Robot Cart Suggestions

Our team made a trade many years ago (forgot with whom) and the part that we got out of it was a custom carrier. It is a frame of powder coated aluminum, with two hadles. Their latching design allows them to be flipped down, turning the carrier into a table for pit working. The way we test our wheels is by "blocking the robot," which is 4 pieces of wood placed under the robot.



Here's a pic of the carrier, just so you can see what it's like.

[DUCKIE]

After watching/helping catch many robots that had started rolling off their carts while going over the wire-protector at the field entrance, I would recommend that the cart supports the bot by it's frame instead of resting on it's wheels, or use some angle-iron around the cart edges to prevent loosing your bot off the top of the cart.

Also, never forget about the doorways, we had a robot cart one year that was wider than the average doorway... but not for long. Picking it up at every doorway got tiring REALLY quickly.

[sanddrag]

We use a cart our principal got at Costco. It was under $50 I think. It has a folding handle and large (10") pneumatic tires, with the front two swiveling. It is a little tippy but it is really good for going over those cable-ways on the floor or through grass/mud/dirt/etc.

[Bill-Boelk]

Yea, get bigs wheels and mabey even some motorized wheels. Here is our cart,
-2 Cims driving it
-4 speakers and 2 subs
-dvd player and 7in screen
-overkill we know but its fun to have

[BandChick]

For two years our team just used a boring old simple dolly. When we heard that 25 was making a motorized cart, we also had to (they never finished theirs, btw).

We took a motorized scooter (one with a seat) and added a large box to the back. The top had hinges so things could be stored inside, and the robot rested on top. One member of our team is responsible for driving it around. It even worked out for traveling! The whole scooter itself breaks down and fits inside the box. We shipped it with our robot to Atlanta in the crate.

[David Hoff]

We came up with the idea of looking to see if there was anything we could buy off the shelf so we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of trying to build an awesome cart between competitions. We found hydraulic lift carts. With just a pump of the foot or a squeeze of the hand, the cart will easily go up and down. However, the picture below doesn't show the handle that allows the table to be lowered or the brakes on the back wheels.

[Not2B]

We use a simple cart, made of aluminum and casters. Very simple, very nice.

To pimp it out a bit, I always like:
- removable handles (so you can work on robot on the cart)
- Storage for batteries and a few other necessary items
- A turn table so you can pivot the robot while working on it

We like the ol' KISS principal on our robot, and the cart is no different. Cheap, Easy, Reliable, Simple, Quick - everything you need.

(But ground effect lighting, mass storage, stereos, cray supercomputers, and hovercarts are all really cool too!)

[KTorak]

We whipped together a cart at about 11:30 PM the night before our Regional. It's made so the robot rests on its frame, has casts, 2 subs, 2 speakers, 17in LCD, amp, modded xbox w/ wireless controllers, and batter/tool storage.

[Mr.G]

Our cart we got this year worked great with places to store the following.

Holds 2 Battery's in back tray's.
Holds 6 Battery's and 2 chargers on front tray.
Has 2 compressors from prior years robots.
Has ~3 gallon air tank.
Has 3 drawers for tools.
Holds 2 joysticks and the RC on the top tray.
Robot height can be adjusted up and down 1 foot.
At current height a full sized robot can fit through most doors while on cart.

[i_am_Doug]

^ that is FREAKING SWEET

[EricH]

Our cart is pretty simple. Welded frame with medium size pneumatic tires. It has a method for turning it into a workstand, but we never use that. Removable handle. Painted with our team colors. This year we added a mat to the frame that can carry a basic tool set and a battery. The cool thing is that the robot rests on a pair of rails that can be adjusted to the robot in about 5 minutes. just loosen about 4 screws per rail, slide the rail, tighten the screws.

One thing about speakers is that FIRST does not like them on. The At The Event section of the manual says something about playing music, including cart music. I can't remember just what.

[Alex Pelan]

Our cart looks something like this:



Now that's a pimp cart if I've ever seen one.

Seriously though, this cart has its advantages. It is very easy to transport the robot, and is also very easy to store, and cheap to ship, when it comes to competitions that are farther away or inaccessible by car. As much as we'd like to build one with a sound system, underglow, etc, there are still issues with transporting it and whatnot.