Pro's and Con's of Motorized Robot Carts

[1502]

Just wondering what teams have one and what everyone thinks of them. Even after 4 years of FRC in Michigan, I've yet to see any motorized carts. Is this different in other states? We've always had one and have never had any problems with it. Next year we'll be unveiling a new one with even greater maneuverability.

Edit: This is meant to get the word out that they are not bad and if done right can make a team more efficient while not making any volunteers unhappy.

[legogeek24]

Biggest Con would be transporting it - ours probably can't come to St. Louis with us . But I really like having a motorized cart for the 'bot. We started with one this year via a modified electric wheelchair base and it worked great. It makes it convenient and easy to transport the robot as well as any accessories, parts, batteries, etc. that you need to and from the field, but mostly it just adds to that all-important cool factor .

But I will say I didn't see any other at Salt Lake this year, and I never remember any at Portland, Seattle, or Sacramento either. A motorized cart is definitely not a necessity, more of a luxury and convenience, but I like 'em. It would have sure made that walk from the pits to the field in Atlanta soooo much nicer!

I'm neither for, nor against them, but all I have to say is this quote:

"How many motorized carts do you see on the Einstein field?"

[Woolly]

We have one, based off of a motorized wheelchair, and an added scissor lift on the robot platform so that we can work on certain things more easily.
We've never had a safety issue with running people over, in part because we still yell "ROBOT", and because of all the flashing lights we have on it.
Though, of course, we still have a manual cart as a backup, and for carrying other heavy things like parts, batteries, and etc.
But yeah, we haven't seen anyone else that has a motorized cart, I kind of feel bad for the people who have to pull theirs everywhere.

I actually don't have any pictures at the moment, but It's pretty sweet.

[O'Sancheski]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

"How many motorized carts do you see on the Einstein field?"

How is this relevant to building motorized carts?

[jspatz1]

Cons:
Dangerous
Costly
Heavy
Slow
Annoying to field staff
Annoying to other teams


Pros:
(....crickets....)

Originally Posted by O'Sancheski

How is this relevant to building motorized carts?

The best teams in FIRST make it to Einstein. They don't have motorized carts.

It means you really don't need one. With the weight and size of a motorized cart, you can have a beefed up normal cart. I've seen carts carry tons of batteries, a toolbox, a screen with scouting data on it, and even one that weighs so little it's like pushing a 150 pound box with a tap of the foot.

[O'Sancheski]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

The best teams in FIRST make it to Einstein. They don't have motorized carts.

This shouldn't turn someone away because all the teams that make it to Einstein don't use them. This is kind of like the Mecanum wheels and Einstein. There will eventually be a Mecanum robot on Einstein, maybe in the future there will be a motorized cart on Einstein.

Originally Posted by O'Sancheski

This shouldn't turn someone away because all the teams that make it to Einstein don't use them. This is kind of like the Mecanum wheels and Einstein. There will eventually be a Mecanum robot on Einstein, maybe in the future there will be a motorized cart on Einstein.

Touché. There may be, there may be not, Only time will tell, and only teams that make a motorized cart will find out. Just passing on the information given to me.

[Jim Wilks]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

Cons:
Dangerous
Costly
Heavy
Slow
Annoying to field staff
Annoying to other teams

Let me add one more con from a Robot Inspector's point of view:

In the pit, with the cart in the pit (where else can you park it?) and the bot on the ground to check bumpers, there is NO space left to do anything.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

The best teams in FIRST make it to Einstein. They don't have motorized carts.

Just because they are the best, doesn't mean other teams have to do what they do. Sure, I want to get to Einstein, but I don't have to transport my robot like the Einstein teams do.

Building a motorized robot cart might not take you to Einstein, but could be a great summer project to use up some of those spare parts. Our 2010 robot didn't perform too well and was small enough to fit through the tunnel (and a standard size door). We are contemplating taking that working drivetrain and chassis, adding in an old IFI control system and a simple lift, and modifying it into something useful.

Originally Posted by nukemknight

Just because they are the best, doesn't mean other teams have to do what they do. Sure, I want to get to Einstein, but I don't have to transport my robot like the Einstein teams do.

Building a motorized robot cart might not take you to Einstein, but could be a great summer project to use up some of those spare parts. Our 2010 robot didn't perform too well and was small enough to fit through the tunnel (and a standard size door). We are contemplating taking that working drivetrain and chassis, adding in an old IFI control system and a simple lift, and modifying it into something useful.

The way I interpreted it was that the teams on Einstein know the pros and cons of the motorized cart and stay away from it because of them. I'd love to build one, but to actually use it would probably get some people angry (I like to please the robot inspectors), and would be a pain to use in the pit.

That being said, I still have the CAD for one. Won't ever build it, but it's still cool (maybe a motorized vehicle for promotional stuff, but not for the competition, like the OP was talking about)

[Tom Line]

From a practicality standpoint, a motorized cart is useless. It's a bit like a hybrid automobile in that regard.

However, there are positives to making one if the students do it and learn from it. It's another chance for them to learn to wire, gear, power, and program a robot correctly.

Do NOT put flashing lights, music, noise makers, or other beepers on it. Underglow is cool and looks acceptable.

If, however, you've got extra bumpers, putting a couple of those on your cart would be appreciated when you over-zealous cart drive runs over someone else (as happened to me twice this weekend).

[PayneTrain]

My thing is, why build a motorized cart when you can build a ROBOT that you can you can use to strictly demo?

[zachmartin1806]

Originally Posted by jgw

Let me add one more con from a Robot Inspector's point of view:

In the pit, with the cart in the pit (where else can you park it?) and the bot on the ground to check bumpers, there is NO space left to do anything.

We found an elegant solution to this potential problem, we use our motorized cart as our work table, the entire platform (which is a flat table top with about 1" tall blocks on the corners to prevent the robot from falling off) that we can raise anywhere from about 1 foot to about 3 feet off of the floor so we can work on every part of the bot without straining our bodies with the constant bending and kneeling that we would otherwise have to do without it. As for the motorized carts on Einstein reasoning, if you utilize even basic engineering principles and develope it during the off season it does nothing but help the students get a better idea of what to expect going into build season. Its like everything else in the world, there is a right and wrong way to approach it.