Feasibility of Design by Rookie team?

[onenerdyguy]

The getting caught on defenses is my concern with the ramp. But I bet if we set it up right, that shouldn't be an issue.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by onenerdyguy

So, we've redesigned a little bit to change over to the Intake. Is this something what people were talking about?

Or would we want to have like a ramp to help feed the ball instead of the dual roller system?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3S...ew?usp=sharing

Two rollers take more work to build than one roller...

Also, might want to check the bumper rules carefully, again.

And think about how you will line up on the ball...do you want the robot to need to be aimed precisely to get a ball? or do you want to get a ball easily, without having to be exactly in line with it? The ball acquisition might be happening on the other side of the field, where the driver can't see so well.

[Joe G.]

Both a top/bottom roller design, and a top roller+ramp design are viable solutions. We actually had a surprising level of success with side rollers as well -- take a look at Greenhorns Ri3D for an example of this.

Whatever you go with, prototype it! Make sure that your proposed geometry actually engages with the ball the way you expect it to. A little testing goes a long way.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Both a top/bottom roller design, and a top roller+ramp design are viable solutions. We actually had a surprising level of success with side rollers as well -- take a look at Greenhorns Ri3D for an example of this.

Whatever you go with, prototype it! Make sure that your proposed geometry actually engages with the ball the way you expect it to. A little testing goes a long way.

Here are some vines of our robot in action. Our reveal video will be out by 3 PM today. Also, I've written a white paper about our design here.

[onenerdyguy]

That's fantastic. I really like your articulating intake, it gives us some ideas.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by onenerdyguy

Our team is designing a support robot, whose goal is to grab balls, traverse the defenses, and bring the ball to team mates who shoot. As such, we're designing for speed, low to the ground, and the ability to handle defenses. We're also going to try to hang.

The current plans are as such:

Low body using 6WD tank drive on Pneumatic wheels.

Ball-capture will be a pair of 'pincers' located on the front of the bot, which will actuate out and in to grab the balls with a largish half/dome shape. Once captured, it will actuate back a bit to lift the ball up to avoid contacting the ground will traversing. While not in use, these pincers will fold back over the main bot body for storage and to make sure they don't get jammed up on things.

Primary manipulator for the gate/sally port/draw bridge is a 'tail' . This tail will be driven by a chain drive and mounted on rods that span the length of our bot, allowing it to travel back and forth. This should allow us to, for example, hold the gate up and drive under neath it, keeping the 'tail' steady while our chassis goes under. Same idea for the sally port, and will allow us to lift our chassis up faster too we're hoping.

A very rough cad, completely not to scale, is here. Our team has had no cad experience, so they're doing all their work in TinkerCad right now while we get a hang of Solidworks. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3...3E5NlZwZmJlM00

Any and all feedback would be fantastic. The team is excited, but as you can guess, we're still learning tons!

This isn't really a support bot this would be a solid robot for scoring if you switched from pincers to a roller intake.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by onenerdyguy

That's fantastic. I really like your articulating intake, it gives us some ideas.

I'm only 41 minutes away from you according to Google maps. I'd be more than happy to come to your school and talk about the game and the GreenHorns' robot with you. This Friday would work best for me. PM me if you're interested.

[onenerdyguy]

I'm beginning to see that. But, as we sit down as a team again, maybe they're up to changing their game plan a bit!

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by onenerdyguy

I'm beginning to see that. But, as we sit down as a team again, maybe they're up to changing their game plan a bit!

Just cause the original design may be run in different ways it doesn't invalidate your design at all.