Taking totes from ground

[Charger]

Which one is better? Taking totes from the bottom of them or grabbing them from the sides? Because as far as I know, totes have a little slope on the sides of them. So is it possible to take them from sides with stable parts and move them upwards by using that slope?

[GaryVoshol]

It's up to each team to decide what is better.

But remember that some totes start upside down, and others could fall that way.

[staplemonx]

We are thinking of rollers on spring loaded arms. Will be doing some testing this week to find out if this makes sense.

[Sparkyshires]

We are thinking grab from the side at the moment.

[rjmah]

Also remember that some gray totes are on the step and held captive by the lip of the step.

[Charger]

Originally Posted by Sparkyshires

We are thinking grab from the side at the moment.

But the totes in landfill zone are so close to each other, there is only little space between them. Will that space be enough to pick it from side with clap or sth like it?

[nixiebunny]

There are several options, all of which warrant exploring.

Two narrow forks to pick up the tote from under the end lips is one approach, but you have to aim carefully to get the forks in between tightly arrayed totes.

The lip at the top of the side can have hooks go under it to grab the tote. Those four little ribs are trouble.

The top has a lip all the way around, which can be good for sliding the tote into position before grabbing it from the side via the side lip.

There may be other ways too. We intend to spend some time figuring that out as a team, after we determine the more general strategy.

[TrevorNoon]

It was incredibly hard for us to find a way to pick them up from underneath without them flipping over. In addition to that, it seemed to need a strong support behind of it. From what I can see, most teams will be picking up from the sides.

[Charger]

Originally Posted by TrevorNoon

It was incredibly hard for us to find a way to pick them up from underneath without them flipping over. In addition to that, it seemed to need a strong support behind of it. From what I can see, most teams will be picking up from the sides.

but the totes in landfill zone, they are not in same position, some of them have their long side parallel to guardrails and some, perpendicular. I think it's very hard to take both of these totes from sides with stable parts attachted to telescope system or elevator, etc.

[DonRotolo]

If we think about it, we can pick up totes from the bottom, sides, front/back or top.

Which is best depends on your team's decisions on robot capabilities. What do you want the robot to be able to do?

To me, top and bottom are harder than sides. But one needs to consider the case of picking up the middle tote from a group of 3: Is there enough room to get in there to pick it up? Or, can you develop some other way to 'free' the tote so it can be picked up from the sides (or front/back)?

Thinking out loud, maybe all we need is a small 'hook' that pulls the tote out from the group to expose the sides (or front/back) enough to be picked up.

[Canon reeves]

I haven't seen anybody else talk about this, and I have yet to build a prototype. My idea was to utilize a passive system to grab the totes, and to do this, grab from the handles on the shorter sides. In short imagine putting a piece of wood up into the handle, this piece also runs along to almost the bottom for support. Basically it relies on the bottom brace to keep it upright while the lip holds the inside of the lid. Here is a link to some quick sketches I drew. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f... 571615&type=1