17-02-2003 21:46

OneAngryDaisy

Very nice!! I'm assuming your arms have some kind of gripping material at their bottoms to stick to the polycarb.. right?


also- the pic title says " expect to see this at the end of your autonomous mode" - so how fast is it?

17-02-2003 21:57

Katie Reynolds

... Wow. Very nice, as always!

How are you staying on the top of the ramp? Suction cups?

- Katie

17-02-2003 22:01

Gope

As in standard techno fasion, you've chosen to battle it out with the guys with the beefy drive trains. Very nice looking, and I'm sure you've got the gearing ratio's and traction devices to back up the meanicing feel.

Good luck.

17-02-2003 22:06

Joe Matt

Good luck. Everyone knows how well this design faired last year with MOE and Sparky 3.0.

17-02-2003 22:18

Yan Wang

It looks nice but suction cups won't even help. Though suction cups may prevent lifting up, they still slide around... and we all know torque = force over distance and there's a huge distance between the span of your 'wings' and your drive train... Robots can probably spin you around like a top And the way we're doing things, we can hit you right on that outer most wing part in autonomous

17-02-2003 22:28

Madison

. . . you'll notice that their wings are designed to deflect some of the force of an oncoming robot.

. . . you'll also notice that, unlike many other robots like this, they have taller towers at each end of their wings. I'd bet it's not for suction cups. There are lots of other cool, interesting things you could do with that space.

Have faith. 45 isn't unbeatable, but they're not a stupid bunch, either. They're a well balanced team that thinks things through, and I doubt you'll find anything that's a sure fire way of getting by them just by looking at their robot.

17-02-2003 22:41

Rob Colatutto

good as always... *is glad 45 isn't at the long island regional*

17-02-2003 22:54

Stephen Kowski

very sharp robot as always....

17-02-2003 23:34

JVN

Knowing the Technokats, I highly DOUBT you could spin them at all, let alone like a top. Perhaps you should look at their previous drivetrain teasers. Techno-tranny 2003 with those pretty rubber tracks can probably own 99% of robots out there... Do you really think your part of the 1%?

You can be sure a team as high quality as 45 will make sure their suction cups won't "slide around". Whatever they have at the end of those wings, likely isn't easy to move, laterally or otherwise.

Personally, I can't wait to get a close look at that bot in Houston...
Good luck to 45 this year!

17-02-2003 23:41

Ian W.

do those colored flags do anything besides give a nice atmosphere and help the driver orient themselves? also, i remember there being a teaser about omni-wheels. could that be in the big mysterious container at the end of each wing? that would allow 45 to move themselves back when needed, if someone pushed them.

also, i'm sure there's something hidden. if the technokats plan to sit on top for 2 minutes, i would be dissapointed. of course, that makes me think a modular robot, which would mean these wings are but a part of what will be showing up. of course, we didn't see anything besides the wings, drive train, and omni-wheels. of course, maybe the omni-wheels could completely replace the treads, but that'd be slightly insane i think. doable, but slightly insane.

all in all though, very nice robot. i hope to see more in houston (if 810 comes and makes our bot work ).

17-02-2003 23:48

sevisehda

It looks like they're hiding some neat mechanisms in those nacelles. They could have a secondary drive out there that would kill any force you pushed them with. I think you should of made one of the flags green so it would fit marine standards.

18-02-2003 00:07

Solace

the only surefire way i see of beating this bot is getting to the ramp before they do. those arms may make it a great blocker, but they also make it easy to block.

18-02-2003 00:11

obviously the wings come up, otherwise that wouldnt make it within the FIRST size limits of starting

18-02-2003 00:13

Rob Colatutto

with that bot, i think they would be able to push you off the top if they really wanted to, they are probably right about them having some type of drive on those arms, they look pretty big and easily able to hide something in

18-02-2003 00:34

Solace

sorry, i knida pulled two completely random trains of thought into that comment. (me brain works not today) the arms are one thing - the reason that getting to the ramp first would work is becauseteam 45 uses tracks, and tracks don't conform to the ramp. If they come up enought to have part of their drive train sticking up over the top of the ramp but not all the way up, and someone hits them at that moment, then you would literally be pushing up on their robot. that would reduce the normal force needed for traction and make them easily stopped.

of course, the chance that this would happen during autonomous mode is extremely small. It was just an idea.

