Most Impressive Manipulator

[santosh]

This is a spinoff of sanddrag's thread about drivtrains.
So what is the most impressive manipulator that you have seen in the past years?

This year 16 had a cork screw like end effector on their bot that effectvely grabbed tetras and dropped them. It swiveled to pick up tetras and then went in revers to drop thm over the goals. There was another team that played on galileo before the finals that had 2 of those swivelers and could tilt them I don't know the team # though

[Cory]

Originally Posted by santosh

There was another team that played on galileo before the finals that had 2 of those swivelers and could tilt them I don't know the team # though

I think you're thinking of 85, and they were in Curie.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

2004:
571, sucked up and spit out the small balls like mad.

2003:
73, I saw this robot make a stack of 4 in about 20 seconds. One of the best stacking robots.

2002:
60, how can you not mention that robot. Everyone was in awe over this picture for a week after it came out.
157, they made that awesome noise and were one of the most effective ball bots that year.
95, you can't mention balls without mentioning this amazing machine. 20 balls in a second.
121, the only team with a sewing machine in the pits. Great ball bot.

2001:
177, such a great arm, so effective.
308, the mantis bot as I called it. It could balance two goals on the bridge and get back to the end zone.

2000:
47, one of the first robots with a swerve drive. It helped make their manipulator so much more effective.

That does it for right now. Until I start to remember some more.

[RbtGal1351]

I'll go with 188's tetra grabber this year. It was shaped like a tetra, and could pick up two at a time, including ones from the ground.
When it picked up two, they were stacked on top of each other, and it could release either one or two.

I thought it was a really cool design (esp compared to our L shaped stick)

(Don't have a picture, sorry)

~Stephanie
Team 1351

[sanddrag]

I thought the speed and power of 254's arm this year was very impressive. The end effector was designed for efficent retrieval of the tetra from the auto loading station and quick deposit on the goal. At SVR, in nearly every match they played their alliance was able to keep every goal their color for the majority and end of the match.

[Veselin Kolev]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I thought the speed and power of 254's arm this year was very impressive. The end effector was designed for efficent retrieval of the tetra from the auto loading station and quick deposit on the goal. At SVR, in nearly every match they played their alliance was able to keep every goal their color for the majority and end of the match.

And in practice rounds on thier practice field, with just one robot they could stack 9 every round, going to the auto loading station and to the goal. Overall they had a very fast drive train and arm system.

[Ali Ahmed]

I have to agree and say that 188's manipulator was probably the most impressive. I love the options it gives you, whether you want to drop one or both. It was also able to go really high so they could stack on 6-7 on the center goal easy.

[Lil' Lavery]

2004:
33's ability to herd so many balls and spit them out so quickly
1083's roller blade wheeled ball collector was quite impressive

2005:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=38465
997's abilty to hold and deposit of 6 or 7 tetras at a time was a lot of fun to watch

[Billfred]

Perhaps it's because I'm distracted, but I always seem to see the most impressive manipulators at competitions I'm not competing in.

For 2004, 33 definitely had the ball thing down. And to hang on top of that is bonus. But when it came to the bar, I'm torn between 180, 237, and 330 (if memory serves me right). 237 and 330 both had the monkeybot thing going, which did wonders on defending the bar. However, 180's method of hanging made them the first robot in FIRST that blew my mind. I remember looking away for a couple of seconds at Palmetto, SPAM planted on the ground. I look again, and they're airborne. Surface-to-Air Meat, indeed.

This year, I once again tip my hat to 33. Their arm was nice and smooth, and through a bit of paneling and other Jedi mind tricks, that arm looked even beefier than it possibly could've been. (I think having the honeycomb paneling did it.) I also loved the telescoping and rotating setups employed by 233 and 1251, the latter of which I still can't believe wasn't picked in Archimedes. (Now that I think of it, 1251 was at Palmetto with 1293--but I first saw them at Florida, which 1293 didn't go to. So the theory holds...but I digress.)

[Matt_Kaplan1902]

2005: 33, 56, 233, 254 All picked up and capped tetras fast and smooth

2004: 33 (quickest ball picker I saw), 45 (such a massive arm)

2003: 73 (quickly stacked boxes), 365 (could quickly release or grab boxes)

2002: 60 (just look at the pic in Ogre's post), 71 (grabbed all three goals and dominated the field, expect for Finals Match 2 against SPAM) , 173 (quickly loaded and unload tons of balls)

2001 (wasn't on a team this year, basing off of videos): 71 (dominated the field), 111 (so creative)

[Collin Fultz]

'01 - 234 (I wasn't on the team then) once they got the arm working and the control (by the operator's arm motion) going it was good at what it did. midwest DTT and (at that time) national's DTT.

[Billfred]

I just thought of one more for the list...

2004: 21. ComBBAT had this massive fabric basket that would fly open at the start of the match and sit under the ball dump long enough to get nearly every single ball. Now, granted, there was the issue of getting all those balls to the human players, but it was still impressive to watch. (If there was a way to get under the other alliance's ball dump, that thing could be devastating defensively. Especially against the 33s of the bunch.)

[Arefin Bari]

2005: Some teams that definitely caught my eye were team 25, 33, 56, 67, 179, 233, and 237. Every single team that I just pointed out were efficient at stacking. I was walking by team 25's pit at championship, and their robot was extended up all the way high. It looked very scary.

2004: Team 45 hands down. One of the most amazing, effective, efficient and dominant robot I have seen in my FIRST career. That arm was simply awesome.

2003: Team 111 and 312. Both team hit the stack in less than 3 seconds. After 111 hit the stack, they would either sweep the opponents field or would sit on the ramp with their wings down. After 312 hit the stack they would take over the whole ramp. The cool thing is they took out every single box.

2002: Team 180 and team 71. That was my first year in FIRST. I saw these 2 robots going against each other on einstein. Talk about getting hooked? These two teams has showed me what power is.

[santosh]

I agree with 33, they were just amazing. They didn't even use the bar hanging at VCU that year. All they did were the balls.

I really like the rookie team last year that also stood under the ball drop and caught all of them before they dropped. And who can forget th BEAST from 2004 and this year.
They could hang do the 2x and catch the balls before they dropped in 2004. This year they were just so amazing at depositing tetras.

Also a lesser knwon team that had a good manipulator was team 1414. Although they placed low in the standings, they had a nice manipulator. They could stack probably 10 high. Their arm had a bas which rotated so that it could deposit tetras on goals behind it and inforont. It could also hoold 3 at a time.

[sanddrag]

2003 980 Thunderbots. They got the whole wall knocked down to their side in less than 3 seconds and they didn't even have to drive anywhere to do it. They had an extremely long telescoping arm.