Team 2062's robot with 8 days left

[Sunshine]

Team 2062's robot with 8 days left

We are a little behind this year. 8 days left to tweak, test, practice driving, test and tweak some more. Oh yea, and figure out how to reduce weight by about 3 pounds.

Your thoughts?

[Bill_B]

Are you planning to use netting to avoid collecting balls on top? Looks like a mid-field goalie to me. Far-zone kickers will have to get serious loft on their kicks to get over y'all. I'm seeing the 8020 frame pieces, right? How is that stuff to work with?

[DarkFlame145]

Originally Posted by Sunshine

Team 2062's robot with 8 days left

Oh yea, and figure out how to reduce weight by about 3 pounds.

Your thoughts?

Bring out the drill and swiss cheese it =P

[thefro526]

It looks pretty awesome, my only question is with the center of gravity. Do you have any CoG issues due to the overall height of the robot? Does this higher CoG make it difficult to strafe with your mecanum wheels?

I'm really liking the side hanging mechanism. I'd love to see a video of it in action.

[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Are you planning to use netting to avoid collecting balls on top? Looks like a mid-field goalie to me. Far-zone kickers will have to get serious loft on their kicks to get over y'all. I'm seeing the 8020 frame pieces, right? How is that stuff to work with?

Thanks for the comments.
yes on the netting (at least for now)
we have been getting some 4' lift and some success with a bounce for second speed bump. still needs tweaking and testing to determine final config.

It's ITEM 2020 that you see. Been using it going on our 4th year. Lots of Pro's with only complaint being the need to tighten up T-nuts

[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by thefro526

It looks pretty awesome, my only question is with the center of gravity. Do you have any CoG issues due to the overall height of the robot? Does this higher CoG make it difficult to strafe with your mecanum wheels?

I'm really liking the side hanging mechanism. I'd love to see a video of it in action.

COG was our biggest concern from the students initial proposal. Calculations from conceptual model to what you see today worked with keeping weight in strategic locations. It can not go over speed bumps in full speed but it makes it over. Thank you for the comments. Bottom-line, COG should be a concern for anyone attempting something similar.

[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by thefro526

I'd love to see a video of it in action.

I believe that you will see a video of it lifting with 150 pounds hanging on it soon.

[Bill_B]

Too late for you now, maybe, but I see 5 (?) toughboxes aboard. If they were all converted to the "nano" version you would save an advertised .7 pounds per box; totalling 3.5 pounds. AMark also mentions use of aluminum gears inside for .85 lb. per box. Of course, this all costs. If you hadn't blown all that loot on 8" mechanum whee-uuuuls. . . .

Best of luck guys. Hope to see you in Atlanta.

[XaulZan11]

Looking good.

Two questions:
1. Earlier in the buildseason someone from your team posted a clever design to elevate your partner(s). Are you planning to something similar or are you just planning to hang by yourself?

2. Related to #1, can you hang from on the bumps, doing a '930 straffing'? Or are you just planning to hang from the 'front side'.

Looking foward to seeing it at Wisconsin.

[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Too late for you now, maybe, but I see 5 (?) toughboxes aboard. If they were all converted to the "nano" version you would save an advertised .7 pounds per box; totalling 3.5 pounds. AMark also mentions use of aluminum gears inside for .85 lb. per box. Of course, this all costs. If you hadn't blown all that loot on 8" mechanum whee-uuuuls. . . .

Best of luck guys. Hope to see you in Atlanta.

Thanks Bill,

They idea of modifying the gears in the tough boxes is the first thing we are doing. Thanks for the heads up.

[Sunshine]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Looking good.

Two questions:
1. Earlier in the buildseason someone from your team posted a clever design to elevate your partner(s). Are you planning to something similar or are you just planning to hang by yourself?

2. Related to #1, can you hang from on the bumps, doing a '930 straffing'? Or are you just planning to hang from the 'front side'.

Looking foward to seeing it at Wisconsin.

answer 1:
We abandoned the first idea that you speak of but think that someone will show that it works. You would need to have an alliance partner that weighs more than you in our idea.

answer 2:
we are able to hang from both the front or on the sides. If you look at the horizontal rungs, we hope other robots will be able to latch onto these.

[Sunshine]

7 days and counting.........

We had a programming night (last night). Tried keeping the mechanical guys away (impossible) for an evening so the programmers could do their magic and keep tweaking. We were able to do more extensive testing after their work.

Thought you might want an update.

Mechanically, all working. A couple minor glitches, that should be easy remedies, such as maintaining hook orientation as desired (up or down)

Programming all seems good. Testing of the autonomous program was better than expected (at this point).

Kicker KICKS. Should easily clear both bumps with an ideal kick. Interestingly, even with the ball as far to the side as possible (touching one wheel) we still get an adequate kick

Driver was able to get about an hour or so of driving in. He is getting a real feel for the robot and its capabilities.

COG concerns are all gone. Maneuvering over the speed bumps are now an accomplished task.

We are feeling good at this point but still need to work on reducing weight and finishing the bumpers.

[Sunshine]

Here is the video of our robot lifting that I promised.

http://vimeo.com/9510415

Estimated 300 pounds hanging on it after the lift.