pic: Shaker Robotics 2014 Robot - Raptor SS

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by BigJ

Great looking bot. Is almost identical to ours this year (we have a slightly different claw design), even down to what I assume is an "Inspired by" panel

Yup, quite similar indeed...



Was trying to use the right fonts for teams but time constraints prevented us from working on that detail fully.

1114 is an obvious inspiration for this robot. The "SS" in Raptor SS is to pay tribute to one of the greatest robots of the three alliance era, Simbot SS. We ended up modifying the design and geometry significantly to match the constraints of this game (20" extension, articulating the shooter, more consistent stored energy, bigger release / catch, an early attempt at bidirectional loading / shooting), but we would never have had this concept in mind without 1114's inspiration.

125 was gracious enough to share information about their prototype constant force spring shooter, which they ended up not using. We used the information they gave us as the starting point for our shooter design. Brandon and Andrew have been really forthcoming and helpful whenever we had any questions or got stuck on something.

2826 I'll go into after their first event, but I had enough design discussions with Nik that I feel both our robots were made a little better as a result. Ours probably more than theirs.

973's RAMP videos were invaluable to us. Before the videos came out, there were a few of design elements that I could do well and a few that our other design mentor could do well. These videos essentially allowed both of us to catch up to speed on good CAD techniques, design tips, etc. There's a bunch of 973-inspired stuff on the bot. The drive gearboxes were made using RAMP style layout and pocketing techniques. Our shooter has several components heavily inspired by 973's 2011 elevator. The initial concept for the arm gearbox came from a lot of west coast robots I've seen - using a 1" face to mount and stand off a gearbox.

Thanks for being open and sharing design information, we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are as a team without it.