Most Unique Features

[Ben Piecuch]

We designed our robot to do "drive by scoring." Meaning, we were able to score a ringer while still moving, thereby elimating a lot of the defense that would be played against us. The inspiration for this design came from two teams, Wildstang in 2005, and Rhodewarriors in 2006. Both teams scored off the side of their robots, and were able to use their drivetrains to ward off most defensive attacks.

We accomplished the same effect by allowing our grabber to rotate 90 degree to the left and right after picking up a ringer. The picture below shows the extra degree of freedom we have with our manipulator. As I said, in theory this mechanism works great. However, we found it very difficult to actually have any room to drive around in, nevermind a clear shot at any side of the rack. Fighting your way to/from the rack seems to be about the only way to score this year. (Unfortunately...)

Here's the picture of us in "drive-by" mode.

We powered this "wrist" mechanism with a window motor, geared down about 6:1. We tried two different codes to operate it. The first had the arm mimic the joystick position, so the co-driver had to hold the joystick in the position he wanted the arm to be in, with position feedback controlled with a gyro. The 2nd mode of operation allowed the co-drive to only use the joystick to move it to position, just like an elevator or arm. We then used a "home position" button to return the arm to it's vertical position, again controlled by the gyro.

Feel free to ask more questions. Hope it opens up some ideas for other teams.

BEN

Our robot starts out in the 4 foot category, then locks up a 10 foot elevator. Anyone who saw it at PNW or Davis knows what I mean.

And we have two cameras. Because remember, it's as Mark Leon said at SVR last year: "CMU cam, it's just that easy." So we went with two.

[s_forbes]

I absolutely love all of the features that our team was able to work into our robot this year (seen here), it's flippin' sweet! A short list:

Arm:
-Light and strong! I think the entire assembly weighs under 20 lbs with camera, motors, wiring, etc.
-Single jointed, runs off of a single 125:1 banebots motor (which has survived an entire competition with no problems at all)
-Completely modular: Mast comes off with a single bolt! Motor and joint mounts are held on with clamps so they can be easily adjusted with just two bolts.
-Awesome materials: 1/16" thick, 3" wide round alluminum tube for mast, 1/8" thick 2" wide tube for top part of arm. Neither are breaking any day soon.

Drivetrain:
-Made with 4" wide, 1/4" thick fiberglass I-beam. Fairly indestructable.
-Best part of robot: 4 out of the 6 drive trains on the robot have their tensioners built into our Andymark transmissions. They weigh virtually nothing and take up almost no space. (seen here)

[Arefin Bari]

One neat feature that caught my eye this year was the "easy button" feature from team 386 (Voltage). They have an easy button mounted by their gripper, so when they are ready to score, the easy button is right in the middle of the tube. When the easy button hits the plates on the spider, the grabber automatically lets the tube go and caps the ringer.

[meatmanek]

Two unique things about our robot:
Our kicker wheel - it picks tubes off of the floor and turns them vertical
Our grabber - it opens from the inside of the tube, and holds the tube vertically. The long arms of the grabber act as guiding mechanisms so that when we drive up to the goal, the spider foot is pushed into the center of the grabber, where an IR sensor triggers closing the grabber, which shoots the tube onto the goal.

[JYang]

The things unique... our transmission, gripper, wheels.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by meatmanek

Two unique things about our robot:
Our kicker wheel - it picks tubes off of the floor and turns them vertical
Our grabber - it opens from the inside of the tube, and holds the tube vertically. The long arms of the grabber act as guiding mechanisms so that when we drive up to the goal, the spider foot is pushed into the center of the grabber, where an IR sensor triggers closing the grabber, which shoots the tube onto the goal.

This system really was quite elegant, and anybody unlucky enough not to see it needs to come to Indianapolis for a private showing. Winner of the BMR Xerox Creativity Award, and well-deserved.

[Cody Carey]

One of the nicest things about our robot is the modularity of it all. The entire ramp mechanism can be detached with two bolts, the pneumatics system and support frame for our ramp can be detached with four, each drive module can be detached with four, and the electronics board can be detached with four. The connections to the pneumatics board (all eight spikes) are all done with 15 pin connectors, and the motors are connected to the main electrical system with mini Anderson connectors.

The most unique design factor is our ramp. The following animation shows how it works.



Another nice feature is the built in wheelie bars on our drive modules. If you were to loko at our bot, you wouldn't even realize that the curves did this. The wheelie-bar effect can be seen in this next animation.




And Unique in the fact that we were one of the few teams that decided to go for a low-scorer is our arm. Only the bottom rung, but man can we score fast. ~5 tubes a minute now that we've gotten a little practice. (I'll throw the animation in for kicks, too)

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by meatmanek

Two unique things about our robot:
Our kicker wheel - it picks tubes off of the floor and turns them vertical
Our grabber - it opens from the inside of the tube, and holds the tube vertically. The long arms of the grabber act as guiding mechanisms so that when we drive up to the goal, the spider foot is pushed into the center of the grabber, where an IR sensor triggers closing the grabber, which shoots the tube onto the goal.

Your pickup and gripper may have been one of the coolest things I have ever seen operate on a FIRST robot.

[rees2001]

Anyone else have a pair of Reeboks on their robot?




I'm not talking sneakers, 2 RBK 6k stiff flex hockey sticks. Nice & light and made to take a beating.

the one on the left

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by rees2001

Anyone else have a pair of Reeboks on their robot?




I'm not talking sneakers, 2 RBK 6k stiff flex hockey sticks. Nice & light and made to take a beating.

the one on the left

And here I thought you guys got a Reebok sponsorhip....

[Kati_Kat]

does having Jesus on your controls count as a unique feature?

[EricH]

We can retract our ramps if something goes wrong. We've got a Banebots on each, extremely geared down. (Arguably the biggest sprockets I've seen for #25 chain in FIRST on the ramp end, and a small set on the motor end.) Also, our hidden pneumatic gripper actuator. It's buried in a fiberglass tube.

[Athleticgirl389]

Originally Posted by Kati_Kat

does having Jesus on your controls count as a unique feature?

Haha why yes it does! That is a darn nifty feature you have there lol.

As for 102's most unique feature, I'm going to have to go with our ramps. Even though very few pepole have seen them in action, they are pretty amazing. We are hoping to actually show them off in Long Island haha. I mean the robots drive on and we do the lifting... saves the others from having to do more work than they already have to in order to get the bonus points.

[baop858]

Originally Posted by rees2001

Anyone else have a pair of Reeboks on their robot?




I'm not talking sneakers, 2 RBK 6k stiff flex hockey sticks. Nice & light and made to take a beating.

the one on the left

We do, but we covered the RBK logo because they aren't our sponsors. I think they are the same sticks as well and we even use 2 like you. Our arm is raised with a ball screw and nut.