18-02-2003 00:55

Ianworld

I know a robot that can get them off the top tof the bridge . hehehe

Oh i'm sure thats a wonderful robot and that most conventional king of the hill robots won't stand a chance against it. Kudos to the technokats for that. Under those arms are probably motor assemblys that have wheels forced into the ground which are powered. My team had a design like that but we opted against it. So you can't turn it, you probably can't even push it, or get past it other than limboing under the bar. So how do you propose getting by it?

Well its pretty simple actually, you just stick an arm under its wing in that nice areaunder it and.... lift! Yeah my teams arm is strong enough to lift a robot, so while we're not allowed to remove you from the ground, you're not going to have any traction while we get tons!, so our two wheel drive boy can push you right off the top and down the other side.

I just love our arm!

18-02-2003 01:02

Rob Colatutto

2 wheel drive is deffinately the way to go. we've been 2 wheel drive ever since 2001 and its worked very well in all cases. nice traction because you can focus weight just for 2 wheels, and then if you pick up part of a robot with an arm (which we do have as well) you could add a lot of traction. or you can do what we do this year and be able to shift your center of gravity with the arm

18-02-2003 01:15

LaurenH

Team 71 last year did nothing but crawl across the field the whole match, and look what happen to them...Well wildstang and Technokats had them beat at MMR but just had a few bad breaks, but still.

Too the Technokats, you did a wonderful job as always. I respect your team greatly.

18-02-2003 01:26

sevisehda

There are 2 possible ramp-doms, the wall-dom exemplified by the Kats who really on their traction to keep them on the ramp. The other is the wedge-dom(team 179) whos bot doesn't allow you to push it directly. They both have weaknesses because you could push the wall-dom but a bot could run over the wedge-dom. At this point I'd put my money on the Kats because their drive-trains are always on the leading edge.

As for the best kind of drivetrain, it depends on your strategy but I dislike unpowered wheels, IE 2 wheel drive or castors. The reason being is you lose effictive mass. Unpowered wheels bear weight, weight that would otherwise be used to increase your traction. So instead of your bots drivewheels being pushed down with 130lbs of force there being pushed down by less. Which means you lose pushing power.

18-02-2003 02:37

Cory

Only one problem with this, they have used every drive motor that has any power at all.

Cory

18-02-2003 02:38

JVN

There is another way

18-02-2003 08:43

Rob Colatutto

globe motors and window motors are powered too, if you gear the globe right it can be very useful. having 2 wheel drive doesn't mean you have unpowered wheels on the bot, you could have 2 skids in the front or back

18-02-2003 09:19

Tyler Olds

do you have a picture with your wings up?? or more or less could you please post a pic with yoru wings up??? I would greatly appreciate it.

18-02-2003 12:05

EvilInside

Yet another way

Oh there is another way. Oh my oh my, there is definately another way. I look forward to seeing them at MMR, yes I do.

18-02-2003 12:28

Joe3

First I must say...very, very impressive robot. I still, however, am still skeptical of this strategy. First, let's just assume that you are immovable. Those have to be incredible rigid wings to stand the punishment of two robots ramming into them for 1:45. Now, you may be able to hold in most of the qualification matches. But, when you are paired against two good robots in the elims, my money is definitely on the two robots hitting you. All I can say is that I hope you have plenty of spare parts, and one heck of a pit crew.

18-02-2003 12:32

Madison

Re: Yet another way

You've never even seen it move.

