Release of the 2005 Technokat's "Sky Hook"

[Kyle Love]

Here is the 2005 Technokat robot . The name this year is "Sky Hook". Let the games begin!

[Clark Gilbert]

Originally Posted by Kyle45

Here is the 2005 Technokat robot . The name this year is "Sky Hook". Let the games begin!

Awesome job guys! (as I expected). Seems like the robots get better and better every year after I'm not on the team . Hopefully, I can catch up with you guys at the Purdue Regional here in a few weeks.

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Clark Gilbert

Seems like the robots get better and better every year after I'm not on the team .

Clark,

I talked to Baker, and we agree it is just a conicidence.....

Chris

[Kyle Love]

Update: I just received a call from El Jorge and he informed me the robot is in good condition and he is continuously checking the auto modes so we will run flawlessly.

(Did not really happen, no imaginary objects were harmed in creation of this post.)

[slickguy2007]

Nice job as usual guys. See you at nationals....


GO 1403!!!

[Jeff Rodriguez]

That is a ton of buttons on your control board. What do they all do?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Ogre

That is a ton of buttons on your control board. What do they all do?

Not all of those colorful circles are buttons. Most of them are lights. I think there are only four actual buttons on the thing, and three of them are waiting to be defined.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Hey you guys wanna team up again like at IRI right? right?

I'm sure I'll be blown away at Purdue...

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Ogre

That is a ton of buttons on your control board. What do they all do?

Not all are buttons. Some are blinky lights. Ooooh. Aaah. More work was done on this OI after the pic was taken. I was hoping that the students who created this masterpiece would post more on this, but they are playing possum.

Originally Posted by ebmonon36

Looks like another great robot to look forward to at BMR...That is gonna be an awesome regional. How similar is that arm to last year's?
Eric

This year's arm is the KatsKlaw arm on "the juice". Instead of a 24 dp turret gear (04), this is a 12 dp turret gear with a 3/4" face. Last year's arm had a 20" vertical stroke, and this year's has a 22". Last year's elbow was this wimpy worm gear that broke about 7 times during the year. This year's elbow uses 2 kit boxes, an Atwood motor, some 35 series chain and a go-kart sprocket. ugh.

One night, at practice our 2 experienced drivers were getting out of hand with the arm. They were picking up goals made from aluminum pipe and they even started to pick up our 2004 robot before a few of us mentors started yelling at them. It is a wicked arm. We tried breaking it, and ended up bending the top of the aluminum mast, but after adding some gussets to the weak areas, it is way strong.

Ok, I will shut up now.

Andy B.

[EricH]

Just to wonder... How bad is your CG? The kit gearboxes are heavy enough alone, but 2?? and an Atwood to power? That's probably at least 5 pounds at what looks like 4.5 feet. I sure hope you guys have anti-tipping measures.


Potential CG issues aside, great looking robot!

--Eric

[meaubry]

Yet another awesome machine by the Kokomo crew.
Looks great, Good Luck in your competitions from friends on Team 47.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just to wonder... How bad is your CG? The kit gearboxes are heavy enough alone, but 2?? and an Atwood to power? That's probably at least 5 pounds at what looks like 4.5 feet. I sure hope you guys have anti-tipping measures.


Potential CG issues aside, great looking robot!

--Eric

Good point, Eric. We wrestled with this for a while. An early idea was to get a long flexible shaft to transfer the torque from below. But the right-sized flexible shaft for this cost $1000 and was too heavy itself. So, we did our best to cut material out of those gears in the kit gearbox.

Also, we have a large outrigger on the back of our robot. It is shown in the stowed position on our website, but you can see it as it is painted bright red.

Andy B.

[Max Lobovsky]

Why did you not use the more common solution (in FIRST) of chain driving the joint from a lower point?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

Why did you not use the more common solution (in FIRST) of chain driving the joint from a lower point?

It's being driven from as low as it can be. The extending arm limits our options for mounting motors.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by EricH

Just to wonder... How bad is your CG?

We can tip the robot about 45 degrees to the side by hand before it threatens to fall over. It basically will not tip forward. Backwards is an issue, which we have addressed with the outrigger. In practice, its fresh paint left red streaks on the carpet when our drivers intentionally tried to do a wheelie.

We did have one near catastrophe while the driver was getting crazy, swinging a vision tetra around on the end of the arm after activating one of our secret weapons. Skyhook came within inches of slamming its arm against the ground before a quick-thinking team member ran up and yanked the wildly tilting base back down. That situation definitely won't arise in competition, fortunately.