telescoping arm

[Gabe Salas Jr.]

Roccobot 2K

Roccobot 2K2

We used a two piece telescoping tower that is able to tilt all the way down. The good thing about Roccobot 2K was that it had a nice base, and it was able to evenly distribute weight even when extending to retrieve the big round balls. But it was not very strong, but did its job well. On Roccobot 2K2, we improved the arm design, but we were unable to maintain stability and balance when using the arm. Note that it had three wheels. But we made sure that if Roccobot 2K3 tipped over (which it has during competition) that it was able to right itself up easily using the arm.

[nuggetsyl]

WOW no one mentioned us team 25 in this artical i though we built one of the best telescoping arms ever made for first. Well if you need to see what we did get a hold of wayne.

[Meredith Rice]

Our telescoping arm made use of a pully system with extruded aluminum attatched by plastic sliders. We used pistons to extend. Very effective.

[Goober65]

thats right, if i remember correctly, we (team 25) built a telescoping arm that reached about 12 feet out in order to steal the black balls from the other teams bin and then put into ours (2000 game), im suprised as well that no one has mentioned us....

[Jeremy_Mc]

Originally Posted by Goober65

thats right, if i remember correctly, we (team 25) built a telescoping arm that reached about 12 feet out in order to steal the black balls from the other teams bin and then put into ours (2000 game), im suprised as well that no one has mentioned us....

I don't mean to be rude, but why not mention yourselves? If you'll notice, most teams are mentioning mechanisms they built themselves. I'm not sure why you see it as everyone else's duty to talk about your team (and I'm not just referencing this thread. Another memeber of your team has been posting "Well we did this, why didn't anyone say anything about that?" on other threads, too)? I know you're a very old and respected team (25 is a very low number haha), but honestly, not everyone is going to know you built some (apparently) amazingly fancy mechanism. If you want it to be known, then say so.

I've located some pics and videos of 442's arm from 2002 and I'll be posting those soon (hopefully).

[Natchez]

Our team built two 4 staged telescoping arms in 2001 which could put the balls on top of the goals while the goals were on the ramp. Here are some pics

Practicing capping goals

Don't really need 4 stages

Oops ... the red one ended up on the floor

Kinda see how they work … best pic I could find

Under the bar

In the Easter spirit

Here are some of my memories of the arms that might help

-Globe motor was used to extend arms
-Surgical hose was used to "assist" the globe motor
-Window motor was used to lift arm (about 6" moment arm with 1" hub) … arm had to fit under bar
-Seat motor was used for turret
-Spectra string was used to "pull" things
-An Eagle Scout tied all of our knots … pretty frustrating when a knot lets go.
-First stage was pinned to turret
-Globe motor "pulled" second stage into place (up or down … did not depend on gravity)
-Third stage strings were attached to second stage ... not directly to motor
-Likewise, fourth stage was attached to third stage
-The cross section was a triangle with flat corners
-Delrin blocks (Teflon was cost prohibitive) were used as anti-friction blocks and "pulleys"
-The aluminum used for the arms was 0.032" sheet
-Bending the triangular sections is definitely an art but can be mastered with a good sheet metal break

Although the structure of the arm was very strong, the actuators were all fairly weak (using all of the strong ones on the base and balancing mechanism). This was okay because it was a 4 team alliance with no defense. This year, you need to have more powerful positioning actuators; thus, this year we are thinking about simply using our base to point the arm or go to a very strong turret.

All in all these arms performed very well even though our main strategy that year was to balance both of the goals. Telescoping is a good way to go and if you go this way, try to leave yourself a solid week to get out all of the kinks & binds.

Good luck,
Lucien

[Stephen P]

All these telescoping arms are SWEET. I think I have the general idea of how they work, but does anyone have any specifics? A design sketch would be great.

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Goober65

thats right, if i remember correctly, we (team 25) built a telescoping arm that reached about 12 feet out in order to steal the black balls from the other teams bin and then put into ours (2000 game), im suprised as well that no one has mentioned us....

Acutally I saw 25's arm on another thread. It was very impressive. I don't remember which thread. You would have to search.

[TGreen]

Originally Posted by CrazyBear

Roccobot 2K

Roccobot 2K2

We used a two piece telescoping tower that is able to tilt all the way down. The good thing about Roccobot 2K was that it had a nice base, and it was able to evenly distribute weight even when extending to retrieve the big round balls. But it was not very strong, but did its job well. On Roccobot 2K2, we improved the arm design, but we were unable to maintain stability and balance when using the arm. Note that it had three wheels. But we made sure that if Roccobot 2K3 tipped over (which it has during competition) that it was able to right itself up easily using the arm.

By any chance do you remember how much the 2 pieces weighed?

[Gabe Salas Jr.]

By any chance do you remember how much the 2 pieces weighed?

I'm afraid I do not remember how much the two pieces weigh, but I could ask my teammates and find out. But before I do, which robot you would like to know the weight of those two pieces?

[TGreen]

The 2000 robot arm

[Gabe Salas Jr.]

Originally Posted by TGreen

By any chance do you remember how much the 2 pieces weighed?

For Roccobot 2K, the entire arm design (minus the battery) was about 67 pounds (more or less). Towards the bottom part of the arm, is where we kept the battery. So overall, it would weigh about 75 to a maximum of 80 pounds (which includes 6 big 30" balls). These are rough estimates from what the team could remember.

[Denman]

i didn't mean like that but we have made a lego model here
basically it consists of a main section with some pulleys and you have a parralellagram which when the main internal part gets to the top extends outwards.
Without being rude , i find it incredably hard working in inches and stuff and all the stuff is confusing me as in the uk we are metric, hence our name is systemetric

[KenWittlief]

there is another way to extend a telescoping arm

power car antennas push a still wire up the center to extend it, and pull it back to retract it.

[Dick Linn]

I was in the process of suggesting a couple of alternatives or variations to implementing the arm, then thought the better of it. Not for competitive reasons, but because you will feel so much better if you come up with it yourselves.

We've seen some sophisticated arms and lifting mechanisms in the past, but I'm convinced that there are some very simple and effective (read inexpensive) ways to at least reach the bar and lift off.

If you're stuck for ideas or just want to know what I'm rambling on about about, I'd be happy to discuss it.

Dick Linn
Mentor - Team 975