This is why I think scouting based on pictures, or even formulating strategy is all but pointless. Until you can get in close and really discern how mechanisms work, see how the drivers perform, and get an idea of what other robots will be around at the time, you'll have limited success with formulating a strategy.

18-02-2003 12:33

Clark Gilbert

Yah

We know they will be taking quite a beating and that's one reason for the angled brace on the back of the wing. One thing you can't really tell either is that these arms are filled with a really rigid foam that makes the arms very stiff. The entire wing assembly weighs about 44-46 lbs.


Look familar?

18-02-2003 12:41

Joe3

How easliy does the foam compress, and what else do you have on the front of the wing?

18-02-2003 13:02

Dan-o

Looks painful

I see a resemblance in the Kats robot this year to MOEv2002. Let me tell you a couple things about last year (I was only there during the off-season).

Our strategy worked fairly well for bots without a lot of torque, However, the alliances that beat us were comprised of two major pushers. I feel that you guys have an added vulnerability because you sit atop an almost frictionless pad.

Another thing, you guys will only be able to score 25 points by yourself, while you prevent other bots from scoring. Truthfully, I don't think you will be seeded, however you will be in one of the top few alliances as a partner.

One more before I finish, repairing MOE between every match last year was a monstrous task. If you can do it, more power to you. Good luck in your efforts.

GO MOE!!

18-02-2003 13:07

f22flyboy

Our bot (and some others) could get up enough speed on the ramp to jump over those wings. I don't know how well the landing would go though

18-02-2003 13:14

Joe3

Yea, this was essentially what I was trying to lead you guys to. I was there las year, when MOE valiently attempted to hold his ground for 1:55 every match. This worked very well in the QP rounds, however, whenever we faced two good robots with a good about of torgue in the elims, our wings gave out on us. We had the file cards, like beaty, and we lifted up the goals for added traction to attach ourselves to the carpet. These worked very well, but when you make yourself that rigid, all the force is on that wing, and you will bend. Thats just my $.02

18-02-2003 15:27

Spikey

Bah, our robot has so much tourqe this year, two bots pushing it will make it slide, or both bots on one arm will cause it to rotate. Or in our case we just go under the bar and ruin your bins

18-02-2003 16:32

Dan-o

Either Way

Either Way, I hope your strategy works for you and I look forward to meeting you guys at Nationals. Good Luck.

18-02-2003 17:30

Mike Soukup

Another great bot by the Technocats (it's spelled with a 'c' right? ). We should have a great time battling with you at the top of the ramp at the Midwest Regional.

Please try to keep this thread on topic. If you want to talk about how powerful your robot is, start a new thread. This thread is about the Technokats robot.

Mike

18-02-2003 20:51

Dima

Pretty

(hey mike!)

I just hope you don't have what i think you have at the ends of those arms! (don't want to mention IT just quite yet, cause if IT 's not what i think it is, you could put IT there quite easyly and then EVERY ONE is screwed)


Looks good!


P.S. if you think i can't back my words up, i care not!

18-02-2003 21:38

Nicholas W

If you could cause the technokats robot to turn would it contact both sides of the ramp then violate the rules? I can't tell from the picture if that would happen. I'm willing to bet an experinced team like the kats would have thought of this allready. just somthing that poped into my head as I rwas reading the thread. Also to move the robot spin the bot have one team limbo the bar and come up behind them pushing from the back right and the second team pushes on the front left.

Nick

18-02-2003 23:02

Gope

I'm hearing lots of things fly around this thread.

