[Ri3D] BOOM DONE. New video w/ more robot shots

[Joe Johnson]

New video w/ more robot shots

While we followed a more instructional format on our initial reveal video (a.k.a. me yammering on about the robot), on this we one show many more shots of the robot doing things -- note we have a self catch in there somewhere.

Hope you like it.

ALSO, go vote for Team BOOM DONE. we are currently behind in the voting, which, while I like the other Ri3D robots, I feel pretty strongly that BOOM DONE. should be winning this vote.

Dr. Joe

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

[While we followed a more instructional format on our initial reveal video (a.k.a. me yammering on about the robot)

Don't apologize. That was actually the most helpful and informative of the 4 Ri3D reveal videos.

Do you have any further news to share about the problem you reported earlier with the wheels?

[Zuelu562]

Love the videos! It's a toss up between you and O-RYON really, but I hope you win. This is an amazing bot!

When running with El Torro, how hard do you find it to pick up balls? Do you have to be relatively square to get a good grip?

[raptaconehs]

So in the beginning of the video you show a short shot. Could you show some scores from the farthest of your range? Because our team is really interested in this idea and are currently prototyping it. We would love to see the range of your shooter.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Dr. Joe,
I was wondering if slowing down was necessary for your robot to pickup the ball. I'd be interested in seeing what happens when you hit the ball while traveling at higher speeds with the intake running. I loved your design, very compact and well done. I also think the clock on the robot was genius as drivers can't afford to look away from the robot.

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Zuelu562

Love the videos! It's a toss up between you and O-RYON really, but I hope you win. This is an amazing bot!

When running with El Torro, how hard do you find it to pick up balls? Do you have to be relatively square to get a good grip?

The spinning horns center the ball. Pretty much all you have to do is get the ball to touch a stick and it is going up.

Dr Joe

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Dr. Joe,
I was wondering if slowing down was necessary for your robot to pickup the ball. I'd be interested in seeing what happens when you hit the ball while traveling at higher speeds with the intake running. I loved your design, very compact and well done. I also think the clock on the robot was genius as drivers can't afford to look away from the robot.

As it stands, we can hit from 2.4m from the wall. I think with tweaks to the code we could get a bit further away but not too much.

There are mechanical tweeks that can help as well. The green cords (that I love so much) did not seem tight enough. I suppose that tighter bands or more of them (it was rigged for two per motor but we never got to it) will help get more velocity to the ball and improve our range.

In addition, we currently have a 2:1 stage in cord and a 7.5:1 in chain. I think there is optimization to do on the 2:1 stage. Maybe a 3:1 is better, or maybe a 1.5:1?

Now that we have code control, I would like to think about using chain on the first stage (limiting impact loads at the end by controlled decel of the arm). Again, I LOVE that green cord and more folks should consider using it but I love capable robots more. The main reason we used cord was to protect the chain from snapping during impact loading at the end of travel. If we can avoid this problem using software and the robot has a vastly improved range, then. my love for green cord not withstanding, I'm voting for chain.

FINALLY, if 2 (340W each) CIMs are good, won't adding 2 (270W each) Banebot 775s be better still?

That is the beauty of finishing early. Time to experiment and to improve.

Dr. Joe

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Jay O'Donnell

Dr. Joe,
I was wondering if slowing down was necessary for your robot to pickup the ball. I'd be interested in seeing what happens when you hit the ball while traveling at higher speeds with the intake running. I loved your design, very compact and well done. I also think the clock on the robot was genius as drivers can't afford to look away from the robot.

Time is definitely on my mind. El Toro is reliable and (imho) robust but it is not the fastest way to pick up a ball.

Current configuration has a 20:1 ratio from Banebot 775 motor to the horn. I think that perhaps a lower ratio (i.e. faster spinning) would make El Toro better.

As to pushing the ball away, the angle of the horns did a pretty good job of trapping the ball. Again, El Toro is not the perfect ball pick up but it is pretty good.

Dr. Joe.

P.S. Display on the robot, I really hope that a bunch of teams implement these. It is SO useful. I expect a lot of creative uses to come from the teams this year and in coming years.

[raptaconehs]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

Time is definitely on my mind. El Toro is reliable and (imho) robust but it is not the fastest way to pick up a ball.

Current configuration has a 20:1 ratio from Banebot 775 motor to the horn. I think that perhaps a lower ratio (i.e. faster spinning) would make El Toro better.

As to pushing the ball away, the angle of the horns did a pretty good job of trapping the ball. Again, El Toro is not the perfect ball pick up but it is pretty good.

Dr. Joe.

P.S. Display on the robot, I really hope that a bunch of teams implement these. It is SO useful. I expect a lot of creative uses to come from the teams this year and in coming years.

Our team is working on prototyping the El Toro. What height is it off the ground, and what angle is it mounted at with respect to the ground? And when you start a match those horns must be within the frame perimeter so how do you cause the horns to drop down?

[MikeE]

Thanks for releasing the CAD, code, BoM and more details of the design.

I was pleasantly surprised how inexpensive the display was - about $40 in parts + $25 Arduino.

(Last season one of our students implemented a 2 digit 7 segment display using addressable full color LED strip with the Arduino controller. We also had colored bar chart lights indicating wheel speeds and other telemetry. Our robot design didn't allow us to make full use of the feature but we were very happy with the use of visual feedback on the robot.)

I'd love to see the robot play in match conditions. Perhaps a lunchtime demonstration can be arranged at one of the NE District events?

And a special thanks to whoever added the cost of the 1s and 0s to the software BoM !

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by raptaconehs

Our team is working on prototyping the El Toro. What height is it off the ground, and what angle is it mounted at with respect to the ground? And when you start a match those horns must be within the frame perimeter so how do you cause the horns to drop down?

Check the CAD but in rough numbers the pivot is about 1-1.5" behind the front of the robot and 0.5-0.75" below the top of the bumper (which is 7" from the ground).

They are not powered and we use acceleration to get the to fall (unless a ball is in the machine in which case we use the motors to "climb off" the ball). If I had to do it again, I would power this joint. I would drive it through a spring so that "down" would only bias the horns toward down and "up" would only bias them toward up. My reason for this is that we could cradle a ball as we drove so that it would be less likely to fall out during a battle for position. Also, we would have another (maybe better) way to remove a ball from the shooter and put it on the ground for another team to pick up.

I like this idea enough that i may do it just as a side project. Time will tell...

Dr. Joe

[nuggetsyl]

Did you try grabbing the ball while moving? If you did was it hard?

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by nuggetsyl

Did you try grabbing the ball while moving? If you did was it hard?

This was (sort of) answered already. Read post #8 in the thread.

[mrnoble]

Joe, thanks for doing such a fantastic job with your team! The robot is really impressive. We will be stealing some of your ideas.

Specifically, my team's programmers want to implement the heads-up display for distance. When they tried to access the link for the code, it comes up as broken. Can you repost or update the link? They would love to be able to see what you did.

Thanks again!

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Joe, thanks for doing such a fantastic job with your team! The robot is really impressive. We will be stealing some of your ideas.

Specifically, my team's programmers want to implement the heads-up display for distance. When they tried to access the link for the code, it comes up as broken. Can you repost or update the link? They would love to be able to see what you did.

Thanks again!

We too are looking for the code they used.
That said, we do have working Arduino code that uses an Addressable RGB LED strip to display relative distance. I am more than willing to share this code if anyone would like it. Modifying this code for your requirements is quite simple.