Robot Lifting

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

It would be beneficial for teams to examine alternate lifting methods. Why is everyone so focused on hanging from the horizontal bar, when there are four vertical bars that would work just as well with a smaller, simpler mechanism?

I don't see the smaller, simpler mechanism I could employ to hang from the horizontal bars. I've thought about it and anything that comes to mind isn't easy to detach. Vertical hooks just slide over the bar and pull up.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I don't see the smaller, simpler mechanism I could employ to hang from the horizontal bars. I've thought about it and anything that comes to mind isn't easy to detach. Vertical hooks just slide over the bar and pull up.

Would have to agree with Chris here. You can't really get much simpler then up, over, and pull.

Unless you could magically lift yourself up with a bag of air?

-RC

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I don't see the smaller, simpler mechanism I could employ to hang from the horizontal bars. I've thought about it and anything that comes to mind isn't easy to detach. Vertical hooks just slide over the bar and pull up.

Add in the mechanism to get the hook up there, and you'll see where my concept of complexity comes from. I've been working on a design that literally has two hinges, and can hang the robot.

Edit: Bag of air?! Heck yes!

[RRLedford]

Tension elements are the best approach for elevating, being lightest and strongest. Yes, you still need an arm to hook cable onto horizontal bar, but 1000 lb kevlar is light, and bar can be reached with the arc of a single arm rotation. Multiple long stroke air cylinders spreading pulleys apart in a compound array can give rapid cable tensioning lift to the required height, especially if you don't deplete your air reserves doing a pneumatic kicker.

-RRLedford

[Jstack14]

After considering all situations that could happen in the last 20-30 seconds when handing will be attempted i came to the conclusion that it is best if 2 robots hang and one continues to score. This is simply because there will be potentially ungarded goals and more then likely 2+ balls in the scoring end, or a ton in the middle. If you have a good kicker it may be best to score even if you could hang. 2 teamates can easily hang off of the tower, any more and you have to hang off eachother. I think this will be a challenge and not all teams will be able to do this quickly. So if two teams hang off the tower and the third scores the team will have 4+(i would guess anywhere from 2-5 points) The other team will have from 6-8 if there whole team hangs. If 2 of the opposing team hangs then its even. If you run through all the senarios and make some assumptions you will see what i am saying. I think, but i may be wrong, that scoring with no deffender will be easy in the last 20-30 seconds (depending on when the enemy has to start hanging) and therfore it will be benifical to build the best kicker you can because if teams realize this they will want you.

Of course if no one builds a hanging bot then this doesn't matter.

My team is focusing on our kicker now and if we finish with time left we will build a hanging mechanism. This will give us time to practce while we build the hanging mechanism and then attach it on in the end if we decide to. I think this strategy will be great because we will then have a ton of driving practice, and the ability to do any task.

[Sunshine]

Here is an idea that our team came up with that we believe would work and is outside the norm of lifting a robot that others may not think of. I was extremely proud of all of the ideas that the students generated this year for lifting. Besides this idea, they also came up with a great idea for lifting using the vertical bars. For the record, we are not using either idea. We are using the KISS method (Keep It Simple Students) and believe that we will have a lifting robot that can do the job quickly, efficiently and is simple.

I include this diagram within the spirit of Gracious Professionalism

[MrForbes]

Neat idea! did anyone calculate the load on the winch? that low angle will make it pretty tough.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Sunshine

Here is an idea that our team came up with that we believe would work and is outside the norm of lifting a robot that others may not think of. I was extremely proud of all of the ideas that the students generated this year for lifting. Besides this idea, they also came up with a great idea for lifting using the vertical bars. For the record, we are not using either idea. We are using the KISS method (Keep It Simple Students) and believe that we will have a lifting robot that can do the job quickly, efficiently and is simple.

I include this diagram within the spirit of Gracious Professionalism

That is a quite awesome idea.

I hope you guys make it work.

[Jon Stratis]

That's a pretty sweet idea, i have to say.

There are some simple ways to get up the vertical bars (for example, clamp onto it with a wheel on each side, and spin the wheels. They'll naturally tighten onto the bar while they pull you up) - the problem we saw with using them is the amount of precision needed to get your mechanism arranged on the bar. I'm sure some team or teams out there will figure out a great way to take care of the precision problem... but we wanted to keep it simpler and fool proof.

So like many others here, we're going with a winch - it's simple, strong, and automatically locks to prevent being back driven. The innovative, and really cool, part is getting the hook up to the horizontal bar - that part takes under 1 second and needs, at most, a servo (we may be able to get the winch motor to work with it, eliminating the servo) in our prototype. It'd be nice to improve that on the real robot

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Sunshine

Here is an idea that our team came up with that we believe would work and is outside the norm of lifting a robot that others may not think of. I was extremely proud of all of the ideas that the students generated this year for lifting. Besides this idea, they also came up with a great idea for lifting using the vertical bars. For the record, we are not using either idea. We are using the KISS method (Keep It Simple Students) and believe that we will have a lifting robot that can do the job quickly, efficiently and is simple.

I include this diagram within the spirit of Gracious Professionalism

If the point about which your robot rotates up into place is within your FRAME PERIMETER, this does not work. The 3.25" bumpers will project through and below an imaginary plane at 20".

The idea is sound, but the implementation is tricky.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Sunshine

Here is an idea that our team came up with that we believe would work and is outside the norm of lifting a robot that others may not think of. I was extremely proud of all of the ideas that the students generated this year for lifting. Besides this idea, they also came up with a great idea for lifting using the vertical bars. For the record, we are not using either idea. We are using the KISS method (Keep It Simple Students) and believe that we will have a lifting robot that can do the job quickly, efficiently and is simple.

I include this diagram within the spirit of Gracious Professionalism

I love it. Though I wonder how you get yourself pulled up so your bumpers don't break the plane of the PLATFORM, I guess I'll find out after Wisconsin. Good thinking!

[amitz]

Has anyone managed to lift 120lbs with a 2.5" CIM Motor & 12.76:1 gearbox (TOUGHBOX)?
By my calculations it should be able to do the job. However, in a test I made, it managed to lift only about 55lbs...

[MrForbes]

How did you try to lift with it? did you use a winch to wind up cable? if so, how big is the size of the spool that the cable winds on?

If it is too big diameter you will not have enough leverage.

[amitz]

Originally Posted by squirrel

How did you try to lift with it? did you use a winch to wind up cable? if so, how big is the size of the spool that the cable winds on?

If it is too big diameter you will not have enough leverage.

Yes, I have. the diameter of the spool was 1.5" by what I remember.

Btw, I'm asking if anyone managed to do that in order to be sure whether it's the motor's fault, or mine for not building the mechanism frictionless enough

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by amitz

Has anyone managed to lift 120lbs with a 2.5" CIM Motor & 12.76:1 gearbox (TOUGHBOX)?
By my calculations it should be able to do the job. However, in a test I made, it managed to lift only about 55lbs...

You'll need to lift 150 pounds factoring in bumpers and stuff.

I think your reduction is a little low... (i.e. not reduced enough)