Frictionless pad - just so you know, there are several wheels available for purchase that give MUCH more traction of the HDPE than the carpet of mesh, and that traction is very nice

Spinging a KOH bot - that'ld be hard, especialy when ur talking about veteran teams like the KATS

Two v One pushing matches - look at beaty from last year, i remember one time when they had Kingman(undoubtedly the 2nd strongest pusher at nationals) and another team pushing full force against them, and beaty kept on moving basicly unfaised

I've noticed people saying that you could life the KATS arms - that asumes several things, proper positioning of both robots to be one, I really doubt the KATS r just gona sit there and let u pick their arms up without a fight

Suction Cups slide - maybe you haven't been informed, but there are some suction cups out there that are completly immovable, as far as you know the KATS have one on each arm





Alot of times I see people who underestimate other teams and over estimate their own(I've seen this on my team ALOT) because they feel that they've spent so much time on their robot and it just isn't easy to think that you put so much time into something and someone else could be better. I think that this is what is happeneing to alot of people regarding the KATS. They are a veteran team with all sorts of tricks, so just sit back, relax, and keep an eye out on their regional showings.

18-02-2003 23:56

sevisehda

I'm not sure how many teams actually do tests to figure the COF on different surfaces but I can give you some rough figures. On carpet some wheels have a COF of >1.5. I haven't tested or scene anything about the mesh but I think thats more dependent on tread than material. The HDPE is the most surprising, for some reason people think its this SUPER SLIPPERY surface when in fact its NOT. There are some materials that have a COF of >3.0 on it. Yes that was >3.0. So if the Kats or anyone else uses that stuff there not gonna move easily. If you doubt those numbers feel free to IM me.

It may just be an illusion but in the pics theres a small shadow under the central treads. It could be possible that they don't just drop there barriers but use them as jacks in order to give them a greater moment.

19-02-2003 11:22

EvilInside

Re: Re: Yet another way

Well, the thing is, I don't need to see it move. I don't need to know how much traction it has, how good the drivers are, etc. You see, I have another WAY. An IDEA. Now, I ask, is it better to

a) Start using the pictures online to get an idea of what is going to go on, make some base strategies, and then refine them when you see the robots in action

or

b) Go into the competition completely blind and trying to formulate strategies on the fly, not having anything prepared at all

You see, with a little thought and some planning, strategizing now can help in the long run. And, is it hurting anyone?

19-02-2003 11:53

Clark Gilbert

The foam is really solid. if you took that arm and hit a person with it, it's similar to hitting them with a bat.

You can see a little chunk it of (the blue stuff) under the grinder and drill press.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/...38dscf1803.jpg

19-02-2003 12:03

Re: Re: Re: Yet another way

Ive been doing strategy for a couple of years and the one thing I have learned is that pictures can be deceiving. Im not saying ours is or isn't, but whats going to happen when you develop strategies from pictures you have seen? Maybe a team has a secret weapon that they haven't unveiled or are not telling you about, maybe the robot is too strong, fast or agile for your strategy. I remember at the Great Lakes Regional in 2000, the strategy team prepared this strategy against the mighty Chief Delphi bot in the finals. It was working until they went over to our goal and stole many of our balls out of the basket. Nobody knew that they could even do that, never the less do it in the little amount of time it took for them to steal and score. The whole arena went into shock and there was a large gasp of fear. Basically what Im trying to say, until you see a robot run in person, strategies will do jack for you. All pictures can do is give an idea about what they supposedly can do. Just hang on to your pants buddy, regional time is near.

19-02-2003 12:13

Joe Matt

I'm part of stratage too Fluck, but the problem isn't you totaly trusting another team's pics, but going into a competition blindly not having a prep. Even if they have a secret weapon, you still know about 50% of what the bot can do. That's more than seeing it at the regional for the first time and having to do create a stratage based on little or no info.

19-02-2003 12:19

Typical...you missed the point.

You can't make strategies by pictures alone, like I said in the previous post, the pictures are a basis, but they can't be used for main strategy. Strategy is a complex thing, you have to rely mostly on accurate scouting information and your own viewing opinions over what a picture shows.

A picture tells a thousand words...

yeah right.

19-02-2003 12:26

Joe Matt

What do you mean by that....

You can decide on stratagies and other things by pictures. I can tell by your pics what we can do against you. I know it's not 110% accurate, but it's still more than you have anyway.

19-02-2003 12:28

Nothing against you personally, its just that whoever tries debating something with me usually completely misses the point.

