pic: Beachbot 2008

[ShaneP]

Originally Posted by Syncopation

Amazing design and execution guys - I've seen what you've done in the past, and you might have even outclassed yourselves. Awesome robot, hope you do well!

One question (and this was the main problem for a number of robots at week 1 regionals - or maybe just St. Louis), but from the video, it looks like when you hit the overpass with the arm and let go of the trackball with the hand, you're in a position to be "clotheslined". Any ideas on avoiding this?

217 (the ever-powerful ThunderChickens) impressed everyone with their "slam dunks": they (from what I saw) could disengage their arm so that the force from hitting the overpass flipped the arm backwards so they could drive under the overpass safely (a dog gear or something like that was my guess - never got the chance to ask them myself). Probably not much help for you, since it doesn't look like you guys can rotate the arm past vertical to the back, but just a thought. Might want to watch out for that.

Anyway, you guys have a great design (I never would have thought of two arms organized like that) and best of luck to you in your regionals and championship!

[I apologize for the novel here, just a thoughtdump more than anything.]

Thanks for the compliments.

We've hit the overpass in high gear going as fast as the robot will go, and even though it does close-line, it does not fall over backwards. The wheels still stay on the ground enough to backup the base. If need be, we can hurdle backwards as well.