pic: Team 148 - Robowranglers 2010 - Armadillo

[Nevets Amstier]

Net response from 229:

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT????!!!!!


wow unbelievably impressive

I wish we were going to a regional with you guys

[Joe J.]

As always that robot looks absolutely amazing

[wo-bot 141]

this is why im glad your in Texas and im in Michigan.. very nice. good luck

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by wo-bot 141

this is why im glad your in Texas and im in Michigan.. very nice. good luck

I dont think that matters.

Paul lives in Texas and last time I checked, he's still with the ThunderChickens.

[Ian Curtis]

Since you guys are right down the road from Caddo Mills Airport where Armadillo Aerospace does their thing, do you ever have any interaction with them?

Nice robot too!

EDIT: After watching this video a few more times, I think that this may be the year that one robot can carry 2 BLTs... Wowsers!

[Brandon Holley]

I had a quick question about the drive, when the drivetrain actuates itself from the omnis to the "regular" setup, are the 8 wheels in line or are the 4 traction wheels lower?

-Brando

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Looks alright, I guess.

[Jester Jackster]

wow!

[CGuenther]

Just wanted to say that I saw your video, and your robot looks awesome. I love the kicking and hanging mechanism. Great job!

[O'Sancheski]

that bot is so awesome... i just can't believe how awesome that robot is... it is just amazing

[VanMan]

This is great. I'm loving the video. What I fail to understand is how can all of this be done in 6 weeks? Students have school to attend, mentors have jobs to work. The drive base alone looks like it would take a team at least 6 weeks. And they were probably done by at least week 4 so they could debug and practice. I just don't understand how there are enough hours in the day to make a machine that is this amazing. This is truly amazing. You all better do well now that you have such a neat bot.

[JVN]

Since Armadillo's twin Mia is competing this weekend and word will probably be out soon anyways, I thought I'd take a minute to discuss a somewhat "controversial" change we made to the robot...

Here is the rough timeline:
Our video was shot on the Saturday before ship, the video itself was edited during the day Sunday and released that Sunday evening... On Monday evening the Robowranglers held an open-house for the Greenville community, then put the robot in the crate late that night (early the next morning).

After the video shoot on Saturday night we (in typical "continuous improvement" fashion) began to discuss what we needed to improve.

We were concerned about the durability of the drivetrain, but didn't have any weight to spare to reinforce it. We were also disappointed at the way the robot traversed the bumps and felt lowering the CG would greatly improve the robots performance.

Early on in our game analysis (day of kickoff) we were trying to do cost-benefit analysis to determine how much those 2-points for hanging would really be worth. At the time we couldn't really tell, because we had no idea how hard it would be to score and had no "easy" way to simulate it. Playing with the actual robot gave us more of an idea of how many balls a match a robot could score.

At the start of our meeting Sunday, we made the decision to remove the hanging mechanism. We would use that weight to reinforce the drivetrain, and lower the CG. By the time the video was posted on Sunday night, the new "baller" Armadillo was up and running. She goes over the bumps smooth as silk forward and backwards, and the drivetrain has been significantly reinforced.

I know some people will question our decision to give up the hanging. I see it as a "no-brainer". When the decision was made, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders.

The Thunderchickens went through a similar analysis and made the same decision. Neither robot will be hanging for 2 points this year.

So thank you for all the compliments on our hanging, but you won't ever see Armadillo or Mia do that in competition. Instead you'll see a new-and-improved version of the drivetrain, on a lean, mean, soccer-ball scoring machine.

-John

[Akash Rastogi]

Our hanger is also the first thing to go when we add our new kicker for Boston.

I was wondering though, could you please still bring the arm with you to Atlanta? I'd love to get a nice look at it.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Our hanger is also the first thing to go when we add our new kicker for Boston.

I was wondering though, could you please still bring the arm with you to Atlanta? I'd love to get a nice look at it.

We put it in the crate, it'll be there.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by JVN

We put it in the crate, it'll be there.

Sweet, thanks