19-02-2003 12:29

Marc P.

I agree, not much can be deciphered by pictures and printed text. Useful/applicable scouting can only be done in real time in the real world, observing the physical motions, capabliities, incapabilities, and overall performance of a robot, rather than a still grab in which the context of motion is difficult to ascertain.



Back to the original topic at hand, one word- Forklift.

Anyone who meets team 38 at the New England regional will see what I mean =D

19-02-2003 14:17

Ricky Q.

Sweet job guys, now just make sure to keep that DJ fool under control

19-02-2003 14:50

EvilInside

devising strategy

I understand your point DJ, and my pants ARE on thank you very much but I am not making an entire strategy based on pictures. I have actually been doing strategy since the first days of the build period. I take concepts of robots, the base goal of several different robots out there. These concepts are fairly easy to come up with, we thought ramp control 3 seconds after the game was announced, and we were actually designing one before the broadcast was over. Now, I take these concepts and build the primary goal of the concept, and then use the pictures online to further refine the strategies a bit. From here I build scenarios taking in account many possible aspects, then pick the weakest of the most common aspects within the scenarios. From there I add input on the design of the robot, which is how I know there is another way of defeating your strategy. From those strategies, along with the refinements based on pictures on the internet, I have a pretty good base strategy against a type of robot. It is pretty dumb of anyone to think that they can build an effective strategy for each and every robot in the field, the only time anyone should EVER do this is against an extremely unique robot, which in itself is building a strategy against a type. Seeing your robot is nice, and the more ramp control robots I see, the more refined the base strategy will be. Oh yeah, I still really look forward to seeing you guys at MMR, I need more ideas to steal. Much faster than making my own

19-02-2003 16:17

Bob Steele

Congrats 'Kats

Wonderful design concept...
You make Indiana proud as you always do!!!

We hope we can make a contribution to you as an alliance partner in Chicago if we team up.

Our robot is a little under-the-bar stack destroyer with a nifty sliding ramp which allows our alliance partner to climb on our back at the at the top of the ramp for a different endgame 50 point strategy.

Thanks to Andy Baker and all of the other folks at the Kokomo workshop and all the other great teams from Indiana (Perry, Morristown, Carmel) we designed and completed our first robot on time !!!

We will be cheering all of you guys on in Chicago and in St. Louis...see you there!!

Best of luck!!!

thanks again!!!

Bob Steele Chief Advisor Team 1018

19-02-2003 22:49

Andy Baker

Thanks

Bob,

Thanks for the kind comments... there are surely alot of great teams in Indiana, and the RoboDevils look to be strong contenders who can make this state even better. We definitely look forward to playing with you guys in the upcoming regionals.

As for this design... many of you are right... it is beatable, and there are ways to do it. No robot is unstoppable. Lifting us up is a good idea, and it would probably work. Just how much you have to lift is the unknown thing.... is it 10 lbs? is it 150 lbs? Remember to lift with your legs, not your back.

Speaking of lifting... consider a weightlifter who is competing in the dead lift competition. He grabs the bar, lifts the weight, and his feet now are supporting the weight of his own body + the weight of the bar. So... if he weighs 200 lbs, and he is pulling up on a weight of 200 lbs, his feet now see 400 lbs of force pushing against the floor. He better be lifting with his legs.

Andy B. ... who is groggy from being the night before ship date

20-02-2003 00:12

ChrisA

Great looking robot. I'm eager to see how it performs. See you guys at Midwest.

