kicker

[terryo]

Originally Posted by rytcd

hey, would a pneumatic pendulum style kicker be more powerful than a straight horizontal pneumatic punch? also, might it be better to use a kicker with a smaller surface area?

HI- we are using the pneumatic pendulum-with-surgical tubing spring assist, and it's working very well. The cylinder extends the spring, and then releasing the air lets the spring pull the pendulum forward to kick the ball.

It took a bunch of testing to get the spring force vs. exhaust flow correct on the cylinder- we had to use (3) valves in parallel coupled to a manifold on the cylinder in order to evacuate the cylinder quickly to take get good speed from the surgical tubing to kick over the bump. The other end of the cylinder has no fitting and vents to atmosphere.

The interesting side effect is that we are able to fire the valves 1 or 2 or 3 at a time in order to control the kick distance (scoring, passing, or over the bump). Now it's up to the drivers to remember which button to push!

Good luck!

[dtengineering]

We tried both pneumatic/elastic pendulum style kickers and a pneumatic/elastic linear "puncher".

The pendulum worked better for us, as we could get a bit more "loft" on the ball by contacting the ball with the pendulum beginning its upswing.

The horizontal "puncher" despite having an angled front edge to try and give the same effect, just didn't give us the "loft" we were looking for.

The pendulum design also made it easier to increase leverage, allowing the kicker to move faster despite the speed limits imposed by moving air out of the pneumatic cylinders.

So, based on our testing, we have concluded that the pendulum is a better way to kick. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Jason

[Safety3rd]

Originally Posted by terryo

HI- we are using the pneumatic pendulum-with-surgical tubing spring assist, and it's working very well. The cylinder extends the spring, and then releasing the air lets the spring pull the pendulum forward to kick the ball.

It took a bunch of testing to get the spring force vs. exhaust flow correct on the cylinder- we had to use (3) valves in parallel coupled to a manifold on the cylinder in order to evacuate the cylinder quickly to take get good speed from the surgical tubing to kick over the bump. The other end of the cylinder has no fitting and vents to atmosphere.

The interesting side effect is that we are able to fire the valves 1 or 2 or 3 at a time in order to control the kick distance (scoring, passing, or over the bump). Now it's up to the drivers to remember which button to push!

Good luck!

i love that idea cus we're using the horizontal and the ball is moving to sluggish to do anything with it. can u post a picture of you pendulum?

[Vermeulen]

We tried a straight pneumatic kicker earlier in the season, and it was too slow, and had too little power to get the ball over a bump. Pneumatics aren't the best at speed, since there is only so much air that can go through the valves. What pneumatics are good at, however, is pulling or pushing power. We're using a pendulum with elastic bands to power the kick, and pneumatics to reset it, and it seems to work fine. However, we now have 10 days until ship date, so this isn't the time to redesign your whole kicking strategy if you already have a functional kicker.

[terryo]

Originally Posted by Safety3rd

i love that idea cus we're using the horizontal and the ball is moving to sluggish to do anything with it. can u post a picture of you pendulum?

I don't have a completed pic since we're migrating mechanisms from the test rigs to the real bot, but here's an partially installed unit. I'll repost when it's finished.
kickerpic1784.doc

[JamesCH95]

We have changed our design so that we can draw back the kicker with two big pistons, then latch the kicker (it's spring loaded) and then deploy the pistons so they're out of the way, release the latch, and BOOM! Big kick, lots of speed, and (I hope) bullet proof reliability.

PM me and I'll see if I can take some pictures...