Riding Up On Balls

[tenfour]

It looked like a lot of teams were having problems with this at the regionals this past week. What solutions did it look like good teams employed?

[Tyler Olds]

I would say your best solution is having a low ground clearnace, and enclosed tires.

[David the bomb]

Ya. Alot of the teams, I noticed, that were riding up on balls were the teams that had those big tires in the front.

[Cory]

I didnt really see this problem, with the exception of one or two teams, and I watched all of Portland and VCU's elimination rounds, as well as most of Portland yesterday afternoon.

However, I do agree with Tyler, if you do find yourself riding up. Another solution would be to angle small pieces of metal forward and down, like a wedge, but not from the top of your bot, just from the bottom down to near the ground, which would help to keep balls from jamming under.

Cory

[tenfour]

Thats true.

It looks like a lot of teams are using rollers. Is that any good?

[cyberknights195]

Originally Posted by Cory

I didnt really see this problem, with the exception of one or two teams, and I watched all of Portland and VCU's elimination rounds, as well as most of Portland yesterday afternoon.

However, I do agree with Tyler, if you do find yourself riding up. Another solution would be to angle small pieces of metal forward and down, like a wedge, but not from the top of your bot, just from the bottom down to near the ground, which would help to keep balls from jamming under.

Cory

From what you saw, the NJ regional was completly opposite. At least every other match, a robot was found on top of a ball. Most of the times, they got back off, but other times, they fell over. (that was also a problem) The ball under the bot thing happend usually when a team was trying to get onto the ramp, or, when they drove back off the 6 inch platform to come back down.

[Alex Cormier]

me and another kid on my team had made a roller in the back so that we wouldn't ride over a ball... i'll try to find a pic of it.

Found one...
http://websterschools.org/webpages/r...CIMG0407%2Ejpg
the time in the backround is in the morning of the ship day

there are a few other pics on the website too www.gosparx.org

[Pat Fairbank]

At BAE, we found that whenever we drove into a ball with our front end (Tri-Star wheels) we would push it, but when we drove into a ball with our back end (6-in wheels) we would ride over it. Odd, considering each end is at the same height, frame-wise, and well under the equator of the ball. Twice we popped balls doing this.

[edomus]

Originally Posted by Pit Bull 1126

me and another kid on my team had made a roller in the back so that we wouldn't ride over a ball... i'll try to find a pic of it.

Found one...
http://websterschools.org/webpages/r...CIMG0407%2Ejpg
the time in the backround is in the morning of the ship day

there are a few other pics on the website too www.gosparx.org

What are your hooks made out of?

[edomus]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

At BAE, we found that whenever we drove into a ball with our front end (Tri-Star wheels) we would push it, but when we drove into a ball with our back end (6-in wheels) we would ride over it. Odd, considering each end is at the same height, frame-wise, and well under the equator of the ball. Twice we popped balls doing this.

do you have pictures of your bot with the tri stars?

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by edomus

What are your hooks made out of?

(dont know how to spell it) Conduct piping

[Cumulonimbus57]

Originally Posted by Tyler Olds

I would say your best solution is having a low ground clearnace, and enclosed tires.

Not necessarily. Thats what our team thought. We have <1 in ground clearance and enclosed tires but we got stuck on balls several times we added a bumper (thanks to team 42) for elimination rounds but had power issues before we could see if it actually worked. Hopefully it will work for nationals.

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by Cumulonimbus57

Not necessarily. Thats what our team thought. We have <1 in ground clearance and enclosed tires but we got stuck on balls several times we added a bumper (thanks to team 42) for elimination rounds but had power issues before we could see if it actually worked. Hopefully it will work for nationals.

It is true that this doesn't guarentee you to not ride up on balls. Our bot from the 2002 year in the Einstein finals drove up on a ball and oru ground clearance was 3/16".

[charlie_grr]

We saw this problem the first time we played with the balls for this years competition. So to take it into play in our design, we made our wings to gather balls very low to the ground and we also put rollers on the wings and face of our bot to deflect the balls when they hit.

[Alex Cormier]

we also have rollers on the front "kicker bar" so we could hit them and not go over them in the front.... heres a pic