pic/video: Team 148 - Robowranglers 2009 - TORNADO

[JVN]

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

Wow, Nice robot and I love the integration of the helix hopper to the dumper. Very Nice Job, just a random question, how many balls are gonna be available to each team? 10.20.30.40?

I'm assuming you've read the rules and are asking more about why we have the large capacity...
Simple: We wanted to be able to fill a goal in one shot.

We're hoping our alliance partners will generously allow us to use some of their 40, and we're hoping our opponents will be generous enough to throw a few on the floor for us, as you can see gobbling them up isn't an issue for TORNADO.

Or were you asking something else?

-John

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by JVN

I'm assuming you've read the rules

Crap....we were supposed to do that again this year?

[ParkerF]

I've definitely loved working on this robot. She's a work of art from an engineering standpoint. It's hard on us when we have to crate the lovely powder coated robot. Bare sheet-metal just isn't as enticing. Competition won't come fast enough. I can't wait to see what else is out there. The diversity of creative minds within FIRST is a great part of the competition.

Oh, and before I get asked again...No, this is not as hard to drive as Tumbleweed. Three wheeled swerves are unforgiving.

-Parker

[Travis Covington]

Originally Posted by francistexas

I've definitely loved working on this robot. She's a work of art from an engineering standpoint. It's hard on us when we have to crate the lovely powder coated robot. Bare sheet-metal just isn't as enticing. Competition won't come fast enough. I can't wait to see what else is out there. The diversity of creative minds within FIRST is a great part of the competition.

Oh, and before I get asked again...No, this is not as hard to drive as Tumbleweed. Three wheeled swerves are unforgiving.

-Parker

Tell John to work harder next year so you have time to powdercoat the practice bot, too. Problem solved!

Edit: That is not to say John does all the work... clearly not. I just imagine he is the bottleneck.

I kid, I kid...

[Kevin_Morris]

Pretty much... he's either sitting at his desk or shooting kids with nerf guns...


...in a nurturing and supportive way...


I kid as well...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Kevin_Morris

Pretty much... he's either sitting at his desk or shooting kids with nerf guns...

What's John's nerf gun of choice? I'm betting it's a Maverick.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

What's John's nerf gun of choice? I'm betting it's a Maverick.

nope... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6D-egwfm3E

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by JVN

I'm assuming you've read the rules and are asking more about why we have the large capacity...
Simple: We wanted to be able to fill a goal in one shot.

We're hoping our alliance partners will generously allow us to use some of their 40, and we're hoping our opponents will be generous enough to throw a few on the floor for us, as you can see gobbling them up isn't an issue for TORNADO.

Or were you asking something else?

-John

Sorry John, that is exactly what i was asking. Yes I did read the rules. Donating is great. I was just wondering how many balls are really going to be available to store for a robot? Maybe this topic should be a different thread.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

nope... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6D-egwfm3E

Honestly, I think I'm more impressed with John's titan mod than their robot. That kind of range and velocity with a Nerf gun is insane.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by JVN

...and we're hoping our opponents will be generous enough to throw a few on the floor for us, as you can see gobbling them up isn't an issue for TORNADO.

-John

Happy Birthday, John.

As Bernie Mac once said, "Listen up, America!" This robot and its Hoover-like floor-gathering ilk are the poster children for the conservation and shrewd deployment of orbit ball "ammunition" by opposing payload specialists everywhere. It's bots like these that make our team investigate how to further improve our shooting percentage, too. Any ball missed during a power dump is one more potential bullet in the chamber for someone who ain't us.

Don't be afraid to try and deny access to the balls even after they've hit the floor, either. At least scatter 'em around a little to make drivers like Parker work for it. Better yet, send them all toward your PS zone corners.

And yes, that stuff probably could be in another thread, so to get back on track - it looks like a CIM powers your helix - what gearing did you use to power the helix drive, and what material was used for the central spire?

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Don't be afraid to try and deny access to the balls even after they've hit the floor, either. At least scatter 'em around a little to make drivers like Parker work for it.

And yes, that stuff probably could be in another thread, so to get back on track - it looks like a CIM powers your helix - what gearing did you use to power the helix drive, and what material was used for the central spire?

Parker's not scared of work...

The spinner rotates at about 450 RPM. This speed was unscientifically determined during our prototyping.

The spinner is a 9-sided (yep, couldn't resist) drum made of 3 pieces of 063 Lexan. Onto that lexan is riveted some brush assemblies.

We originally had Lexan fingers sticking off, but during our 3 weeks of testing and tuning we learned that sometimes the fingers can tangle with these silly game objects. We figured, "even if it jams 1 time in 1000, why risk it?" and went to brushes.

Any other questions?
-John

[lynca]

Originally Posted by JVN

In the robot. How do you plan on moving it?

-John

With a robot as well.

My question about the empty cell should have been more specific.
Does your robot collect the empty cell similar to moonrock or does it have a different dumping strategy?

[JVN]

Originally Posted by lynca

This year, both the Texas Regionals have a large number of rookies. Many of these rookies barely have a legal robot let alone a working autonomous. I hope the veteran Texas teams spend more time helping rookies than working on their practice bot.

Luckily for 148 "Tornado" turned out to be pretty much bullet-proof all weekend. I think the only maintenance our pit crew really did was change the battery and grease the gearboxes. This means our pit crew didn't have a whole lot to do, right?

Wrong. I'm extremely proud of the fact that our students were all out working their butts off helping other teams at the Dallas event. I know they all slept soundly on Saturday night.

I know we were not the only team doing this. There was plenty of help to go around.

Andrew, looks like your hopes came true.

-John

[Kersten]

woooow amazing bot!!!

[lynca]

Originally Posted by JVN

I'm extremely proud of the fact that our students were all out working their butts off helping other teams at the Dallas event. I know they all slept soundly on Saturday night.

That's great to hear ! I watched a webcast of Dallas and I was impressed at the quality of the rookies and veterans. The Dallas final matches were fantastic ! Tornado proved to be the difference maker by one or two points in each match.

I hope someone archived the finals !