Parade Preparation

[Vupa]

We are participating in the Lilac Festival Parade here in Calgary, Alberta. I was simply wondering what should be done to a robot in terms of driving in a parade. Are there any tricks for going on pavement, how about for battery usage? The robot will be driving for about 12 blocks. If it helps, we use a 6 CIM belt drive with 4 inch Colsons and 6 wheels. The clearance for the wheels to the chassis is only 0.5 inches.

Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

[jimbo493]

One thing to look out for would be if you have any jaguars or your DSC is that dirt and dust don't work well with them, so keep a good eye out for that.

[Bryce Paputa]

We put our robots on a trailer and shoot stuff out of them. The only driving they ever do is turning.

[hrench]

Never tried to "drive" a robot in the parade--it rides on the float..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OvRAMyEBOc


If we did, the first thing is wheels--only use ones that won't be needed again;
next tape over any air vents that might get junk in them as long as it's cool outside.

Also, obviously, you're thinking this will wear out belts. Removing them would be a pain, but you don't need six-wheel drive in a parade.

[AustinH]

I know one thing that we'll be doing for SURE next year:

Pneumatic tires on carts.

I remember there being a post a year or two ago about a modified battery cable for hot-swapping batteries. Not sure if this was ultimately recommended or not due to voltage differences between a fresh battery and a drained one.

Also, have a contingency plan for rain.

[Alan Anderson]

A half inch isn't much for driving on pavement. Consider using larger wheels, or perhaps affix some extra tread to the existing Colsons.

If you're concerned about battery swaps, you might try connecting a trailer of some sort to the back of the robot, with a deep-cycle "marine" battery and an extension power connector.

Pay some attention to driver comfort as well. Will he be walking, or sitting in a vehicle or on a float?

[M. Mellott]

Team 3193 has driven their robot in the Forth of July parade every year for the last 5 years, which is a little more than 2 miles in length. A couple of pointers:

• We typically use treaded wheels on our robots. Since the asphalt will chew them up, we change out the treads with some old ones used during the season, and then replace them again after the parade. Colsons seem to wear very well, but I have no experience with them on asphalt.
• You may want to remove one of the motors from each of the drive transmissions and just run 2 per side--I know our 3-CIM gearboxes really suck the juice out of the batteries fast, and you really don't need the power for just driving down the street.
• Our robots vary as to how many batteries are needed...our 2012 robot ran the whole thing with only one battery change, while others have needed 2 or 3. Your mileage will vary, so be prepared.
• If your bellypan has a lot of holes like ours, zip-tie a piece of tarp covering the bottom--it will keep much of the road debris out of the internals.
• Finally, a trailer on the back of a team vehicle is great for a robot that needs a new battery (and for carrying extras). Typically, a parade has to keep moving--it can't stop while you power down the robot, change the battery, and wait for it to power up and reconnect to your laptop. A trailer is also a good place for the drive station, as it can be plugged into an inverter powered by the towing vehicle via an extension cord out the back window. Finally, if your robot should suddenly stop functioning for any reason, you have a stable place to check things out--you don't want to be carrying it down the parade route.

[tickspe15]

We have a battery splitter that we use to wire two batteries in parallel. We then have two leads on the robot instead of one so we can either plug in two batteries at once for extended battery life, or we can switch batteries without powering down the robot by plugging in the new battery before unplugging the old. This way we don't have to turn off the robot to change the battery during parades.

[Rainydaymaker]

Skunkworks 1983 drives our robot in a local parade every year.

Bring lots of batteries. Our electrical mentor last year wired up two robot power cables in parallel. When the voltage starts to get too low (still enough voltage to run the cRio). A fresh batter is connected before the discharged battery is disconnected. This avoids the delay waiting for the cRio to boot.

We put two chairs and a shelf in the back of a truck facing backwards for the OI, driver, and operator.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by AustinH

I remember there being a post a year or two ago about a modified battery cable for hot-swapping batteries.

Originally Posted by Rainydaymaker

Bring lots of batteries. Our electrical mentor last year wired up two robot power cables in parallel. When the voltage starts to get too low (still enough voltage to run the cRio). A fresh batter is connected before the discharged battery is disconnected. This avoids the delay waiting for the cRio to boot.

Originally Posted by tickspe15

We have a battery splitter that we use to wire two batteries in parallel.
This way we don't have to turn off the robot to change the battery during parades.

THIS. You don't have the time in a parade to wait for a reboot; make a "Y" cable, when one battery gets weak, plug in a second and then disconnect the first, and keep going.

Also, you need a wagon or cart to carry batteries, and maybe an operator (who cannot carry the driver station for any real distance).

1/2" clearance is insufficient, fix that somehow.

Good luck! Have fun! Make sure people know who you are! And make sure potential mentors or sponsors know how to contact you!

[Hallry]

Team 1676 has participated in Memorial Day parades for a few years now. We actually do two, one on the Saturday and one on the Monday of Memorial Day weekend. Both are about 1 mile long (There's also a longer one in our school district's area that's about 5 miles in length which we've stayed away from since we always thought it might be too much for our robot to handle, but since we just drove our 2010 robot 5 miles (20 laps) during Relay for Life this past weekend, maybe we'll rethink that in the future ).

Wheels: We switch out our normal AndyMark plaction wheels for either rubber treaded wheels or KOP wheels. Much better for pavement use.

Battery: We use normal robot batteries, but incorporate a Y-cable (on left in below image) for <15 second battery changes. We have one end hooked up to the robot, the other to the battery in the robot, and when we swap batteries, we hook up the free end to the new battery before disconnecting the old one, so the robot never turns off.''



Cart: We use our robot cart to both hold extra batteries and water (make sure you have water!) as well as carry the driver station. One person pushes the cart, while the driver and operator walk on either side while controlling the robot. We also attach what we call a "Pirate's Mast" to the cart to either display team/blue banners or American flags, depending on the event. We use a marine battery to power the driver station.




You can see our 2013 robot in action at a parade, as well as our on-the-fly battery changes, in this video from a Memorial Day parade last year: http://www.youtube.com/v/yDlyu-aPnpU...t=714&end=2084

Let us know if you'd like any additional information.

[Wayne C.]

We found that rigging a full sized boat battery allowed us to drive over 2 miles. We took a classmate and made a wearable control box with a pair of joysticks to run the machine. It worked fairly well. We did find that people in the crowd with various wifi hubs set up did interfere from time to time.

[Jpatterson1710]

We run a T-Shirt Shooting Robot during a parade every year, some things I always do to prepare would be; tighten set screws, check wire harness between distro board and cRIO, tighten set screws, rubber mount the radio, tighten set screws, charge the DS, tighten set screws, and the real biggie... switch over to pneumatic tires running at approx. 30 psi. Pneumatic tires will ensure you don't rattle the robot into pieces.