pic: Meet Oscar...(1108)

[CD47-Bot]

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[ngreen]

See more picture at here . And better one soon at http://www.pantherrobotics.com .

Its main tasks are the 2X ball and hanging. This picture is around 10 days before ship so not everything is complete. If you have any question please ask.

[KenWittlief]

SO YOUR THE ONE WHO STOLE THE DISH NETWORK RECEIVER OFF THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE LAST MONTH!!!!! :c0

PS: be carefull with that thing! I dont want to see anyone get their eye sucked out!

[Tyler Olds]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

SO YOUR THE ONE WHO STOLE THE DISH NETWORK RECEIVER OFF THE SIDE OF MY HOUSE LAST MONTH!!!!! :c0

PS: be carefull with that thing! I dont want to see anyone get their eye sucked out!

ROFL!!!! Very nice Ken!

That has to be the biggest suction cup I have ever seen on a robot; do you have more pictures of the suction cup itself??

Very cool design guys, I hope it does well (wouldn't be suprised if you won the creativity award either).

[ngreen]

Don't have anymore pictures of the suction cup, should soon, but I can tell you it is a modified plastic trash can lid that is using a fisher price motor attached to an impeller to create suction. Once the side of the trash can lid pull in its not letting go. The cup has been well tested ie swinging robot around, using 2x ball as punching and kicking bag, attaching the suction device to our wall.

Ken, you didn't notice that we stole your ham radio tower too. hehehe.

[Iain McLeod]

yeah, 358 was kinda toying with the idea of a suction cup, but nothing quite that big. how well does that thing actually hold? I mean, does a bump pull it off or does it stay on even if you smack it around? The ones we used were surprisingly strong, even though they were small.

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Iain McLeod

yeah, 358 was kinda toying with the idea of a suction cup, but nothing quite that big. how well does that thing actually hold? I mean, does a bump pull it off or does it stay on even if you smack it around? The ones we used were surprisingly strong, even though they were small.

Let's just say it is hard to get off. You will tip our robot before the ball would come lose. We used it for a punching bag. I think the only way it will not hold a ball after it grab is if some damage is done to the cup itself. But I think you could put a hole in the plastic and it still would be able to grab the ball. We are bringing spares though.

[KenWittlief]

when you shut off the impeller does the ball release right away?

we are using a commerical piston vaccum pump with commercial suction cups - we get about 25 inches of vacuum, but one thing we have to work out it that when we stop the pump, it takes about 6 to 8 seconds for the ball to release.

we are thinking of either inducing some leakage, or adding a solonoide valve to release the ball.

[ngreen]

I'd say it releases in less than two seconds. We thought about ways to release faster but it didn't seem practical. We weren't losing to much time because of it. The housing and impeller was out of a portable shop vac. When we used pnuematic tubing on the end of the shop vac we drew 12" of water out of a cup. I'm not sure how well that is comparatively, but it works. We tested the amps from the fp when the impeller was attached in open air it was 5 amps, in its housing w/o suction it was 2 amps, and with suction it was 1 amps. That kind of surprised us but it makes sense enough.

[KenWittlief]

your design is really going to save you a lot of time packing up at your last event

instead of crating the bot and shipping it home, or packing it into your bus

you can just stick it on the side of the bus, on one of the windows :^)