FRC 2012 "Best Designs" Log

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

I'm not sure how they ended the season, but I was under the impression that it didn't work out as planned on the competition bridge and wasn't too effective..

IIRC both places they went they were out in quarters and the discussions I read showed that while their ramp could get robots up the bridge, the fact that they were that much weight on the utmost edge of the bridge made it near impossible to balance with.
Thus, good idea, but physics trumps creativity yet again.

[jyh947]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

Over-the-Bumper Intake, as seen by 469, 2056, 1114, 2826, 341 and others
-The over-the-bumper intake system was a very common design in 2012, with many dominating teams using it. Essentially, it's just a collector system that drops out over the bumpers and sucks in balls. This can turn an entire side of a robot into a collector.
-By using this, teams were able to greatly speed up their collecting of balls. By making them as wide as the side of a robot, teams were essentially able to just drive at a ball and collect it. This proved to be a huge asset for teams who were shooting, and teams who were stealing balls.

1114 didn't have over-the-bumper intake.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by jyh947

1114 didn't have over-the-bumper intake.

It didn't necessarily carry the balls over the bumper, but it still fits into the definition the OP had.

The OP defined an over the bumper pickup as "A pick up system which turned an entire side of the robot into a pickup system."

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by CalTran

It didn't necessarily carry the balls over the bumper, but it still fits into the definition the OP had.

The OP defined an over the bumper pickup as "A pick up system which turned an entire side of the robot into a pickup system."

Maybe we should rename the category to drop-down intake? "Over the bumper" seems to mean to a lot of people that the ball goes over the bumper, not that just the intake mechanism goes over the bumper.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

I'm not sure how they ended the season, but I was under the impression that it didn't work out as planned on the competition bridge and wasn't too effective.

I'm not trying to say it's not a really cool idea, but I wouldn't say it was one of the best designs.

Actually why it didn't work was at the competition, the bridges ended up having an extra 2-3 inches of polycarb hangoff which made them dip lower than they expected. Also, the ramp didn't pan out because the refs would give their opponents major penalties for "crossing their bumper perimeter" everytime they drove on them to get on the co-op bridge.

[LeelandS]

I just wanted to keep everyone updated on the going-ons in this thread.

The info currently on the OP is obviously outdated. I'm unable to edit this post as of right now (I assume it's a time thing, that I can't edit posts within a certain period). I have most of the updates I'm going to make written down and ready to go.

Such things include:
-More methods of barrier crossing
-Bridge balancing aids (The Drop-Down Piston and The Four Bar Linkage)
-I'm going to update the Ball Acquisition section to reflect Over-The-Bumper and Drop-Down, which I have been mistakenly using interchangeably.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far!

[swwrobotics]

One design I saw by team 2914 that was so simple to get on the bridge was basically a giant polycarbonate wedge sheet on top of the robot. The robot would drive towards the bridge and the bridge would lift up, the robot would drive backwards, the bridge would fall down towards them as it tottered, and then they would quickly drive toward and up onto the bridge. No mechanical moving parts were used on the robot except the driving.

This device was also very useful for lifting the bridge for people on the other side of them.

[rainbowdash]

this is similar to 1323's East- West Collaboration project.
Anyways, some swerve drive code/ blueprints would be nice.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by rainbowdash

this is similar to 1323's East- West Collaboration project.
Anyways, some swerve drive code/ blueprints would be nice.

I don't have anything like that for 16 or 1717 right now (though I may seek into it further), but I'd recommend taking a look at FRC Designs. There is not an abundance of Swerve designs on there, but they do have CAD for 148 from 2008 and 973's Emperor Swerve (The 2011 off season model). If you're interested, that could certainly be a place to look

148 - 2008
973 - 2011 Offseason

As far as code goes, I don't have much anything for that. But I may be able to ask around and see what people are willing to share.

As far as 1126 goes (they were on Swerve this year), they published their code for this year in this thread. I'm pretty sure they included the code for their Swerve drive.

(P.S. If anyone reading this has code for a Swerve Drive they'd be willing to make public and share, that would certainly help out in the mission of this thread)

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

(P.S. If anyone reading this has code for a Swerve Drive they'd be willing to make public and share, that would certainly help out in the mission of this thread)

This paper may be of use to you http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2426

[CalTran]

I'm curious as to who the best "Electronics layout" would go to. I know that Cheesy Poofs always have some beautiful electronics boards, and Wildstang maintains the same standard of excellence. And I imagine there are plenty of other teams who hold their electronics board to ensure every electron is orderly. So, with that in mind, who do you think had the most organized electronics board this year? Pictures welcome!

[normpear2]

I have to say, the team that was making shots from the co-op bridge, while balanced with us on Archimedes, had a very impressive strategy, their shot while on balanced on the bridge won them the match by a couple points inside that last 15 seconds.

(I wish I remember the team number :/)

[craigboez]

Does anyone have anything tangible on the team 16 and 1717 swerve designs?

We're working on a swerve bot as an offseason project, so if these bots were two of the best it'd be great to have a look at them. I don't need a full CAD model, or blueprints, or anything that detailed. How about a picture or even just a brief description? There doesn't seem to be much info floating around other than a few "they were awesome" comments.

[stundt1]

Originally Posted by craigboez

Does anyone have anything tangible on the team 16 and 1717 swerve designs?

We're working on a swerve bot as an offseason project, so if these bots were two of the best it'd be great to have a look at them. I don't need a full CAD model, or blueprints, or anything that detailed. How about a picture or even just a brief description? There doesn't seem to be much info floating around other than a few "they were awesome" comments.

Use Frc Designs

Emperor Swerve--http://www.frc-designs.com/html/CAD_Offseason.html
2 swerve drives here--http://www.frc-designs.com/html/drives.html

[craigboez]

Originally Posted by stundt1

Use Frc Designs

Emperor Swerve--http://www.frc-designs.com/html/CAD_Offseason.html
2 swerve drives here--http://www.frc-designs.com/html/drives.html

I'm already familiar with the stuff that's been previously published. What I'm really interested in is what made 16 and 1717 so good this year?