Image Discuss: Team 60 - Testing the Robot

[Madison]

Clearly, the red poles are outriggers. My guess would be that the black nubs at their end are similar to those rubber feet that they sell for furniture and things, or they're suction cups. They're too to move the robot over the bar, and couldn't do so without relying on reacting with the midfield barrier.

The large piston, center, is, quite possibly used to stack bins. The half round piece is used for alignment and support, I'd imagine. Since piston rods are free to rotate inside their cylinder, the halfpipe would hit a bin and rotate to lie flat against its side. The extension above the halfpipe shape is inserted inside the bins handles, or below the lip on the long side. Its stroke is of sufficient length, it seems, to lift a bin (or stack of bins) high enough sit them atop another bin. 1.5" bore, ~12" stroke? By grabbing a bin from its underside lip, it makes it very easy to release them, as well. Just retract the piston. At 60 PSI, that piston could lift a stack plenty high, too. Very elegant.

The four motor, single output gearbox doesn't have a differential, nor steering. Instead, I'd venture to guess that it has more in common with a clutch. To turn, they disengage one side of the drivetrain from that gearbox, effectively making it freewheel. If there were a differential, it'd have to be a limited slip differential, otherwise they risk wasting all of that power on spinning their wheels. So, clutch-like thing it is, I'd say. The other option is that the fifth wheel is used for steering. But, there's only one, and it's off center, and that doesn't seem to make much sense right now. Though, currently, I can't see what advantage having four power the same gearbox has over having two per side (effectively, a limited slip differential on its own).