pic: Team 610's 2011 robot design

[Mr. Lim]

If the electrical/pneumatics side of the team was as diligent about CAD, it would be a lot more clear.

There is pressurized air supplied to only one side of that pneumatic cylinder, such that it is constantly pulling downwards. We had that air supply regulated to about 40 PSI, and it perfectly counterbalanced the arm uniformly through its entire length of travel, on both sides of the robot.

Unfortunately, whenever we ran the arm downwards, the air in the cylinder would compress, and the regulator would bleed excess pressure. While this was desired for both safety and uniform counterbalancing reasons, it used up a lot of the air whenever we moved our arm downward.

We ended up replacing the setup with a few loops of surgical tubing.