Need help from turret experts

[Sam N.]

1351 made a turret both this year and last year.

Note: I will use "turret" and "turntable" to describe the same thing

The turret on our robot for the 2006 competition was of much use. The ramp in 2006 was slippery and narrow. It was quite dangerous to move around up there because the robot might get stuck or even tip over.

We would get up onto our opponent's ramp and not even worry about robot positioning because we have a turret to compensate for any misalignment of the chassis. It worked very well and was very useful.

This year, we designed a turret at the base of an arm that was supposed to be comprised of two 5.5 foot articulated sections. I'm not entirely sure what we called it but we modled the turret around how a car wheel is attached to a drive shaft.

In my opinion it was the most useless thing ever. We never got our arm to work to "requirements documents" specifications. The arm turned out much shorter and lighter. Still, it was a very slow device. The chassis could realign itself faster than the turret to move.

Now an example of a good turret would be team 692. They also had a turret but instead of mounting their entire arm on it like we did, they integrated their turning system at the very top of their arm. That way the thing didn't have to be strong enough to carry the weight of an 11 foot flailing arm. Instead it worked fast and smooth because it wasn't bearing too much weight.

The moral of the story is: only use a turret if you need to achieve some sort of movement and/or orientation that your chassis can not. Don't throw one on for the heck of it and unless your team is incredibly beastly, completely ignore the words "cool factor". Coolness does not outweigh functionality.

Hope this helps,
Sam