Video of Kicker Prototypes

[TEntwistle]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Great GP/sharing for this video! Gotta watch the "air" under the ball though. If you get one outside the field (over the railing OR end zone) it'll be a serious penalty. yellow card?

My read of the rules is that you only get a yellow card for an intentional shot of the ball outside of the arena

[Mr_I]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

I'm sorry but I do not quite understand the first method. Is the piston pressurized, and then you guys pull against the pressure causing it to kick out?

I share in ttldomination's confusion. It looks like you're using the compressed air in the cylinder as the stored energy. What's missing is the device that compresses the cylinder, releasing it when you want to fire.

Has anyone considered using a small bore cylinder (and thus fast extension) to push a lever near its fulcrum? Or would the small cylinder be unable to provide the "oomph" necessary?

[MrForbes]

To figure out roughly how big of a cylinder you need based on how much "oomph" you need, figure out how much energy the ball needs as it begins it's trajectory..then figure out how much energy you can get into a cylinder. You only have 60 psi and max 2" bore to work with.

[RRLedford]

Originally Posted by squirrel

To figure out roughly how big of a cylinder you need based on how much "oomph" you need, figure out how much energy the ball needs as it begins it's trajectory..then figure out how much energy you can get into a cylinder. You only have 60 psi and max 2" bore to work with.

The big issue with air cylinders is that a good kick needs to place an object going at ~25-30 MPH in contact with the ball for about 1/50th of a second with said object having enough momentum that it doesn't lose too much speed during contact with the ball.
Pneumatic pistons have to drive the air in front of them out of the cylinder as they accelerate within it. This often restricts their peak velocity, depending on the orifice size of the cylinder's air exit hole. I don't know if it is allowed, but pulling a vacuum on the cylinder ahead of the piston would effectively give a 15LB pressure boost and seriously increase peak piston speed.
The CFPM capacity of the KOP air compressor also seems much too low to allow very many high power shots. Perhaps using a motor to drive a piston back into a sealed cylinder to built up the air pressure inside to the legal max would allow for both more frequent and stronger shots to be taken in a match.
-RRLedford

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

There was a robot that had a rapid fire and reload mechanism for shooting balls. It must have been for Aim High. It used a cam arrangement to pull the latex tubing back into tension. Anyone remember it?

It seems something like that, with a pause before firing because we aren't rapid loading this year, would pull the kicker back into the FRAME PERIMETER within the 2 second limit.

I know which robot you're talking about and remember the video vividly, but also cant remember which team no. It was the most unorthodox shooter, yet effective and accurate of all the '06 bots I saw that year.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by waialua359

I know which robot you're talking about and remember the video vividly, but also cant remember which team no. It was the most unorthodox shooter, yet effective and accurate of all the '06 bots I saw that year.

Was it 1523?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i91FrxBT10o

[Bigjsp]

We tried hitting the ball directly with several different sized pneumatic 3/4, 1, 1 1/8, 2 (4-6 inch strokes) and even a 3" diameter 1" stroke cylinders, which all seemed compatible with the volume of air storage allowed.

Under the best case, the ball had enough energy to roll the distance but not really enough to clear multiple ramps.

On dual acting cylinders we had the exit port wide open to be the best case.

We have a neat kicker concept but the pneumatics just wouldn't support it.

[spaztec]

looking good