pic: Team 1717 Panel (alone)

[rsilverstein]

Our robot has sandwich structure panels composed of 1.5" thick pvc-foam sandwiched between to .020 plates of aluminum held together by lots of gorilla glue (lots). We'll post more details on these panels later - the design is truly sick, they weigh around 20 pounds and can easily support over 200 pounds point-loaded each with less than a 1/4" of deflection; they're amazing and one of the things we are proudest of on our robot.

These aforementioned panels fall are held up by servos which release them; they are then pulled down by gravity. The panels then are extended 12" in each dimension thanks to fold out flaps (look at the pics we have already posted and the videos to come to see how these fold out). The dimensions are about 46" by 44" and have an area of about 2000" each and can easily hold any robot with no tipping issues at all and room to spare. These panels lock into the chassis of our robot upon falling.

The 150 lb. gas springs (4) are located at the point closest to the panels in the front and farthest in the back (look at the silver piston mounts in the pics) and each have a 16" throw. They are reverse-mounted inside of the previously mentioned aluminum housings to create a piston design placing the weaker rod of the spring inside of the housing and allowing the stronger casing of the spring to extend down.

They are restrained via an internal locking mechanism that comes stock with the springs we chose. This pin extends beyond the top of the housing and is depressed by a lever/cap... Each lever/cap is pulled - thus depressing the pin and releasing the spring - by four bike cables which are pulled by a leadscrew system driven by a banebots motor attached to the inside of the frame. Each spring/cable is individually tuneable, so we can determine when each spring releases and in what order. That being said, we chose to have the front springs release a split-second earlier in order to allow the other robots to roll back against our back rails to locate the robots.

Let me know if you have any more questions... we're glad to get the word out about these works of art.