pic: TechnoKats Fixing the Arm

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen

I love this picture. Call it an illustration of teamwork. Although it seems like it would have been easier to lower the arm to work on it. Care to relate the story behind it for those of us who were unable to make it to Michigan?

This was the first match of the quarter-finals for the TechnoKats. Fifteen seconds before the end of the match, the Kats Klaw robot was about to cap the blue alliance's stationary goal for a win. Ten seconds before the end of the match, the gripper fell off the end of the arm. Without the multiplier ball, the score wasn't enough.

Wires to a motor and a limit switch got pulled apart; that's what the group at the top end of the arm is trying to repair. You can't see it well in the picture, but at the bottom right people are working on the motor at the "elbow" of the arm. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it looks like the arm was in an unfortunate position at the end of the match, and when the arm lift pneumatics were deactivated, the elbow motor got damaged.

I assume the arm was frozen in its extended position until the elbow was repaired.