Unique robot design?

[cglrcng]

Is this the time of the year that your Robots may just be getting your hair to stand up on end.....? Well, stay awake out there. No matter how much sleep you may be lacking.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/6600...-hair-for-dust

[who716]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

While G17 makes it clear that we can't react against the HORIZONTAL surface of the step, we ARE allowed to react against the vertical side. We are lining up the plow blade and pushing. There is plenty of room to line up.

I'm sort of surprised that, in all the discussion about accessing the recycling containers on the step, people are only talking about ways to reach over the landfill. Why not just move it?

I think you maybe in for a surprise in this one I don't think the landfill is movable, good luck though

[who716]

We tested our container mechanism today, worked great minor tuning we grad carry a stack two containers at a time plus grab to off the step. In auto all while stacking

[lamk]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

So the concept behind the snow plow is based more or less on playing pool. When you start up a game you break apart the triangle of balls and then pick off easy shots. If you look at our robots design you will see that it can handle multiple totes at once, but the time it takes to get to these totes and be ready to pickup isn't instantaneous, we have a lift we need to adjust (we got rid of a lot of alignment time with el toro but its still there). When we crack open the field or goal is to space totes out so we have quick pickup lines and no idle time where the gap between two totes is large enough that our mechanisms are ready to pickup a tote by the time we get to our next tote. The other advantage of this as in pool is when you break it open you have the chance of moving totes closer to where you need them. With vision drivers should be able to quickly identify pickup lines by tote orientation and looking for basic patterns one of the key ones I imagine is a path of totes roughly in the same orientation that starts close to the scoring platform dives a bit into landfill then comes back out. What I do not want to happen is that drivers get stuck in the habit of going for the closest tote to them when picking lines and spending time on a stubborn tote. I can see that happening a lot to teams that are keeping the starting pattern they only pickup totes in a certain order when in reality that order might not be the best. Breaking apart the totes should make those decisions on which tote to go to next much more clear.

Edit: Anybody got a better term then pickup lines in retrospect there has to be one...

Our team call robot like yours "cue ball" robot. We coined that term during our brainstorming on the day of kickoff.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by who716

I think you maybe in for a surprise in this one I don't think the landfill is movable, good luck though

Do you mean, difficult to move, or illegal to move?

[who716]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Do you mean, difficult to move, or illegal to move?

difficult wise, you have to look at how many totes are there, and the way they are packed in, and think about how many you have to actually move, it may not be the 3 or 4 you have in your shop, like a previous post said, it was going to be hard to move past the first row but I highly doubt the second.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by who716

difficult wise, you have to look at how many totes are there, and the way they are packed in, and think about how many you have to actually move, it may not be the 3 or 4 you have in your shop, like a previous post said, it was going to be hard to move past the first row but I highly doubt the second.

You do realize there is a giant gap in the middle.

[who716]

Originally Posted by dodar

You do realize there is a giant gap in the middle.

i do realize that, and even with that gap, its going to be difficult to make any progress with a snow plow, unless your robot is the size of a tote,

[mrnoble]

It's possible that we are overly optimistic, but I assure you we wouldn't have troubled ourselves to incorporate it into our robot without the most realistic testing conditions we could make. On what is your pessimism based?

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by dodar

You do realize there is a giant gap in the middle.

I wouldn't call 45" giant...especially since robots can be 42" long just in their travel configuration

[346CADmen]

Early on, but too late for our team to turn back, some of the crew came up with something different. An overhead trolley crane. Collapsible trolley system, think an ez-up shelter, that covers the entire field. With a cable traversing system running inside it.
I would love to see if any team attempts such a design.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by who716

difficult wise, you have to look at how many totes are there, and the way they are packed in, and think about how many you have to actually move, it may not be the 3 or 4 you have in your shop, like a previous post said, it was going to be hard to move past the first row but I highly doubt the second.

While we definitely should get realistic conditions and replicate the idea behind it doesn't require moving everything. This is about picking things apart and making it easier to get to. But the use for the snow plow isn't just for the auto, that is a lot of resources sunk into something used for 15 seconds. In tele-op it provides a surface to peel totes off walls and align them for better spacing. This snowplow wasn't taken lightly because this year our biggest gate for scoring is air. Despite having a planet full of it I insisted on doing the math on how much air is used per actuation of most devices. Our intake mechanism uses air, our snow plow uses air, and we have a mechanism on the elevator that uses air. If we run out of air we lose efficiency for scoring. We can still stack and score but it wont be nearly as cleanly. Resource allocation when it comes to robot design limitations such as motors and sensors was something we emphasized a lot this year...
Of course with the resource argument states that basic mecanum is better then basic swerve in terms of motors per wheel.*
OOPS DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD.


*While true don't take it as fact.

[gpetilli]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Early on, but too late for our team to turn back, some of the crew came up with something different. An overhead trolley crane. Collapsible trolley system, think an ez-up shelter, that covers the entire field. With a cable traversing system running inside it.
I would love to see if any team attempts such a design.

Our team had a similar concept but ultimately realized it would be illegal since at least the cables for the trolley would be in the AUTO and/or Landfill zones at the start of the match.

[bEdhEd]

Yesterday we figured out a passive system for our robot to help it move a majority of the landfill zone totes completely out of the way in two moves, so we can get to one, if not both containers on the step. I predict with practice, that we can do this under 10 seconds, and with some slave driving, maybe under 5. We will be doing more testing today with the robot powered so we can really get an idea of how fast we can clear the landfill zone. The proof of concept tests we did yesterday were very promising.

Hint: It's somewhat related to a snow plow. Think ice instead of snow.
Bonus hint: the entire "system" which is actually an attachment, can be cut from an 8x3 inch sheet of polycarb.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by bEdhEd

Yesterday we figured out a passive system for our robot to help it move a majority of the landfill zone totes completely out of the way in two moves, so we can get to one, if not both containers on the step. I predict with practice, that we can do this under 10 seconds, and with some slave driving, maybe under 5. We will be doing more testing today with the robot powered so we can really get an idea of how fast we can clear the landfill zone. The proof of concept tests we did yesterday were very promising.

I find that instead of slave driving find out who drivers have a crush on and have them stand nearby during drive practice and giggle and whisper.