pic: Team 488 XBot two lifts getting closer

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by zander_108

wow... thats really amazing.. how much are you guys going to weigh, and are you going to have an arm? really nice job.

We are trying to reserve about 10lbs for "special weapons" but overall our estimates say we will come in really close to the 110lbs for our height class. We will probably be able to use any extra pounds we might end up with. Those platforms weigh a lot, getting close to 25-30lbs each.

Originally Posted by Mr. Van

Looks great!
How much force do those gas springs have? (I'm guessing a lot!)
How do you reset them?
How do you prevent an accidental release?

Will you please come down to Southern California? We're in need of more parking spaces here...

-Mr. Van
Coach, 599
RoboDox

I believe they are 125lb gas springs. So overall about 250lbs of force on each side. Hopefully with what is burned up in friction and all of that we should be at a reasonable amount for lifting robots.

Right now we have safety release pins to disengage the springs for storage and at the end of the matches. Loading the mechanism is one of the primary tasks left for us - we have plenty of ideas but we will see what works best. Whatever our release mechanism ends up looking like, safety and prevention of accidental release is obviously the primary concern. We are working on a method of robustly latching them down. The gas springs release at a quite moderate rate though, so no slamming or flipping or any of that would be of concern.

You guys are going to the LA regional? We will be attending the Silicon Valley regional, close but not quite! Good luck though!