20-02-2003 00:29

The Lucas

Bigger they R harder they fall

Looks like a well designed and built bot. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it impervious to other well built bots. As the Miracle Workerz found out last year, when u try to take on everyone head-on, u will meet ur match. MOEhawk (MOEv2002) could completely dominate 70% of the robots, leaving them no chance to score. About 25% could beat us if chance favored them, and less than 5% were too fast or strong for us to beat in 2 of 3 matches.
The problem comes when u try to hold ur bot in a scoring position for a long period of time, u have essentially declared open season on ur bot. Teams can and will do anything to get u out of scoring position including brutally destroying ur bot in BattleBots fashion. Get used to the cheer of the crowd when ur bot is mauled, cause seeing the big guy go down is the biggest crowd-pleaser. It wasn't just us either, everyone was amazed when Spam's Fluffy slew the Beatty Beast in the finals. I hope have a good sense of humor about it or u will become bitter, clamoring for DQ's for intentional damage. If u do well holding ur ground, every team will be looking to destroy u. That is y we created the MOE Mauler award to reward teams which graciously and professionally tore us to shreds (without malice). Teams even used broken pieces of our bot to get picked for the eliminations.

The Best Advice I can give: Start preparing a well organized Pit and a quick efficient Crew.

20-02-2003 00:30

sevisehda

For now all we have is scattered pictures and early scrimage reports to determine the character of this years competition. The majority of stackers who have posted pics so far are of 2 types. Low rideing arms and tall internal stackers. They both have noticeable flaws that have emerged in scrimages. Many stackers rely on boxes being in a certain orientation. Those who have arms are slow at stacking. If the Kats, or any good ramp-dom, knocks down the wall the result would be 37 boxes scattered boxes every which way and 2 bots somewhere in the jumble. Its important to know this will happen and modify strategies to deal with it. For me it means rethinking the idea that a ramp-dom needed a good, low-riding stacker to gaurantee a win.

20-02-2003 02:12

BSMFIRST

Suct's like a fox

A well engineered robot (which this certainly appears to be) will be impossible to move in this situation. I am 99% sure that they not only suction to the floor, but that they pull up on the suctioned wings in order to create a HUGE tractive force. That's one reason why those wings are so thick and stiff.

200 lbs. x 2 wings x 1.5ish c.o.f. on the treads = UNMOVEABLE

Other designs that I have seen deploy suction cups or feet don't pull up. This really does nothing except give more traction to *other* robots pushing you from below.


Good luck, have fun,
Dan

20-02-2003 10:10

Manoel

Did you actually try this?
BTW, your bot looks great. As it's a TechnoKat creation, I actually believe it'll perform as greatly as it looks.

20-02-2003 11:33

Clark Gilbert

[/hint]Speaking of lifting... consider a weightlifter who is competing in the dead lift competition. He grabs the bar, lifts the weight, and his feet now are supporting the weight of his own body + the weight of the bar. So... if he weighs 200 lbs, and he is pulling up on a weight of 200 lbs, his feet now see 400 lbs of force pushing against the floor. He better be lifting with his legs.[/hint]

I think someone tried to use it as a weapon, can't remember who though.

20-02-2003 11:43

Ricky Q.

Was proabably DJ trying to hit himself again

20-02-2003 23:24

No, I was practicing with my punching bag and it coincidently had a pic of you on it

21-02-2003 01:16

yangotang

Looks great, as always

I'm not sucking up

21-02-2003 02:47

David.Cook

Who needs the top of the ramp anyway?

OK. Let's concede that you will hold the ramp. (Maybe, maybe not)

What are you going to add to that 25 points?

We determined it is not necessary to go over the ramp, or under the bars to get bins into scoring position.

Dave.

Go Sparky!
384

21-02-2003 13:07

Re: Who needs the top of the ramp anyway?

Hrm that sounds like a familiar design...tricky though

We have taken this into account weeks ago, and we have our strategy ideas ready, including post autonomous ideas in case something goes wrong..you are just going to have to wait and see. We're going to be at St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, and the Championship event.

22-02-2003 14:51

melmo

What about your aliance partner?

Assuming your alliance partner can not get under the bar how are the going to get over the ramp and get some points for your team? Because if they are slower than you are you will have to wait for them. This will open up the ramp for the opposing alliance to get by. So it might be how fast is your alliance that will determine how fast you get to the top of the ramp. Thats my $2.

