2015 2nd Choice Robot

[Teamcodeorange]

Originally Posted by JagCode

The programming department suggested Mecanum Wheels as our robot is heavily dependent on being aligned with the tote chute. Of course, being the programming department, our idea was quickly discarded by design with the reason "that's too hard to build". The driver now has to struggle to back out and drive in repeatedly in order to get in the right position.

Do not despair. As a driver in 2013, I can tell you that with enough practice a decent driver can align with a very small opening at full speed. It's a good idea to make the design as easy as possible for drivers though. :/

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Teamcodeorange

Do not despair. As a driver in 2013, I can tell you that with enough practice a decent driver can align with a very small opening at full speed. It's a good idea to make the design as easy as possible for drivers though. :/

Indeed, holonomic drives (like mecanum, speaking as a coach that did swerve with this guy in Einstein 2013) also take practice lining up consistently at full speed. There's no one best answer for all drivers even within the same game.

The cool thing about a lot of these drivetrain ideas is that you can still do them later. Off-season work can answer a lot of questions and provide a lot of practice with things like mecanum, slider wheels, and chassis shapes. Maybe they won't think it's too hard next time.

[GeeTwo]

We didn't really have a "second choice" this year. We tossed around a bunch of ideas, including traditional forklift (with and without tilt, with and without sliding arms), those which surround the tote and pick it up like a boat lift, active pickups, and something with several one-game-piece pickups (along the lines of, but not as cool as 5637's turntable). However, except for the general design we selected on kickoff day (a first by well over a week), each of them was at least one of:

• unable to mine the landfill without making a mess
• required too many trips
• required too long to make stacks
• Could not handle RCs
• beyond our manufacturing capability -- our high-precision tools are:
  • a chop saw
  • a beat-up drill press
  • an aluminum welder at a mentor's garage
  • a loaner table saw that came in about week three