Powered Robot Carts

[LeelandS]

Creating a Powered Robot Cart would be a great project. However, it should be just that, a project. Having a flashy robot cart (in my mind) would be great for demonstrations and presentation, if it looks nice enough to be driven in front of people. Perhaps even give your audience a chance to drive it. It seems like something that could be a huge hit.

However, its use at competition would be extremely limited. Keeping it powered could be a real pain, especially while making sure your robot is adequately well-off, battery wise. Secondly, most carts are big enough as is. If you have an even bigger cart driving through the pits, it would be hard to make the necessary turns, and probably too easy to bump someone standing by their pits. Getting bumped by a regular cart is a shock enough, imagine this big ol' motorized cart running by you. I wouldn't feel comfortable. Then, as Ed and other said, your cart has to be easily movable by the field crew, as well as needs to be quick to get on and off the field. I just don't see how a motorized cart can fulfill both of those things.

In my opinion, building a powered cart could be a great experience for a team, and great learning experience, and a great project overall. But there place at competitions... Well, I don't see why they need to have a place at competitions. If your robot is too heavy to be moves on a manual cart... you have bigger problems to deal with.

-Hope this helps,
Leeland

[1502]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

How many teams have built, or plan on building a self-powered cart?

I have seen these at regionals before, and 1075 has built one in our infinite amounts of spare time ( ).

It is absolutely our favorite new toy. It travels at about walking pace running wide open throttle, and carries our robot and its driver no sweat.

Its also useful for things OTHER than moving the robot.

For testing we had to move a bunch of tables and books, so we loaded them up and drove through the halls of the school.

Before anyone says it, yes, safety with such a device is paramount, and we fully plan to have several students assigned to accompanying it through the pits as "safety crew", to prevent accidental robocart->human contact, by alerting people in the vicinity.

It also has a number of safety interlocks to prevent inadvertent driving, and inadvertent moving of the forks, such that in the event it is left on with nobody on it, it does not move should the joystick be accidentally nudged. It is also equipped with the ever popular revolving light from pre-2004 seasons to provide a visual warning that it is turned on, and should be treated with caution. Furthermore, it has pneumatic locks to prevent the robot from unexpectedly falling off of it, and potentially crushing toes.

I was just curious if the few of these we've seen before are growing in popularity.

We're working on our second motorized one currently. The first was a wheelchair cut in halve, with all its origional electronics/portable programmer. Plus some cold cathodes, leds, a Xenon headlight and a dual scissor lift. Oh, almost forgot the spinners

Our cart team decided to make a second to A) test out mecanum drive and B) increase manuverability. Yes this means it will use mecanums. Yes we tested for wire looms. And yes, it works. So I wonder, what else could we add to the second considering were keeping the first?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

While we see a few motorized carts come in every year, be advised that some venues do not allow them for insurance reasons. Some venues just want to minimize the amount of damage to the venue and some will make a blanket statement about all carts when one really bad design shows up. Be advised that the people you have to satisfy will be venue staff, event coordinator, regional committee, UL Safety Advisors, FTA, Head Ref, and possibly LRI. I rarely have seen a motorized cart come in a second season, never a third.

[1502]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

While we see a few motorized carts come in every year, be advised that some venues do not allow them for insurance reasons. Some venues just want to minimize the amount of damage to the venue and some will make a blanket statement about all carts when one really bad design shows up. Be advised that the people you have to satisfy will be venue staff, event coordinator, regional committee, UL Safety Advisors, FTA, Head Ref, and possibly LRI. I rarely have seen a motorized cart come in a second season, never a third.

Really? We've never had any complaints, and last year was the fifth seaon for ours.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Consider yourself lucky.

[EricH]

How long did Truck Town's powered cart(s) last, Al? I remember them using those carts in '03 at Houston (where I also remember hearing that they couldn't handle the ramps).

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I haven't seen one in a while. The truck belonged to GM as I remember so it was a sponsor ad more than anything. It is the team built items that seem to have grabbed the most attention lately. I can tell you horror stories of some that I have seen.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by EricH

How long did Truck Town's powered cart(s) last, Al? I remember them using those carts in '03 at Houston (where I also remember hearing that they couldn't handle the ramps).

When Truck Town came to Palmetto in 2006, they had it with them. It stayed parked on the periphery of the pit for virtually all of the regional; it was much too large to get through the pits and to the field safely. So it lasted at least that long.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Billfred

When Truck Town came to Palmetto in 2006, they had it with them. It stayed parked on the periphery of the pit for virtually all of the regional; it was much too large to get through the pits and to the field safely. So it lasted at least that long.

Last I saw it was tucked in one of their closets but that was last year.

[Racer26]

@Koko Ed: I believe that was probably the very same one that this thread was started about, 4 years later in 2011.

Its been with us to WAT and GTR consistently for the last 4 competition seasons. There have been minor concerns voiced by the UL/BrucePower Safety team, and by queueing staff, all of which have been addressed successfully (except FLR2011)

[VKP]

Our team (1899) started using a powered robot cart last year and we have found it very useful, and have not experienced any of the problems others are describing.

We used an old powered wheelchair base, but removed the chair, and instead added a platform for the robot to sit on with room to place tools and other equipment.

It is controlled by the original Wheelchair controller and is mounted near the back of the cart. The controller allows us to change the speed of the cart, and since it is a wheelchair base, it can turn on a dime and is extremely maneuverable.

If there is a team out there looking into making a robot cart, I would suggest giving serious consideration to modifying a motorized wheelchair.

Here is a picture of the robot cart from the front:
http://www.saintsrobotics.com/wp-con...s/img_1509.jpg

[1502]

Originally Posted by VKP

Our team (1899) started using a powered robot cart last year and we have found it very useful, and have not experienced any of the problems others are describing.

We used an old powered wheelchair base, but removed the chair, and instead added a platform for the robot to sit on with room to place tools and other equipment.

It is controlled by the original Wheelchair controller and is mounted near the back of the cart. The controller allows us to change the speed of the cart, and since it is a wheelchair base, it can turn on a dime and is extremely maneuverable.

If there is a team out there looking into making a robot cart, I would suggest giving serious consideration to modifying a motorized wheelchair.

Here is a picture of the robot cart from the front:
http://www.saintsrobotics.com/wp-con...s/img_1509.jpg

Agreed. Ours is a wheelchair base only we have a welded steel frame.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by 1502

Really? We've never had any complaints, and last year was the fifth seaon for ours.

The last team to bring a motorized cart to FLR was ordered to remove it when they pulled into another team's pit to back into their pit.
As a lead que I have and always will hate motorized carts. I think they are unnecessary and stupid. The time spent on building one could be spent on designing a better robot but teams that build them are like Tim Tebow fans no matter what people say about them they'll build and use them anyways.

[Jim Wilks]

Powered robot carts are an accident waiting to happen.