What is your teams (general) robot design? (2015)

[Mike Marandola]

At our meeting today we tossed a bunch of wheels, box tubing, and motors into a tote, shook it up and we'll see what comes out on Monday. Wish us luck!

[asid61]

Originally Posted by theCADguy

As a CAD designer, I know how that feels.

Same, actually. I decided this year that I was going to put everything in CAD before we were finished prototyping, so that we have a base to work from and we could get done with our robot quickly. I only hope the prototypers can get things resolved by the end of Sunday.
So far, I've cadded the drivetrain, a one-stage scissor jack, some arm thingies, an external elevator, and a four-bar linkage. An electrical guy took care of the electrical components. So no matter what design we go with, we'll be almost ready to go.
Unless we decide to chuck totes using a catapult.

[Grey Mann]

Our team is attempting to make a big box that hoovers up totes and stacks them inside the bot before farting them out on the scoring platform.

[cglrcng]

Originally Posted by lamk

You mean this, our team talked about it but unfortunately we will get a G16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-4vNYG0rOU

Think this....No stopping, even to get that stack onto the scoring platform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOlA5ILkbU

Rack em', Pack em', & Stack Em! Trailer will be stored inside the bot, unload hitch up and go. We'll drive circles around the competition! (And hopefully our alliance partners).

We also plan on giving the opposing Alliance all "Tote Fever" in the process. (And no G16).




Just kidding...But, it would be a really neat concept to carry out and see develop into delivered tight packed 6 high Grey Tote stacks. (Now just to find the room to drive it).

[cglrcng]

Ohhh, I liked that 1 Jim, no trailer to contend with (now we are getting somewhere, that's a real workable solution)...And Team 1339...You get that all in a 24"X48"X78" package...I'll be highly impressed!

[cglrcng]

Ahhh, yes this to set 6 high Tote stacks instead of 12 high hay bales could & would be the trick....A 78" High tilting Flop Bot! The Front Tote Manipulator is 1/2 of the Flop Mechanism also. And the wheels span the platform for the backup & tilt dump of that 6 high tightly packed tote stacks (3 for Auto+Room to spare for a bin too on the Auto Stack), the way it can roll Totes helps w/ those upside down totes too (rotate those only once instead of twice, then slide and lock them together). "The Wall Building Machine." The Drive Team/Human Player only has to Tilt it back up into vertical orientation again and lift it onto the cart to get it back into the "Transport Configuration."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6Ei2Zxf4M

[popnbrown]

Originally Posted by The_ShamWOW88

Our robot will lift things up and put them down....

also probably move....in a tank-like fashion....

Originally Posted by K-Dawg157

Tank-like? I thought we were doing swerve drive?

Hahahaha, communicating through CD is at least communicating.

[prl1629]

Our team is trying to act like a pallet stacking robot, like the one in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCH41Icgjoo
we're also using mecanum drive

[philso]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

Scissor Gripper (one on each side): http://youtu.be/nCR9uWjl4kQ

We're still doing some CAD studies before we prototype one up but it sure seems like a cool way to have a huge opening and then grab an object using a neatly packaged pneumatic actuator.

Will there be some way to take the vertical loads and twisting forces on the grippers other than the two scissor jacks on each side? Scissor jacks are not very good at taking side loads and probably wont work well when twisted.

[GeeTwo]

Chassis: We built a KOP chassis "long" and modified it into a 5-dualie omni h-drive (4" wheels), probably one CIM per drive train. It's already under 28" wide to make the transport dimensions, but we'll probably cut it down to about 22in so it can drive into the landfill to get the second tote.
Pickup: A rake/contour gauge "hand" picks up totes and containers by the "handles". It's optimized for long-side tote pickups, but capable of lifting a container or pulling totes off the step. Lift will be outside the frame, forklift style, driven by two chains (for stability, not strength). The lift will have a single CIM geared lower than the drives, targeting about 80# lift at 40A. The brake is TBD, but will probably be a pneumatic clamp of some sort and normally slaved to the lift motor control. We plan a "Bottom stacking" strategy, that is, putting a stack atop a single tote. With the KOP chassis and 4" wheels, it stays on the carpet and off of the platform.
Controls: The initial prototype is two joysticks with the Y axes controlling the tank drive trains, one X controlling strafe, and the other the lift. We're planning to program buttons to do some "muscle memory" actions such as line up on a tote, and do a bottom-stack maneuver.
Sensors: KOP camera and a couple of high-resolution rangefinders for navigation, and several limit switches as well as a potentiometer for the lift position. We may also add a current meter to the lift motor, depending on the sampling rate of the PDB meters.
Extras to work on after we get the basic stuff built:
A passive frame at the top of the lift will stabilize tall stacks as we drive.
A skid plate shall protect belts and the strafe wheel in case we run amok and hit a platform.
Autonomous will be selectable between a tote-stack or a simple drive into the auto zone.
A tote-flipper is way on the back burner.
We currently have no debris manipulator; we were planning to have the human players load them into the container, but now we're waiting on an update. As we're already committed to staying on the carpet, we might consider a spoiler to push noodles along the floor rather than run over them.

[Hasan333]

our robot is going to stack goats

[JesseK]

Drive Train: of all of the CAD and driver test studies we've done, a plain WCD with normal front/rear rails works best for us. That 2x1 rail, when placed at the right height, is a BEAST at pushing totes. It's also a BEAST at aligning the robot to the tote if the tote is on the wall. It also just so happens to space the tote perfectly from our pickup mechanism, meaning we can pick up which moving/pushing.

We'll have a RC & tote stacker that can do totes from anywhere, but given that it isn't dependent upon HP loading and partners may be dependent upon HP loading, it will probably work on the field totes.

There are 2 other mechanisms for a field-tote-centric strategy, one which has been given limited consideration and the other which is undergoing prototyping & analysis right now.

[Whippet]

I'm just going to leave this here. It's not hugely impressive, but it's a huge step up for us!

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Whippet

I'm just going to leave this here. It's not hugely impressive, but it's a huge step up for us!

You may want to add another of those brackets to help stabilize the tote from rolling relative to the robot frame if you don't grab it dead center, or make it a bit wider.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by philso

Will there be some way to take the vertical loads and twisting forces on the grippers other than the two scissor jacks on each side? Scissor jacks are not very good at taking side loads and probably wont work well when twisted.

Yep that video was really just to illustrate the concept. If we went further with it we'd probably flip those 90 degrees, change the carriage geometry so that the load would be better handled. Plus that would let you nest a pneumatic cylinder vertically which would work out well with an elevator lift. Odds are we may not go down this path but maybe someone else will now.