Unique robot design?

[who716]

Originally Posted by MathFreak

I feel like many teams have almost the same robot design this year: meaning that the chassis is designed so that the robot can take 'in' the totes. Does any team have a unique robot design or strategy? I believe our robot is a little different from the common dedign(its not fully built yet so i cant show you how it looks like). Pictures would be great!

Well lets just say we got an outside the box design for real this year very unique testing in progress teaser pic to come shortly.

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Ours has a small 4-bar linkage on the end of the elevator to get to the maximum height, not sure if they're doing the same with that detail.

Yup. Same thing. But lifted by winch, not pneumatics.

[philso]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I don't want to post our design yet just because I don't want to post something that doesn't work, and we're still ironing out the bugs. But I think we have a fairly unique concept. I wouldn't be surprised to see a half dozen other teams do it, but it should stand out. Whether it stands out because it's an unnecessary gimmick, or because it's a novel solution to scoring in this year's game, remains to be seen. We have no frame cutout and it has nothing to do with the center bins.

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Reasons to keep secrets still exist, including the "it doesn't work yet" reason, the "we don't want anyone to iterate something that will score as much as we can" reason, and the "we want to surprise you, just for fun" reason. I always love the reveal videos, too.

From all the discussion I've seen so far, I think 1339 has one very common idea, one rare idea, and one that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else, yet. I look forward to finding out if other teams thought of it too, or passed it by.

It would be interesting and educational if later in the season, say after the last regionals/districts, teams would post information on stuff they tried but could not get to work.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by philso

It would be interesting and educational if later in the season, say after the last regionals/districts, teams would post information on stuff they tried but could not get to work.

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

Thanks for keeping up this fight, I've been championing this idea for while now and it hasn't gained much traction. However to your 2nd point, I get why some teams don't post, however a far greater number of teams should post since the benefits to them out weight the risks. Cheeeh Poofs don't need feedback from the community to ensure solid designs, they push the envolope so far that only a handful of people could help them in most cases and there are other teams like that (the ones everyone can named and are surprised when they don't win their division). For all other teams I don't see how posting doesn't help them and others. I don't get the idea of not wanting to post unfinished designs, they show the process and teams can learn from it.

[MrForbes]

Ours is kind of unique. It may or may not work very well. We'll see.



We should have posted the design a lot sooner, but we didn't really have it designed all the way.

[WeJohnFriedIt]

Our robot has a lead screw-powered lifting mechanism with attachments on the front to grab totes and containers. This video shows the system articulating up and down:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...type=2&theater

[philso]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

I am in agreement with this and would prefer this. The timing I suggested was selected such that more teams would be likely to feel comfortable posting their ideas.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by philso

It would be interesting and educational if later in the season, say after the last regionals/districts, teams would post information on stuff they tried but could not get to work.

I'd be more than happy to post about our process after the season. Feel free to bug me via PM if I don't follow through; I was never big on secrecy.

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

This is stuff we used to do and honestly the biggest reason I haven't lately is just because I'm too busy building and working to document and post everything for Chief Delphi. I've been online less than 10 times this build season. I have no delusions of being "good enough" where staying secret with what we do is really a competitive advantage. I also haven't cleared it with the team and don't want to step on any toes, so at this point I'll just wait the few days it'll take to make it work.

[mrnoble]

I would certainly consider a re-iterated design based on a post from 254 or 1114, for example, if they were inclined to post their work even this late in the game.

I respect the teams posting here that want to open up the design process. Spectrum has been especially kind in their approach to the build season. And I'm not interested in being secretive for my team; we have little to gain from it, other than a bit of fun, and I doubt many teams would be looking at our design for guidance. But I also respect that some teams like to keep the element of surprise. It is one of our annual highlights as a team to watch and participate in the reveal videos.

[mrnoble]

Hoping I have figured out how to share this. This is one of our special features. We plan on using this to clear out the landfill in autonomous or the early game. It's based on something many of you are familiar with this time of year: a hydrolic (in this case pneumatic) snowplow.

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Hoping I have figured out how to share this. This is one of our special features. We plan on using this to clear out the landfill in autonomous or the early game. It's based on something many of you are familiar with this time of year: a hydrolic (in this case pneumatic) snowplow.

That looks pretty slick. Has it been more effective in breaking up the totes than a straight blade? Also, I think you might have an r67-b issue.

[mrnoble]

You're right. We're a step or two away from full compliance at this point. Thanks for pointing it out and for the complement. The pneumatics allow us to have a straight blade on either side without compromising on size restrictions.

[bEdhEd]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Hoping I have figured out how to share this. This is one of our special features. We plan on using this to clear out the landfill in autonomous or the early game. It's based on something many of you are familiar with this time of year: a hydrolic (in this case pneumatic) snowplow.

Your pneumatic set up reminds me of our intake. They look like mandibles and retract and expand using pneumatics that translate motion via a "Y" shaped linkage. We might be able to clear mid field with our system in a similar way as well, with some experimentation.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by bEdhEd

Your pneumatic set up reminds me of our intake. They look like mandibles and retract and expand using pneumatics that translate motion via a "Y" shaped linkage. We might be able to clear mid field with our system in a similar way as well, with some experimentation.

You mean like this?

You know you guys are one of our "hero" teams, right? After 2013, our goal was to get up to your level.