MERGED: Universal Hanging System/Standardized Partner Suspension

[Salbert]

Hey, team 1523 (MARS) and I were thinking of having some type of universal hanging system. In other words, a system developed for robots to hang off of each other without worrying about dimension issues. It would greatly simplify the bonus and make it much easier to get those extra points at the end. Comments?

[DezNacario]

Good idea. Team 1334 has been toying with the idea of making the dimensions the same as the poles on the tower for simplicity's sake.

[EricH]

From a strategy point of view, an EXCELLENT idea.

A suggestion: build it similar in dimension to the bars on the alliance station side of the towers. This will greatly simplify design processes, as everyone can find those dimensions and is hopefully figuring out if and how they can attach to them.

[engunneer]

unfortunately that bar is pretty wide, and it may be hard to provide the full unobstructed length to give to other robots.

What area of free space should be left around the pipe? 4", 6"? if there is a simple standard hook design that is common, that could help choose this clearance.

Also, is it better to support robots with two clamps? 1 clamp in the middle? ideally, you give them as long a bar as possible, only held up on the two ends, but that still probably won't take everyone's mechanism.

[Enigma's puzzle]

Excellent idea, if you aim to attach to the bumpers i think that that would give you the most uniform fit between robots. That is where i would personally look.

[ttldomination]

Team 1261 will be keeping our rails at the same dimensions of the poles on the towers. We figure that if everyone is ready to hang off the towers, than they can just as easily hang off our rails.

- Sunny

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Enigma's puzzle

Excellent idea, if you aim to attach to the bumpers i think that that would give you the most uniform fit between robots. That is where i would personally look.

Don't hang off the bumpers! It's usually not a good idea to lift using the bumpers; you definitely don't want anyone hanging on them.

[Passion]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

Team 1261 will be keeping our rails at the same dimensions of the poles on the towers. We figure that if everyone is ready to hang off the towers, than they can just as easily hang off our rails.

- Sunny

That is a little hard to imagine, consider you are going to have 3 robots hanging off on the same side of the tower.

[EversmannJ]

One of the major point-scoring opportunities this year is hanging your robot off of another allied and elevated robot. To make the most of this scoring opportunity, it is important that, in as many matches as possible, there is a robot in your alliance which can either be suspended by your robot, or one which yours can suspend from.

In an effort to see that each design is "compatible" with as many potential allies as possible, we at Westwood believe that it would benefit everyone if we developed a standard: a certain model/style of robots suspending themselves from eachother that we can take advantage of in as many rounds as possible. If we pull this off, it will take much of the guess work out of pre-match planning on competition day; we will simply be able to say: "Who has the proper attachment point in place?" or "Who here can attach to the usual point?" and, chances are, the only thing remaining between us and those three points would be some fancy driving.

Food for thought:

"All robots have a bar of square channel which, once the robot suspends itself, will be accessible from the back and approximately 4 feet from the ground. All robots wishing to be suspended from such robots must be able to attach to the bar and raise themselves to the required height."

[Chris is me]

Wouldn't the best standard bar to grab be one similar to the bar already on the field? Why not base a standard on that?

I don't think attempts at standardization will work well simply because you'd have to grab more than one different kind of object. Making one's grabber work on several surfaces is something that needs to be considered as a possible design choice, though, as the lack of standardization could force it.

[Ricky Q.]

Note: Merged two thread on this topic together and moved to a category.

[demosthenes2k8]

Um, chris? I'm pretty sure that a standard would make a single system, so the robot would only have to grip one type of object. Your argument needs to be inverted.

I like the standards ideas, but I'm not sure how easy it'll be to get everyone to go along with it.

[DMetalKong]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Wouldn't the best standard bar to grab be one similar to the bar already on the field? Why not base a standard on that?

Having a bar the same size as the one on the field is probably the best way to go. This way the only variation in attachment points is the height at which they are placed.

[EversmannJ]

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

Note: Merged two thread on this topic together and moved to a category.

Sorry about that; I had searched for "Standardized" to make sure this hadn't been done... Which obviously didn't work.

[Mr. A]

Originally Posted by Salbert

Hey, team 1523 (MARS) and I were thinking of having some type of universal hanging system. In other words, a system developed for robots to hang off of each other without worrying about dimension issues. It would greatly simplify the bonus and make it much easier to get those extra points at the end. Comments?

We talked about this a lot on the drive back from Manchester. Another approach is for each robot to have a bar on top that is a handle allowing it to be lifted from above. I wondered if the kit bot that was shown at kickoff which had this type of bar was a hint. The advantage is that it would be easy for any robot to have the handle and not need a lifting mechanism. Even a simple goalie robot could be lifted if they can get to the hanger. The lifters on the other hand would need additional functionality.