Team 1114 - Simbot SideSwipe

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

Thank you, we're trying to fix this. Hopefully will work soon.

It's working for me now. Thank you so much for releasing these. They're amazing resources, and I'll definitely be spending a lot of time looking through them.

[NWChen]

How did 1114 settle on its unusual intake geometry during prototyping?

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by NWChen

How did 1114 settle on its unusual intake geometry during prototyping?

I'm interested in this too. It kind of seems like all these great ideas were the first things you all thought to prototype which, if true, is really impressive.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by NWChen

How did 1114 settle on its unusual intake geometry during prototyping?

Originally Posted by Monochron

I'm interested in this too. It kind of seems like all these great ideas were the first things you all thought to prototype which, if true, is really impressive.

The intake prototype happened on the first Monday of build season. We'll get some video uploaded to YouTube this weekend so you can see how it all came together.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Karthik

The intake prototype happened on the first Monday of build season. We'll get some video uploaded to YouTube this weekend so you can see how it all came together.

Here's the video of our initial intake prototype. You'll notice the rudimentary nature of the setup; it's built with cupboard doors, old intake wheels, hand drills, and two old four caster carts.

https://youtu.be/jH4n1X1Oz7c

[MooreteP]

Wow, that was quick. You have great people working with you.

We are going to show this at our next team meeting as we prepare for the new challenge.
This is a great example of prototyping that will be relevant for the students who worked on last years game.

I can't thank you enough for the resources that Simbotics provides to help make our team better.

[Darkseer54]

Is there any reason that you decided to use banebot wheels over the blue urethane wheels on the final robot?

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by Darkseer54

Is there any reason that you decided to use banebot wheels over the blue urethane wheels on the final robot?

We used many different wheels while prototyping. With the Banebot wheels we were able to intake almost any tote, in any orientation. We even had it picking up a tote that was almost completely sideways (from what our normal orientation for totes was). The only downside was that the orange rubber would wear out pretty quickly. I believe we ended up changing them almost everyday during competition.

The blue wheels were not as effective, however they did not wear out as quickly. They were still pretty good though. We used the blue urethane wheels on our practice bot because they didn't wear out, and we wouldn't have to change them. It also made our driver try and drive with intakes that weren't as good as the competition ones, making him struggle a bit and make sure he lined up with the totes properly.

For our team we will use what ever the best option is, no matter what colour it is, or if it takes a little more work to maintain the robot.

[Darkseer54]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

We used many different wheels while prototyping. With the Banebot wheels we were able to intake almost any tote, in any orientation. We even had it picking up a tote that was almost completely sideways (from what our normal orientation for totes was). The only downside was that the orange rubber would wear out pretty quickly. I believe we ended up changing them almost everyday during competition..

Any reason as to why the banebot wheels were able to pick them up better? Did they just have better traction, or was there too much compression on the urethane wheels? Was it some other factor?

EDIT: I've been informed it was most likely the difference in durometer.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Darkseer54

Any reason as to why the banebot wheels were able to pick them up better? Did they just have better traction, or was there too much compression on the urethane wheels? Was it some other factor?

EDIT: I've been informed it was most likely the difference in durameter.

disclaimer: i'm not 1114, i just played with intakes for six weeks

The Banebot polyurethane rubber seems like a very different material than the blue McMaster wheels. The consistency is closer to that of a pencil eraser than of a smooth rubber like the blue McMaster wheels, and the BB wheels will start to fail before they break traction with a game piece. The McMaster wheels are more durable so they'll slip before they fail, and they also seem subjectively a bit less sticky.

Durometer isn't an absolute measure of traction by any means. You can get the McMaster wheels in a durometer lower than the orange Banebot wheels. So I would not take a durometer number as gospel in terms of tractive force applied to a game piece - especially if you are comparing two different rubbers.

Another variable this year is that the amount of compliance your intake had affected what wheels worked optimally. 1114's intake was mostly rigid with a small degree of compliance in the outermost wheels for picking up cans. More compliant intakes seemed to prefer the blue McMaster or even the harder blue BaneBot wheels over the orange BaneBots (I was really surprised to see that the harder BB wheel would grip a tote better...). Intake design this year was definitely not something you could afford to guess on without prototyping extensively.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Darkseer54

Is there any reason that you decided to use banebot wheels over the blue urethane wheels on the final robot?

In addition to the reasons that Aaron mentioned, the Banebot wheels were considerably lighter than the blue urethane wheels.

[NWChen]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Here's the video of our initial intake prototype. You'll notice the rudimentary nature of the setup; it's built with cupboard doors, old intake wheels, hand drills, and two old four caster carts.

https://youtu.be/jH4n1X1Oz7c

Very cool. Were there other approaches to intaking before this prototype? Any chance of more videos being uploaded?

[Bryce2471]

Originally Posted by NWChen

Very cool. Were there other approaches to intaking before this prototype? Any chance of more videos being uploaded?

I am also interested to hear the answer to these questions.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by NWChen

Very cool. Were there other approaches to intaking before this prototype? Any chance of more videos being uploaded?

No, this was the first approach that any real effort was put into. There were many subsequent prototypes with different wheel spacing, wheel sizes, wheel types, tension in the surgical tubing, etc.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Karthik

No, this was the first approach that any real effort was put into. There were many subsequent prototypes with different wheel spacing, wheel sizes, wheel types, tension in the surgical tubing, etc.

The big lesson that carries from this year to the next is that there must be an active intake, and if the game piece doesn't conform to it then the intake must conform to the game piece. Having that design paradigm on day 1 would have set us up a bit better this year. I'm really impressed you guys had such a successful prototype on Day 3.