Unique robot design?

[346CADmen]

Early on, but too late for our team to turn back, some of the crew came up with something different. An overhead trolley crane. Collapsible trolley system, think an ez-up shelter, that covers the entire field. With a cable traversing system running inside it.
I would love to see if any team attempts such a design.

[gpetilli]

Originally Posted by 346CADmen

Early on, but too late for our team to turn back, some of the crew came up with something different. An overhead trolley crane. Collapsible trolley system, think an ez-up shelter, that covers the entire field. With a cable traversing system running inside it.
I would love to see if any team attempts such a design.

Our team had a similar concept but ultimately realized it would be illegal since at least the cables for the trolley would be in the AUTO and/or Landfill zones at the start of the match.

[bEdhEd]

Yesterday we figured out a passive system for our robot to help it move a majority of the landfill zone totes completely out of the way in two moves, so we can get to one, if not both containers on the step. I predict with practice, that we can do this under 10 seconds, and with some slave driving, maybe under 5. We will be doing more testing today with the robot powered so we can really get an idea of how fast we can clear the landfill zone. The proof of concept tests we did yesterday were very promising.

Hint: It's somewhat related to a snow plow. Think ice instead of snow.
Bonus hint: the entire "system" which is actually an attachment, can be cut from an 8x3 inch sheet of polycarb.

[346CADmen]

Originally Posted by gpetilli

Our team had a similar concept but ultimately realized it would be illegal since at least the cables for the trolley would be in the AUTO and/or Landfill zones at the start of the match.

Thought the same. But as a problem solver, considered adding swerve drive to each column. then expanding into those zones when appropriate.

[s_forbes]

I was surprised to find out that we ended up at the same design concept as the Bitbuckets (4183) without collaborating on anything. One end of the robot harvests totes off the floor and holds them in a stack, with each tote held by the lip on it's wide side. On the other end is an elevator for dealing with the recycle bin. Ours has a small 4-bar linkage on the end of the elevator to get to the maximum height, not sure if they're doing the same with that detail.

It's neat to compare how the same robot design can be built with different resources.

Our claw design is further along than our stacker design:


Their stacker design is further along than their claw design:



There's going to be lots of different robots this year, should be fun to check them all out! Might be a slightly more boring year for spectating, but running around in the pits and looking at designs will be lots of fun.

[mrnoble]

Reasons to keep secrets still exist, including the "it doesn't work yet" reason, the "we don't want anyone to iterate something that will score as much as we can" reason, and the "we want to surprise you, just for fun" reason. I always love the reveal videos, too.

From all the discussion I've seen so far, I think 1339 has one very common idea, one rare idea, and one that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else, yet. I look forward to finding out if other teams thought of it too, or passed it by.

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Ours has a small 4-bar linkage on the end of the elevator to get to the maximum height, not sure if they're doing the same with that detail.

Yup. Same thing. But lifted by winch, not pneumatics.

[philso]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I don't want to post our design yet just because I don't want to post something that doesn't work, and we're still ironing out the bugs. But I think we have a fairly unique concept. I wouldn't be surprised to see a half dozen other teams do it, but it should stand out. Whether it stands out because it's an unnecessary gimmick, or because it's a novel solution to scoring in this year's game, remains to be seen. We have no frame cutout and it has nothing to do with the center bins.

Originally Posted by mrnoble

Reasons to keep secrets still exist, including the "it doesn't work yet" reason, the "we don't want anyone to iterate something that will score as much as we can" reason, and the "we want to surprise you, just for fun" reason. I always love the reveal videos, too.

From all the discussion I've seen so far, I think 1339 has one very common idea, one rare idea, and one that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else, yet. I look forward to finding out if other teams thought of it too, or passed it by.

It would be interesting and educational if later in the season, say after the last regionals/districts, teams would post information on stuff they tried but could not get to work.

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by philso

It would be interesting and educational if later in the season, say after the last regionals/districts, teams would post information on stuff they tried but could not get to work.

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

Thanks for keeping up this fight, I've been championing this idea for while now and it hasn't gained much traction. However to your 2nd point, I get why some teams don't post, however a far greater number of teams should post since the benefits to them out weight the risks. Cheeeh Poofs don't need feedback from the community to ensure solid designs, they push the envolope so far that only a handful of people could help them in most cases and there are other teams like that (the ones everyone can named and are surprised when they don't win their division). For all other teams I don't see how posting doesn't help them and others. I don't get the idea of not wanting to post unfinished designs, they show the process and teams can learn from it.

[MrForbes]

Ours is kind of unique. It may or may not work very well. We'll see.



We should have posted the design a lot sooner, but we didn't really have it designed all the way.

[WeJohnFriedIt]

Our robot has a lead screw-powered lifting mechanism with attachments on the front to grab totes and containers. This video shows the system articulating up and down:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...type=2&theater

[philso]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

It'd be more interesting if teams posted stuff they were trying during the design phase; you'd get much better feedback and optimize the design faster. I've seen a few cases where designs we were working on were posted on CD and people jumped on them to find potential issues; that helped us build a better robot.

I really can't see any negatives to posting design concepts at this point in the season. Think on this: If the Cheesy Poofs posted a complete render of their robot design right now, would you honestly scrap your current design after 5 weeks of work and start over with this new info?

I am in agreement with this and would prefer this. The timing I suggested was selected such that more teams would be likely to feel comfortable posting their ideas.

[mrnoble]

I would certainly consider a re-iterated design based on a post from 254 or 1114, for example, if they were inclined to post their work even this late in the game.

I respect the teams posting here that want to open up the design process. Spectrum has been especially kind in their approach to the build season. And I'm not interested in being secretive for my team; we have little to gain from it, other than a bit of fun, and I doubt many teams would be looking at our design for guidance. But I also respect that some teams like to keep the element of surprise. It is one of our annual highlights as a team to watch and participate in the reveal videos.

[mrnoble]

Hoping I have figured out how to share this. This is one of our special features. We plan on using this to clear out the landfill in autonomous or the early game. It's based on something many of you are familiar with this time of year: a hydrolic (in this case pneumatic) snowplow.