701 Practicing Breaching Before CVR

[bEdhEd]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

So I see your intake arm moving slightly as you go over the various defenses. It almost looks like the arms' movement is helping you guys keep balanced and level, which contributes to why you guys look so smooth crossing the defenses. So here's my question: is the arms' movement due to just inertia and am easily backdriven motor, or do you have a gyro or some mechanism automatically controlling the arms to help with balance, or are your drivers doing this manually?

I've had the same thoughts on the arm helping with balance. What I actually think it does is act as a shock to keep the robot chassis from tipping too much in either the forward or back direction. The energy for the chassis to tip is lost and transferred in the arm popping motion.

The arms are easy to backdrive and are assisted with gas springs, as well as a set of plate springs on the intake which aid in the pivoting motion used for the CDF and portcullis. The gas springs on the competition robot are stronger, and don't move as much, but does the same thing.