pic: FTC3231 - Syzygy

[Madison]

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[Kpchem]

If I may ask, how does that grasp the rings? My first guess is that the mechanism on the end of the arm actuates like a claw, but I can't see where the joints for that would be...

No matter what, that's a very good looking robot, and I hope to be able to see it in competition!

[Akash Rastogi]

That's a sweet looking little robot. Do you have any videos?

[Nick Lawrence]

This is a work of art. Well done guys!

-Nick

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

That's a sweet looking little robot. Do you have any videos?

I would love to see a video as well! Our robot looks like it is from the junkyard compared to your robot!

Looks like we have some work to do.

[Madison]

No video yet; my phone's battery was dead last night. If I can make it to our first matches tonight, I'll grab some video and put it up on our FRC team's YouTube channel.

It works like you might expect; a simple-four bar (driven by a 67-esque lower four-bar) raises to the rings to any of the three scoring heights. It has PID control on the arm and drive for positioning.

The manipulator isn't a claw; it's more of a bucket. It slides up into the rings from below and pulls them away from the pegs to load. It can rotate forward to dump rings onto the pegs.

[BrendanB]

Beautiful robot!

[MattC9]

Do I see a double 4 bar; like 67 in '07 and 148 in '11?

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by MattC9

Do I see a double 4 bar; like 67 in '07 and 148 in '11?

Seems like it.

Its a 4-bar 4-barring a 4-bar

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Seems like it.

Its a 4-bar 4-barring a 4-bar

Technically...it's a 6 bar (4-bar with a driver dyad).

Love the lighting, does it serve a particular purpose other than looking cool?

Looking forward to seeing video of this sexy beast.

[Madison]

Yes -- the arm is a 6-bar like those used by 67 and 148 in the past.

I wasn't able to make it to the first league match on Friday night -- I didn't get done with work until they were nearly finished -- so I couldn't get any video. They are 6-0-0 at the moment with a high score of 240 pts., though, if that means anything useful.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Slickest FTC robot I've ever seen, can't wait to see a video of it in action!

With the new material allowances, hopefully we will see teams move in this direction and see more robots that look like mini-FRC quality robots.

[jwfoss]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

Slickest FTC robot I've ever seen, can't wait to see a video of it in action!

With the new material allowances, hopefully we will see teams move in this direction and see more robots that look like mini-FRC quality robots.

While I think it's awesome to see what the new rules allow for, and this robot is definitely impressive and a clear indicator of what can be done, I fear that it may result in a resource race that separates the haves from the have not further. One of the cool things I really liked about FTC/FLL is that the teams are required to all build from the exact same parts.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

So are the FTC rules only sliiiightly more restrictive than the FRC rules now?

Sometimes I feel like FTC is just going to replace FRC in popularity...

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by =Martin=Taylor=

Sometimes I feel like FTC is just going to replace FRC in popularity...

I'm more worried that FIRST's "accessible" robotics program now requires a machine shop to be competitive. I've said it before, I'll say it again - what made FVC / FTC great was that you could build a world champion robot with a hacksaw and file. It was ALL about problem solving, prototyping, thinking, and hard work, without the massive divisions between haves and have-nots. I guess that's not important now.

Sorry to detract from the thread - this is a beautiful robot and I can't wait to see it progress as the season goes on. I bet the St. Louis version will inevitably be much, much different!