Robot Carts

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by EricH

Yes. However, consider your transportation method. If you don't have room in your vehicles, you'll want the cart in the crate. However, it is quite common to bring your stuff in on a cart on Thursday.

At Buckeye (Cleveland State University), there's an elevator manned by venue staff members to take your equipment down to the competition/pit floor. Instead of everyone carrying a crate and other miscellaneous stuff, we threw it all on the cart and took the ride down. It makes it ten times easier.

[Johnny]

Originally Posted by EricH

Or you could use a little red wagon...

Devil Duckie robot cart= Little Red Wagon and no joke Radio Flyer for the win. We just take off the side fences and it's perfect!

[Dick Linn]

If someone wants to make a cool cart, try a 4-wheel steering cart like this guy made for his daughter. There are detailed pictures of the undercarriage at that link.

http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/...ead.php?t=9441

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by jcatt

So now we use a simple cart that actually fits threw our shops doors.

A good thing to remember that what ever you put on you cart you have to move it around and get it through doors. So don't make it too heavy or too wide. Don't forget that you also have to get it to the competitions, so make sure it is either collapsible or modular otherwise it will be difficult to get it the competitions without a trailer.

And in the manual this year. Section 3.3.5.

Carts need to fit through a standard 30" door.

[Creator Mat]

Originally Posted by EricH

Or you could use a little red wagon...

we did this our rookie year for our first regional.

[synth3tk]

We (read: "someone") ended up frying the control interface on our cart, and close to regional time. So we ended up stripping out all the electronics and using it as a push/pull. I've decided that next year (if there is one for us) we're going to make one that isn't electric.

[Pyro2323]

Would it be possible to use a robot from a previous year for the cart? I know that we would have to have it hardwired because of the interference it could cause. Would FIRST mind this idea?

[synth3tk]

Safety First. If you can control it, I'm sure they won't mind. Some teams even build carts to ride on while driving. When you program the drive, put a cap on the speed, so that it doesn't go faster than a brisk walking speed, even with the joysticks/accelerator pushed to the max.

Try to avoid sharp edges. Ideally, I would install some form of bumpers on it. Since it will be an old robot, I can't imagine that being too difficult a task.

But as far as I know, they allow previous robots as carts. They don't really check the carts as much as the current robots themselves.