pic: Lift this

[roboticsguy1988]

You know it was hard to imagine when we started doing Monocoque (which comes from airplanes, because they are made the same way), that we would someday have a robot with wings, i mean seriously a monocoque robot with wings how ironic.

[pakratt1991]

Hey guys,
I just saw an interesting idea that was used against team 488 at PWN that i though I might clue you in on,
Due to the lack of pushing power in both your robot and team 488, there was nothing they could do if they were trapped on one side of the field, this forced them not to lift any robots while letting the opposing alliance was able to get one up and have the other block 488 at 1/2 court....

hope you guys have thought about this and worked around it...


-team 997
2007 PNW regional champs

[pakratt1991]

I also had a question bout your gas struts.
this is the same system that team 488 used and in the final rounds they were not able to recharge all of their system in such a short time... have you solved this?
I do not completely understand the gas struts my self so this might be a dumb question, I am going to go look them up now.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by pakratt1991

I also had a question bout your gas struts.
this is the same system that team 488 used and in the final rounds they were not able to recharge all of their system in such a short time... have you solved this?
I do not completely understand the gas struts my self so this might be a dumb question, I am going to go look them up now.

This isn't true. There is no 'recharging' necessary with the system we have in place and any trouble you may have perceived during the elimination rounds had nothing to do with our gas springs or lifting mechanisms -- both were working fine throughout.

The only required action to prepare our robot for the next matches was a reset of the mechanisms that restrain the gas springs -- this system is completely independent of the lifting action itself. I'm not sure if I understand how you might've thought that our systems weren't functioning properly, but I'd love the opportunity to answer any questions you may have so as to fill in the gaps in your understanding of the mechanisms.

[Wayne Doenges]

The gas struts, on our bot, at the start of the match, are in compression . When triggered, the gas struts assist the pneumatic cylinders in the lifting. Gas struts don't need recharging. Look at any van lift gate and you will see two gas struts.
Our whole lift/wings are a one shot deal. Don't get me wrong, we can raise and lower our wings but we only plan on lifting only once during the end game.
I just viewed Team 488's robot. They are nothing like us. Our two pneumatic cylinders and two gas struts are centrally mounted to our tower at one end and to a trolley at the other. Our Wings are attached to a trolley. When triggered, we lift the trolley/wings. 90% of our robot is lifted.

there was nothing they could do if they were trapped on one side of the field

We don't plan on putting ourselves in that position but thanks for the heads-up.

[pakratt1991]

I'm glad that you have though of this before...

and I dont know how I came to the conclusion that it needed to be recharged, I guess it was resetting the spring... Too many assumptions, thanks for the info

[Madison]

Originally Posted by pakratt1991

I'm glad that you have though of this before...

and I dont know how I came to the conclusion that it needed to be recharged, I guess it was resetting the spring... Too many assumptions, thanks for the info

No worries. I can understand how some might think that we're having trouble with our robot if they don't know exactly how it's designed to work. A few folks on my team pointed out that folks in the stands thought we'd been badly broken when we took our robot off the field in three pieces after our first match. It's designed to come apart very easily, of course.

[pakratt1991]

yeah I noticed the pegs, that was a really nice design feature, probably made it easy to repair.

[ditch64]

so from the looks of it, this is a dedicated ramp bot, correct? so you deploy at the beginning of the match id assume and just wait? would suck if there were more then one ramp bot on your team... btw AMAZING design!!!

[Curt Henderson]

Originally Posted by ditch64

so from the looks of it, this is a dedicated ramp bot, correct? so you deploy at the beginning of the match id assume and just wait? would suck if there were more then one ramp bot on your team... btw AMAZING design!!!

Our bot is a dedicated "Lifter Bot" and our strategy is for the first 1:45 min is to make as much defensive noise for our opponents as possible to limit their capacity to score, we will then return to our home zone, deploy our "Wings", let our partners drive on and then execute our lift for the 60 bonus points. We can deploy and lift in 5 secs., but if need be, we can continue to raise after the power has been cut at the match end as long as we initiate the lift while power is still available.