Realistically facing the challanges of elevating your robot

[MrForbes]

If you're thinking of a pneumatic piston, you might want to do some calculations regarding how much force you can get from one, and how much air it takes to get that much force over the distance you need to lift the robot.

It might be more feasible to get the job done with a motor driving a winch.

We don't have a design yet, but we have a lot of ideas. Here's one that a student came up with and made a model

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V254FdHQnyE

[joeweber]

Steel cable with a winch that can lock is our method. We have tested and proven the speed and power we need. We are using an arm to get it their but the steel cable will do the support. We indent to hook from the side of the tower and drop out pipe loops for other robots to hang from. thease loops will be on the opposit corners of the robot away from the tower. This will allow the robot in the first zone to hage with out leaving it. They will be able to score right up to the end and then hang at the last few seconds.

[Bill_B]

Originally Posted by joeweber

... We indent to hook from the side of the tower and drop out pipe loops for other robots to hang from. thease loops will be on the opposit corners of the robot away from the tower. This will allow the robot in the first zone to hage with out leaving it. They will be able to score irght up to the end and then hand at the last few seconds.

Could your robot hang from those pipe loops you mention if they were on another robot? I mention this because grabbing the 7 ft high bar and grabbing much lower ones (4ft? 3.5ft?) might be even trickier to do with the same mechanism. We think being able to hang from a range of bar heights will increase the scoring opportunities. We're encouraging other builders to incorporate a bar or bar simulator on their side away from the tower.

[joeweber]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Could your robot hang from those pipe loops you mention if they were on another robot? I mention this because grabbing the 7 ft high bar and grabbing much lower ones (4ft? 3.5ft?) might be even trickier to do with the same mechanism. We think being able to hang from a range of bar heights will increase the scoring opportunities. We're encouraging other builders to incorporate a bar or bar simulator on their side away from the tower.

We will have a second hook low that can hook just above the 20 inch level. That hook will only have to hold our robot. When we are hanging from another robot no robot will be able to hang from us.

[whytheheckme]

This video shows 190 hanging from the top bar (which, if I remember, was a bit higher than this year's)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5nnG...eature=related

[joeweber]

c. TOWER Contact ROBOT Volume - During a MATCH, ROBOTS in contact with their ALLIANCE TOWER may extend beyond their NORMAL CONFIGURATION volume but may not exceed the FINALE CONFIGURATION maximum volume.
d. FINALE ROBOT Volume - During the FINALE, ROBOTS may extend up to the limits of the FINALE CONFIGURATION maximum volume.

Does everybody understand the above two rules? Before the 20 second finale are we allowed to open the robot size as long as we touch the tower, but we are not allowed to hang? After the 20 seconds do we still need to touch the tower to open up?

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by joeweber

c. TOWER Contact ROBOT Volume - During a MATCH, ROBOTS in contact with their ALLIANCE TOWER may extend beyond their NORMAL CONFIGURATION volume but may not exceed the FINALE CONFIGURATION maximum volume.
d. FINALE ROBOT Volume - During the FINALE, ROBOTS may extend up to the limits of the FINALE CONFIGURATION maximum volume.

Does everybody understand the above two rules? Before the 20 second finale are we allowed to open the robot size as long as we touch the tower,

True

but we are not allowed to hang?

I find nothing that says this. You could hang in auto mode, as long as you were touching the tower when you expanded beyond NORMAL CONFIGURATION.

After the 20 seconds do we still need to touch the tower to open up?

During the FINALE 20 seconds, you may expand whether touching the tower or not.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by squirrel

If you're thinking of a pneumatic piston, you might want to do some calculations regarding how much force you can get from one, and how much air it takes to get that much force over the distance you need to lift the robot.

We have done the calculations and will be verifying our findings with a prototype ASAP but you can likely get the force you need over the the full distance you need with pneumatics.