New AndyMark Product Game Hint???

[Lil' Lavery]

I'm far more interested to know what's in Lawrence of Canadia's hand in that video.

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'm far more interested to know what's in Lawrence of Canadia's hand in that video.

Looks like a DOG shifter.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'm far more interested to know what's in Lawrence of Canadia's hand in that video.

Looks like a dog gear (http://www.andymark.com/Gear-p/am-0020.htm), although I'm not certain.

[Nick Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'm far more interested to know what's in Lawrence of Canadia's hand in that video.

Woof.

-Nick

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Nick Lawrence

Woof.

-Nick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AkLE4X-bbU

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Nick Lawrence

Woof.

-Nick

Originally Posted by Nick Lawrence

This chassis was equipped with a pneumatic system with two 35 CI Clippard tanks to run new prototype shifting transmissions, with a high frequency of shifting cycles.

-Nick

Come on Nick, show us the 1.5 lb flipcim shifting transmission.

[jwfoss]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

Come on Nick, show us the 1.5 lb 3 flipcim shifting transmission.

Fixed it for you.

[Andrew_L]

Originally Posted by Andrew_L

Come on Nick, show us the 1.5 lb 3 flipcim shifting brownout transmission.

Originally Posted by jwfoss

Fixed it for you.

Still seems a bit overkill to me.

[The_ShamWOW88]

Originally Posted by BumblingBuilder

I can attest to the fact that red DOES make things go faster

Most car insurance companies would agree with you

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Knufire

Because of how overvalued minibots were, the top teams iterated on these until there was pretty substantial design convergence to the minibot you saw in the video. Very similar to the arms race of can grabbers in 2015.

I never heard of anyone treating motors with liquefied gasses in 2015. My understanding is that the 2011 minibot arms race was steeper than the 2015 grabbers. What surprised me when I went back and read about it was that no one (as far as I found) had implemented an ultra-simple CVT (continuously variable transmission) nor taken advantage of the ability of the minibot to have a mobile center of gravity.

Wait, what? Ultra-simple CVT? That can't be!
Actually, for a short, drag-race type run, there IS an ultra-simple CVT design. Don't think of doing this in gears, but in the diameter of the wheel. That is, start with a rather small wheel engaging the climb shaft, but with a bit of tread wrapped around it so that the wheel diameter increases (and therefore the effective gear ratio decreases) as the mini-bot completes its run. With proper design of the initial wheel shape, this transition can be continuous.

Mobile Center of Gravity? Whachu Talkin' 'bout, Willis? While it was a while back that I looked at the mini-bot rules, it seemed to me that a mini-bot was allowed to be about three times as tall as it actually had to be. So -- build the mini-bot to the shortest length possible, then stand it on a "rack" which raises it to the highest initial altitude allowed. As the robot climbs, the "rack" automatically climbs relative to the robot weight, until, at the top of the climb, the rack reaches the roof to signal contact, though the "real minibot" is still several inches lower.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I never heard of anyone treating motors with liquefied gasses in 2015. My understanding is that the 2011 minibot arms race was steeper than the 2015 grabbers. What surprised me when I went back and read about it was that no one (as far as I found) had implemented an ultra-simple CVT (continuously variable transmission) nor taken advantage of the ability of the minibot to have a mobile center of gravity.

Wait, what? Ultra-simple CVT? That can't be!
Actually, for a short, drag-race type run, there IS an ultra-simple CVT design. Don't think of doing this in gears, but in the diameter of the wheel. That is, start with a rather small wheel engaging the climb shaft, but with a bit of tread wrapped around it so that the wheel diameter increases (and therefore the effective gear ratio decreases) as the mini-bot completes its run.

Mobile Center of Gravity? Whachu Talkin' 'bout, Willis? While it was a while back that I looked at the mini-bot rules, it seemed to me that a mini-bot was allowed to be about three times as tall as it actually had to be. So -- build the mini-bot to the shortest length possible, then stand it on a "rack" which raises it to the highest initial altitude allowed. As the robot climbs, the "rack" automatically climbs relative to the robot weight, until, at the top of the climb, the rack reaches the roof to signal contact, though the "real minibot" is still several inches lower.

The arms race in 2011 was absolutely real, and way more expensive since you were using Tetrix battery packs (and of course you have more than one) and probably smoking Tetrix motors pretty regularly at the higher levels. 2815 may have won two regionals that year, but without a minibot deployment system we were there for fun and the Black Eyed Peas concert. (We actually ditched our tube claw to try to make a mechanism. Wasn't pretty.)

I'd venture a few things set minibots on their path:

1) The restrictive materials rules.
2) The packaging needs of a robot that also (usually) had to hang tubes up high too.
3) Because there was such a huge cost for a botched deployment, you had to get something in the air every match.
4) With the limited power of a Tetrix motor, anything extraneous added mass that then had to be powered upward.

I'd love to know what other teams had developed to the point of sticking on a pole, but I doubt any of them deviated far from the formula by the later weeks of events.

[Bryce Clegg]

Speaking of Andymark, here's a possible game hint: https://twitter.com/andymarkinc/stat...84665857986560

I saw a Rubik's Cube with red on one side, blue on another, and yellow on top. Return of coopertition?

[Taggerun]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

I believe this was also around the time that the Rhino Drive was released. I think you're on to something.

Have to agree... I think the 4 year unusual game piece cycle is going to come true.
Can't wait to see,
Taggerun

P.S. The totes from 2015 do NOT count as unusual game pieces. They are more normal than a frisbee.

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I'm far more interested to know what's in Lawrence of Canadia's hand in that video.

On my tiny phone screen it looked like a really small Omni wheel.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I never heard of anyone treating motors with liquefied gasses in 2015. My understanding is that the 2011 minibot arms race was steeper than the 2015 grabbers. What surprised me when I went back and read about it was that no one (as far as I found) had implemented an ultra-simple CVT (continuously variable transmission) nor taken advantage of the ability of the minibot to have a mobile center of gravity.

Wait, what? Ultra-simple CVT? That can't be!
Actually, for a short, drag-race type run, there IS an ultra-simple CVT design. Don't think of doing this in gears, but in the diameter of the wheel. That is, start with a rather small wheel engaging the climb shaft, but with a bit of tread wrapped around it so that the wheel diameter increases (and therefore the effective gear ratio decreases) as the mini-bot completes its run. With proper design of the initial wheel shape, this transition can be continuous.

Mobile Center of Gravity? Whachu Talkin' 'bout, Willis? While it was a while back that I looked at the mini-bot rules, it seemed to me that a mini-bot was allowed to be about three times as tall as it actually had to be. So -- build the mini-bot to the shortest length possible, then stand it on a "rack" which raises it to the highest initial altitude allowed. As the robot climbs, the "rack" automatically climbs relative to the robot weight, until, at the top of the climb, the rack reaches the roof to signal contact, though the "real minibot" is still several inches lower.

With the minibot drag races it came down to reducing drag and weight as much as possible. Once FIRST said the transmissions could be modified it was quickly figured out how to remove stages, both to reduce the power loss in the transmission and allow smaller diameter wheels with less rotational inertia and overall weight. Then once FIRST clarified that you could toss the transmission that weight went out the window and the wheels became aluminum rod with some sort of tread, my team used the black surgical tubing turned inside out and carefully cleaned on 1/4" rod drilled and pressed onto the shaft. Then to get it in the power band off the line as quick as possible launch it horizontally so it wasn't fighting gravity and create a ramp so it hit the pole at peak power. Anything that added more than a couple of ounces beyond the battery, motors and the switch to turn it off at the top was at a big disadvantage.