Team 20: The Rocketeers - 2015 Reveal

[BobbyVanNess]

Originally Posted by StevenB

Can you explain the tray that slides into the robot at 1:38? It looks like something to hold a stack of totes, but it seems the arms/elevator already does that?

It's actually used for stacking from the HP station. The totes slide in from the chute and onto the tray, similarly to how some teams use a first tote to line up for their stack. We also found some other convenient uses for it, like straightening out containers in our forklift.

edit: Audrey beat me to it

[Aidan H.]

Have you encountered any problems consistently strafing (driving in the direction of your forklift) with significant weight being held by the lift (3 or more totes)? I know that was a possible issue with mecanums this year, having uneven weight distribution, but I was curious as your robot would have to always strafe if you wanted to travel forward.

Great bot! And I like the tote shot (shoot? chute?).

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Aidan H.

Have you encountered any problems consistently strafing (driving in the direction of your forklift) with significant weight being held by the lift (3 or more totes)? I know that was a possible issue with mecanums this year, having uneven weight distribution, but I was curious as your robot would have to always strafe if you wanted to travel forward.

Great bot! And I like the tote shot (shoot? chute?).

We have some boss programmers this year. That and the robot doesn't really need to strafe much once its carrying big stacks.

Tote shot? No, chute door.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Paperclips

The tray's main function is at the human player station, where we use it to ensure that the tote will land in the orientation we want it to every time we load.

ooooooh I like that.

[Jonathan Ryan]

As usual, a stunning robot. Well done!!!

Hope to be on the same side of the field at TVR.

See you all in a few weeks.

[Angeliukm]

Originally Posted by Aidan H.

Have you encountered any problems consistently strafing (driving in the direction of your forklift) with significant weight being held by the lift (3 or more totes)? I know that was a possible issue with mecanums this year, having uneven weight distribution, but I was curious as your robot would have to always strafe if you wanted to travel forward.

To elaborate on Kevin's answer, "forward" on our robot isn't the side with the forks (though the field centric drive makes the definition of front vs. side kind of blurry). We load with the robot off to the side of the the human player station and straddle the scoring platform to place stacks, so we're able to drive in the normal direction of the wheels for most of the time that we have a stack. Strafing with a stack comes into play mainly when we're lining up along the length of the scoring platform.

[ThunderousPrime]

Before I critique strategy of launching totes or this year I must congratulate 20 on another robot well done. The intake wheels are some of the most powerful I've seen and the banebot wheels were a great choice. Cant wait to see it in person at FLR.

I don't think launching totes is a viable strategy (prove me wrong if you disagree ) because its a risky move. If you line it up wrong or have the wrong power you run the risk of knocking over your own stack. Also it is super dangerous to launch 7.8 lb totes around and potentially outside of the field. If you miss you're going right for the scoring table and/or refs.

A brief aside: 20 has the good fortune of having a great alumni core. Even when you guys are in college you're helping your team.

[Josh Goodman]

Creative, sleek robot and mechanically simple. I can see another great year for Team 20 with Atlas at the helm. Congrats guys, looks fantastic! See you at Troy and FLR~

Originally Posted by ThunderousPrime

I don't think launching totes is a viable strategy

I don't think that was the intended strategy, as much as probably a side effect of their intake rollers. However, if week 1 regionals are any indication, it could prove beneficial if you're trying to get co-op points with litter and landfill totes in the way.

[ThunderousPrime]

Originally Posted by Josh Goodman

I don't think that was the intended strategy, as much as probably a side effect of their intake rollers. However, if week 1 regionals are any indication, it could prove beneficial if you're trying to get co-op points with litter and landfill totes in the way.

I agree that it wasn't their intended strategy but I decided to mention it because someone responded that it might be a good idea, presumably in a match setting. My rebuttal to using that for coopertition is that if you miss and launch it over to the other side you will get a penalty for each tote you knock over. And like the end of the video shows the robot is capable of knocking the whole coop stack to the other side. Its painful to think about 4 potential penalties for that.

[Paperclips]

Originally Posted by Josh Goodman

I don't think that was the intended strategy, as much as probably a side effect of their intake rollers.

We will most likely not be doing this in competition, as Josh said it's really just a fun side effect of having a strong collector.

[MaestroRoboto]

The power of the intake rollers was an interesting surprise, a few ideas have popped up for some potential auto uses

[Jean Tenca]

Very cool robot! I'm excited to see more of that tray in action. Best of luck this season!