Anyone else try pneumatic hurdling?

[vivek16]

Originally Posted by David Brinza

But maybe for 2-3 ft??

Can you say motor driven catapault?

I dunno, two fisherprices and two CIM's might launch the thing pretty far.

-vivek

[RyanCahoon]

I ran the numbers (taking into account both elastic losses and air friction) to launch the ball 3.5 feet straight up in the air (i.e. from the top of a 3 foot robot. I'm not sure if you'd want this much force higher up) and while it would work theoretically with a 2 inch bore, 12 inch throw cylinder, the tanks would have to be fully charged to 60 psi....each time. And this is even launching it straight up, somehow relying on the robot's momentum to supply enough horizontal velocity. It doesn't seem like a reasonable design to me.

--Ryan

[vivek16]

I believe that a lifter and then some sort of pneumatic piston setup which launches it a few inches would be best.

i.e. an elevator that lifted it up above the overpass and then a piston makes it roll over the over pass.

-vivek

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Here's what I found in the manual:

HURDLE: When a TRACKBALL CROSSES a FINISH LINE while passing above the OVERPASS
and then contacts either the floor or another ROBOT before re-contacting the originating ROBOT.

CROSSING: The act of a TRCKBALL or ROBOT passing through the plane defined by a line (i.e.
LANE MARKER or FINISH LINE) when it is projected vertically upwards. A TRACKBALL or
ROBOT shall have CROSSED a line when all parts of the object, while traveling in a counter-
clockwise direction, have completely passed through the plane.

It appears that your arm placement relative to the finish line is irrelevant when hurdling (as long as you follow the other rules).

That's true. But then we have

<G11> Each TRACKBALL that HURDLES its own FINISH LINE will earn 8 points (2 points for CROSSING the FINISH LINE – re Rule <G10> - and a 6 point bonus, yielding 8 points total).

Does that imply a valid "CROSS" must be done to get the 2 points? Another question when Q&A gets up.

[lilac]

Originally Posted by vivek16

I believe that a lifter and then some sort of pneumatic piston setup which launches it a few inches would be best.

i.e. an elevator that lifted it up above the overpass and then a piston makes it roll over the over pass.

-vivek

Yeah, we are thinking bout an elevator based on pneumatics...