Climbing Mechanism Ideas

[Dinoyan]

a lot of team doing like robot arm for climbing mechanism

[rainbowdash]

We were considering grappling hooks and ascending to the sound of elevator music generated by a mini boombox inside our robot XD

[swwrobotics]

I don't think my team is capable of doing this, but one idea would be to "somersault" up the edge of the pyramid. I think this could be done pretty quickly and effectively, and I am even placing a bet that some of the top teams will do it. One example would be team 148's mechanism to grab onto the pole, lift itself up, then have a second arm on the other end of the robot grab on, the first arm would let go, the robot would flip using the second arm, and so on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hTyXQUgYLE

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by moogboy

We've come up with a few designs already. One has a groove going through the whole underside of the robot and a pair of treads/belts/whatever on each side of the groove. There would be at least two sets of two grabbers/hooks/grappling devices, preferably parallel to one another at two different points along the belts. We would drive up to the corner of the pyramid, push the robot up the corner pole until the lifter can engage, and turn it on, hoisting the robot up off the ground and up the poles.

Another thought was to have (essentially) two of these, one at the front and one at the back of the robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y94Yhm1dhv0 Obviously it would be highly modified and adapted with better wheels and so on, but the idea would be that the first one would pull the robot up to the bottom of a level, then kind of disengage and retract, letting the second one push the robot up enough for the first to re-engage, which would let both be used to pull the robot up.

those two were based on climbing up the corners. We had one idea that would be based on climbing the horizontals. Basically, that one had three arms. One would grab the horizontal and pull the front of the robot up. Then the other two arms would grab onto that bar for stability while the third pulled the robot up to the next level and so on.

Hope that was of some help.

When climbing the corners, how would you get over the tubing that's wrapped around the corners? You can't straight up.

- Sunny G.

[AhAhPatel]

quick question, has anyone considered the pros and cons of climbing either inside or outside the pyramids? I mean obviously the size limits would come into effect if you were to climb inside, but there are more possibilities I think of getting up. Obviously this size limit wouldn't apply if you climb outside, but there are several problems, like the extra tubing at 30, 60 and 90 inches. I know in our team, we have debated this greatly, and still are split. anything you can add to this debate would be much appreciated.

[Sean Raia]

What if you climbed the edge and used the notches to your advantage?

You'd have to make sure there's a wide enough channel on the underside of your robot so that your components didn't get snagged on the notch, but I think it's feasible.


As for the climbing mechanism... two hooked pneumatic arms that can be rotated down onto the bars on either side of the corner of the pyramid may work.

These hooks could work in such a way that they would slide smoothly against the bars on the pyramid until they catch and hold the robot in place.

(you'd also want a really tight wheelbase)

[AlDee]

Originally Posted by AhAhPatel

quick question, has anyone considered the pros and cons of climbing either inside or outside the pyramids? I mean obviously the size limits would come into effect if you were to climb inside, but there are more possibilities I think of getting up. Obviously this size limit wouldn't apply if you climb outside, but there are several problems, like the extra tubing at 30, 60 and 90 inches. I know in our team, we have debated this greatly, and still are split. anything you can add to this debate would be much appreciated.

Yes, I've thought about this multiple ways.

My immediate thought after kickoff was to scoot under and send a grappling hook up to level 3, and "ride the elevator up". Until I read the rules, and realized you have to touch each level in order. Then I thought, climbing from the inside might be easier, if you depend on gravity to lean you into the climb. But after wrestling with it a bit, it would seem like it might be easier to climb from the outside, where the pyramid is somewhat underneath you.

Has anyone give thought to building a ramp bot to assist others in climbing? They show one in the video, but I'm very unclear on how that would affect the climbing sequence rule.

[moogboy]

Originally Posted by falconmaster

I like your idea ,how would you keep the 120lb robot from rotating around the pole?

We haven't quite gotten to that point yet (I assume you're talking about the horizontal climber), though I think the plan would be to work out the dimensions of the robot/arms such that either the robot would be supported (for a short second at least) by resting on the lower horizontal OR held very tightly in position (or at least a position where the balancing was manageable) until the third arm grabbed it. We had the same concerns and in part I was throwing it out here because I want to see if anyone else has ideas on how to fix that problem.

Originally Posted by ttldomination

When climbing the corners, how would you get over the tubing that's wrapped around the corners? You can't straight up.

- Sunny G.

We would be using the corners to grab onto, and in the first design at least we would be making our "groove" through the bottom such that the robot, riding on the belts that would be moving the grabbing piece(s), just slid right over the corners. Most likely upon further refinement we will add some kind of stabilizing mechanism there to be safe.

