How to pick up a frisbee

[Timz3082]

I think people should check out this thera band material, it seems interesting... It might be perfect for frisbees!
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=104281

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by nich

One of the ideas that our team has tossed around is using some kind of vacume device to create suction in order to pick up the frisbee. We found that it took very little suction to do so. If you are using suction you can pick up the frisbee no matter what side is up. But we havn't discussed how to get the frisbee right side up in order to throw it yet.

Two things to consider:
First, does it matter if they are upside down? Just saying you should test this first.
Second: Will vacuum still work of the disk is dusty/dirty/scuffed/smooshed a little?

[Toa Circuit]

I was thinking suction power for a bit... however, it takes our 5 horsepower shop vac being 3/8 of an inch away from the frisbee for it to lift it up. (Though once it is lifted, its staying put.)
So, considering that a robot definitely isn't going to generate a 5 horsepower vacuum, I think that its out of the question.

[depth_Finder]

vacuum cleaners have a rolling brush-like thing that helps suck things up. Although I think that a suction based system would be a bad idea, a rotating brush like thing might help the Frisbees onto a dustbin and keep them there. A vertical conveyor system that was common last year might be modified to lift Frisbees into the shooting mechanism.

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by Toa Circuit

I was thinking suction power for a bit... however, it takes our 5 horsepower shop vac being 3/8 of an inch away from the frisbee for it to lift it up. (Though once it is lifted, its staying put.)
So, considering that a robot definitely isn't going to generate a 5 horsepower vacuum, I think that its out of the question.

You might be surprised how much vacuum power an FRC robot can generate! Our 2010 robot used a vacuum to grab soccer balls. The same vacuum held a 2008 trackball quite solidly! A frisbee is a fair bit lighter than a trackball...

[Joon Park]

Originally Posted by jimwick

There is a video this morning showing a shooter that seems to be able to make shots consistently from 50 feet.

Can we perhaps see the video?

Also, I'm so glad robot in 3 days proved me wrong. It definitely taught me (and our team) to not confuse what a human can do and what a robot can do.

Getting back to the original topic though, it just goes to show how good of a game this is (props to the GDC). Time to prototype away!

[Littleboy]

How many balls in 2012 could 1717 pick up on average?
I imagine that this number will be about the same as the best robots that can pick up off the floor. Most teams won't be able to do close to that.
For the average team, human player loading is probably better than picking only a few off the ground.

[gabrielau23]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Two things to consider:
First, does it matter if they are upside down? Just saying you should test this first.
Second: Will vacuum still work of the disk is dusty/dirty/scuffed/smooshed a little?

According to video shot by Robot in 3 days, Shooting upside down has a negligible effect on distance. Accuracy also did not seem to be changed that much.

[ewrado]

My first idea was to find a way to make some kind of directional dry adhesive like the Stanford gecko robot http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/geckohair/ but although i thing it is possible would take a bit of time. So I started to think of something different that would do the same thing but simpler and sense there has been much talk of plungers/suction cups on chiefdelphi. I thought that a belt lined with many small plungers like the ones found in kids plastic gun toys may be a test worthy approach that may be able to lift a Frisbee from the top. Here is a link to the kind of suction cup i mean http://www.acrylicdesign.co.uk/produ...ms%5Bid%5D=260

[Mongai]

Our team gathered some insight on what would happen during a match. The human player has 40+ disks available to him or her. All that's available for most of the match to the player in terms of dispensing options are slots angled 45 degrees downward. Why should the human player just drop them through the slots onto the ground when they can be dropped into the robot directly? Sure, the frisbees can be thrown during the last 30 seconds of the match, but a person of average human height can only launch it over the wall at a risky angle. When I mean risky, I'm talking about the chance of losing accuracy because the disk will curve extremely (try throwing a frisbee 45 degrees upward into the air).

So the question really is: is picking up disks a) feasibly needed and b) worth the extra resources spent (match time, design time)? We thought otherwise.

[ferrari77]

Originally Posted by jimwick

There is a video this morning showing a shooter that seems to be able to make shots consistently from 50 feet.

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I wasn't saying their shooter isn't precise, it could be for all I know. Just a word of caution to people trying to infer off the video. They only show a few shots, and with camera cuts. This could be a perfect shooter, it could be a mediocre one.

Response to those posts
I'm not sure which video the original comment was referring to but I know my team, 2583, posted a video yesterday showing 3 shots in a row within a foot and there is no editing. The first shot was a few feet off because we did not have our motor up to speed

The whole assembly is held together by hand so once it is mounted there will be less variation. I think this proves it is possible to have a very precise shooter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgzBNZLNgLQ

[3132MentorMike]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Two things to consider:
First, does it matter if they are upside down? Just saying you should test this first.
Second: Will vacuum still work of the disk is dusty/dirty/scuffed/smooshed a little?

The other thing to consider along this line is that the condition of disks will "evolve" over the course of the match. What may work for pristene disks at the start may not work as effectively as scuffs, dirt, gouges take their toll on disks....and vice versa

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by ferrari77

Response to those posts
I'm not sure which video the original comment was referring to but I know my team, 2583, posted a video yesterday showing 3 shots in a row within a foot and there is no editing. The first shot was a few feet off because we did not have our motor up to speed

The whole assembly is held together by hand so once it is mounted there will be less variation. I think this proves it is possible to have a very precise shooter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgzBNZLNgLQ

Well, that just answered a question we were going to answer tomorrow...

[Rishabhgadi]

Our team has been debating whether to use a shooter, or an arm. we have a prototype shooter but not an arm...Any input?

[MentorPrice]

I am just going to use my hands to pick up my frisbee I do not know about you guys. On a serious note I think that is a very challenging aspect of this years game.