A new way to Score?

[BJC]

For teams who are using a crab drive or Macanum wheels consider this...

in past games involving balls (including last year) many of the balls found their way next to the wall. In addition, many robots are going to push balls towards or next to the walls as a result of tring to gain "possession" of them.

Due to the position of the goals and bumpers this year it would not be hard to run belts on the outermost side of your robot (take off maby an 1.5in on either side to make room.) If these belts were going fast enough and made of the right material you could run your robot sideways into the wall and rocket balls right into the goal (as the ball would have spin that kept it pinned against the wall as it traveled). According to the rules this is not a possession therefore you could do this with several balls at a time and still have one in your robot to shoot.
This seems like a relativly easy thing to impliment and would give teams that had it a huge advantage over teams that had to run straight into the wall, back up, and turn to shoot by which time a defender or goalie could get in the way. In fact this seems actully seems like the only way to score multible times in a row.

Now that sounds great but here's the tricky part

-How will the balls would fair going over the bump(s)?
-How would this aparatus affect your robots ability to go over a bump?
-How fast will the belts have to go?
-Is this even plausable at all?

Have a great season everybody, and I hope to see some robots with this feature!

[billfunk29]

Very good observation. There are a number of flat belts for running high speed machines. they are light weight to allow high speeds. Not very sticky though, typically high speed means low torque. Have to find a way to treat the outer surface.

[Akash Rastogi]

We prototyped your design on day two. I can tell you that it works. The ball can go over the bump. This may save you time as we prototyped and tested it, but you may want to do your own prototyping. YMMV.

RS motors with a reduction takes care of the ball. Our chosen option was run it with timing belts.

Note that this was uploaded Jan13th. The link is public so you should be able to view it. If not, let me know.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...9&id=645471640

The render is vertical but this is supposed to run the length of the frame.

[IndySam]

Great idea guys but I would check with the GDC. If you are against the wall and move more than one ball with an active mechanism they may consider that possession of two balls

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Great idea guys but I would check with the GDC. If you are against the wall and move more than one ball with an active mechanism they may consider that possession of two balls

Mine would be used when only working with one ball, obviously avoiding two or more when they are against the wall. My prediction is that because of the low number of balls in the game, only a few will be on the sides anyway.

Is the picture viewable?

The rollers are ABS riding on bearings with grooves turned into them and polycord riding on it. Timing belt driven.

[jmanela]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Is the picture viewable?

yea, works fine.

[alicen]

i wouldn't be so quick to try and score a ton of balls at the same time. remember, the human players can only move so fast and you don't want to incur penalties because your robot is "too" good.

[gblake]

Hmmm

So, if we put this cartoon robot into our 5th Gear simulation, and we claimed that the easy-to-draw cylinders along its sides were for moving balls; we wouldn't be too far away from reality? I drew it Wednesday.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by gblake

Hmmm, So If we put this cartoon robot into our 5th Gear simulation, and we claimed that the easy-to-draw cylinders along its sides were for moving balls; we wouldn't be too far away from reality?

Yup. Looks good.