FRC Team Spotlights #2: 67 "The HOT Team"

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

Ah alright something felt a little iffy at that part but I get what you're saying after I watched a couple more times. It's still pretty cool though that their robot didn't just fall off the ramp all together and get damaged though. Thanks.

67's hanging arm was very cool. If I remember correctly, the gas springs it relied on were mechanically released when the arm latch was deflected by the bar of the tower. Once the claw is released from the top it's all passive and requires no robot power. The claw latch was one-way, so once secured it basically couldn't let go of the tower. Possibly one of the most inspirational mechanisms I've seen in FRC, right up there with everything else 67 has ever done.

[brandon.cottrell]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Possibly one of the most inspirational mechanisms I've seen in FRC, right up there with everything else 67 has ever done.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

If I remember correctly, the gas springs it relied on were mechanically released when the arm latch was deflected by the bar of the tower.

Technically, the arm that grabbed the tower was velcroed to a latch that was released by a servo. Once the servo was released, as the arm and latch opened it pulled a bike cable that routed to a trunk latch that held the gas springs that once released would pull the rope and lift the robot. The cable was pulled about mid-swing to release the springs. When the arm hit the tower it would detach and only be connected to the robot by the rope.

Similar to this past year, the robot did not start the season with the hanger on the robot. So, no hanger at all at Kettering. We started installing it at Detroit. It started working correctly at MSC. And was finally needed to win in Atlanta.

It was not an easy system to get working. There was a ton of iteration and trial and error to get the timing and positioning right. Throughout the season everyone kept telling us to forget about getting it working and focus on just scoring a couple of more balls.

Luckily we did not listen and all our hard work finally paid off in that Finals 1 match.