...

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Wouldn't lifting the robot violate the bumper height rule?

I don't think so -- any more than driving across a tilted ramp would violate the bumper height rule. The bumper height is clearly relative to the robot, and not to the absolute plane of the court floor, else any ramp action is inherently illegal.

[Andrew Zeller]

Originally Posted by Zoughtbaj

I'm curious if anyone is going to try to build a drive train to actually circumvent the barrier. The only things I can think of to do that would be either rather large wheels or a tread drive (after actually seeing the barrier, normal wheels will likely be an "improbability" ). Then again, the rules are strict enough in regard to passing over the balance boards (G25, G28, G29) that I doubt there will be a need to go over the barrier. Our team has been developing a 6-wheel drive system that we are pretty happy with, because of the increased mobility over the 4-wheel. However, 4-wheel drives will have a fine time navigating the field as well, I think.

hmmm.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgdG...eature=related

[Grim Tuesday]

Team 610 in 2010 had ~10" pneumatic wheeled 6WD; the middle one rose and lowered so that they had an easier time with the bump. I'll try to find a video, but most of them are low res taken from far away. Anyone have a picture of it? Still my favorite robot of all time.

[Starke]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

Team 610 in 2010 had ~10" pneumatic wheeled 6WD; the middle one rose and lowered so that they had an easier time with the bump. I'll try to find a video, but most of them are low res taken from far away. Anyone have a picture of it? Still my favorite robot of all time.

Done.


http://frc-designs.com/html/CAD_2010.html

[Flimsor]

This was posted in a different forum. It's a really cool way to drive the robot, but i'm not completely sure how effective it would be for this years game.

http://youtu.be/uaT7M3Nwj7c