Originally Posted by AhAhPatel

quick question, has anyone considered the pros and cons of climbing either inside or outside the pyramids? I mean obviously the size limits would come into effect if you were to climb inside, but there are more possibilities I think of getting up. Obviously this size limit wouldn't apply if you climb outside, but there are several problems, like the extra tubing at 30, 60 and 90 inches. I know in our team, we have debated this greatly, and still are split. anything you can add to this debate would be much appreciated.

My team briefly considered climbing up the inside. We chose against it first because the angle is hellacious to begin with, and getting into an inside climbing position would be very difficult. At the same time, it's an even bigger safety hazard for the robot if we climb up the inside. If ANYTHING fails from the inside, we have to assume that in the worst case scenario the robot falls off the pyramid and lands upside down, which would most likely destroy everything above the frame. The damage could be minimized, sure, but we decided that ultimately the risk was too much.

[AhAhPatel]

Originally Posted by moogboy

We haven't quite gotten to that point yet (I assume you're talking about the horizontal climber), though I think the plan would be to work out the dimensions of the robot/arms such that either the robot would be supported (for a short second at least) by resting on the lower horizontal OR held very tightly in position (or at least a position where the balancing was manageable) until the third arm grabbed it. We had the same concerns and in part I was throwing it out here because I want to see if anyone else has ideas on how to fix that problem.



We would be using the corners to grab onto, and in the first design at least we would be making our "groove" through the bottom such that the robot, riding on the belts that would be moving the grabbing piece(s), just slid right over the corners. Most likely upon further refinement we will add some kind of stabilizing mechanism there to be safe.



My team briefly considered climbing up the inside. We chose against it first because the angle is hellacious to begin with, and getting into an inside climbing position would be very difficult. At the same time, it's an even bigger safety hazard for the robot if we climb up the inside. If ANYTHING fails from the inside, we have to assume that in the worst case scenario the robot falls off the pyramid and lands upside down, which would most likely destroy everything above the frame. The damage could be minimized, sure, but we decided that ultimately the risk was too much.

I see what you are saying, but your vision and our team's vision was different. I believe what you are thinking of is like a monkey climbing up on the inside, which yes, i agree would be rather dangerous. (correct me if i am wrong). however, our team was thinking of having some sort of pnumatic driven arm which would extend up and out at the second level and pull our robot up. that way if we could pull that off, the robot would still be in driving position, and if it did fall, it would (hopefully) fall straight back on the tires. I mean, regardless of how we go about climbing this pyramid, it is going to be risky business...

[Jimmyk]

What about some kind of arm to place a hook and then just use a winch to pull your robot up. Then some kind of secondary mechinism to hold the robot in place. Not sure how to get to the second and third levels, maybe springs to reset the arm if you disengage the ratchet

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by Jimmyk

What about some kind of arm to place a hook and then just use a winch to pull your robot up. Then some kind of secondary mechinism to hold the robot in place. Not sure how to get to the second and third levels, maybe springs to reset the arm if you disengage the ratchet

See 2010 "Breakaway".

[ftlng]

The way I read the rules, I would say u r correct

[Donut]

The difficult thing about helping partner robots up the pyramid is that they also have to satisfy the rules for ascending the pyramid in the proper order. They couldn't simply drive up a giant ramp or ride a lift up to the 3rd level, since they would need to contact a point on each level of the pyramid on the way up.

I think an inside climb might be slightly easier because you can grab a bar from beneath and winch or lift up, but I'm concerned about accidentally contacting the ground (level 0) when going from level 1 to level 2. Also you couldn't fit multiple robots inside the pyramid very well (not that we'll see many triple climbs anyway...).

[moogboy]

Originally Posted by Donut

The difficult thing about helping partner robots up the pyramid is that they also have to satisfy the rules for ascending the pyramid in the proper order. They couldn't simply drive up a giant ramp or ride a lift up to the 3rd level, since they would need to contact a point on each level of the pyramid on the way up.


(not that we'll see many triple climbs anyway...).

I think the wedge is a dead end for helping robots climb, myself, but a helper robot could be just a giant box with a flat front and a strong climbing mechanism that would support another robot from behind. Or, and this would be more difficult to implement because it would require more planning, a robot that was incredibly good at climbing and could pull another robot up from behind.

The triple climb could go a number of ways. Three robots on three different corners/planes at the third level means 90 points(!) Even three robots on the same plane/corner could be 60 points, which means it's worth considering creating a really strong climber that can bring one or two other robots with it.

[jason701802]

Originally Posted by Donut

The difficult thing about helping partner robots up the pyramid is that they also have to satisfy the rules for ascending the pyramid in the proper order. They couldn't simply drive up a giant ramp or ride a lift up to the 3rd level, since they would need to contact a point on each level of the pyramid on the way up.

What if you lift them up such that they never touch anything other than level 0?