FIRST Team 57, The Leopards, 2012 Robot

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

I like it, the inside out V-belt is really clever way to get grip on the ball and the bridge platform might just end up being a game breaker.

Thanks. We originally had wedgetop tread on, and it was shredding balls at full speed out of the CIM-sim. Welded V-belts gives us a smooth, seamless grip surface. I highly recommend welding the belts. For testing purposes we tried drilling the ends and shoving in quick connects. I still have the bruise on my leg from the belt that flew off at full speed.

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

It looks naked without all the cool signage you always come up with. Where's the ramp that you are supposed to have that helps your alliance partners get on the bridge?

We're making use of the "ramp" that's already on the field. The idea is for a robot to drive onto the bridge, the bridge ends up on top of our wedge, and they drive onto our robot. I'll grant it's going to take a little practice to make it work, but we didn't have to change our original design terribly much to make it possible. Electrical was a little annoyed at the cramped space for the electronics, of course, but we're hoping it'll be worth it. Or at least fail as spectacularly as our last ramp bot did at Lone Star.