22-02-2003 15:31

Ben Downing

You = Us

Greetings from the Robonauts

Looks like we have the same strat... seems to us the only prob will be when someone beats us there
I bet you guys are a <5 sec robot, but, just think, without the arms, you could beat yourselves to the top (as we could beat OURselves). Lets just both hope we're paired with a REALLY fast ally when we match against each other
From the little I can see of your bot, it looks great.
Good luck guys, I look forward to watching your matches on NASA TV and seeing you guys at nationals.

22-02-2003 16:16

Clark Gilbert

We either beat em there and wait for autonomous mode to end then let them go. Or we use a different automode to slow us down and let them go first. Or we go up there, wait and let our partner do something on our side then we lift an arm, let them over...and put the arm back down.

22-02-2003 21:40

Yes Independent Wing Control is very handy in situations like that.

BTW: is it me or does clark always listen to the same song when he posts?

22-02-2003 22:54

melmo

How fast can the arms move up and down?

22-02-2003 23:01

Clark Gilbert

Down: really fast
Up: a Medium speed (maybe 4-5 sec for full travel, to get 1/2 is faster)

22-02-2003 23:19

Dan Richardson

Great bot this year congrats, I'll love to be with you, but hate to be against you

23-02-2003 00:24

abeD

Great looking bot 45, i dunno if someone has asked this but, how fast does it take you guys to get to the hdpe in auto mode?

23-02-2003 00:34

Clark Gilbert

Time

Under 5 seconds for sure, with improvements in the future (there are a few things we want to try out). We wont know our final accurate time until Houston, and that may not even be until finals.

23-02-2003 00:51

Andy Baker

Re: Time

That is an understatement. A FEW things... ha!

We really have alot of work to do in auto mode... it is one of those things that got put off until the very end. We did not get done as much as we wanted, that's for sure.

(I assume that many FIRST teams are in the same boat.)

I'll say that we have alot of room for improvement.

Andy B.

23-02-2003 05:01

IVIaxor

question

Those wings look pretty beefy, do they just sit on the ground or is the robot able to lift itself up so it is supported by the two wings?

It would be pretty difficult to move if it could do that, especially with a high traction surface on the bottom of those pads.

23-02-2003 08:56

Stephen Kowski

(I assume that many FIRST teams are in the same boat.)

Not us, we have our auton mode down pat

23-02-2003 10:04

Dan Richardson

team 710 is finished with ours autonmous but it is likely to change, the prob. with dead reckoning is that any mechanical irregularity could throw your progy off horribly ( ie if wheel slips, you hit a box, if your traction is different than the first time you did it stuff like that )

I bet there will be a lot of what everyone likes to call autonomous chaos and/or suicide

None the less technocats your bot is amazing i expect to see you placing high at nationals

Good luck to you and your autonmous running also lol

23-02-2003 16:06

chellyzee93

Looks good as always. I have my ideas. Looking forward to seeing you at the Midwest Regional.

23-02-2003 17:07

Lauren Bendes

WOW!! When I first looked it was like seeing my teams robot...
It looks great! I can't wait to see you guys compete...
Good Luck from Team #68

~Lauren~

01-03-2003 19:41

Dima

andy... nice robot

so ummm yea about that...

as per these pictures or your website:

http://www.technokats.org/images/tea...0on%20auk3.jpg

http://www.technokats.org/images/tea...ng_on_auk2.jpg

you have a suction cup on the ends of each arm on which you pull up on once it is stuck down with a globe motor(?)

the suction cup looks to be one of the "suck the air out of it kind" the one used for auto glass repain to lift out the windshield from the car. Not "force the air out of it" kind.

02-03-2003 17:16

KyleGilbert45

Looks like someone has been doing their research on us...even though it may look like the suction cups are the "suck the air out kind", we are forcing the air out of them by pushing them agaisnt the ground then closing off the air by using a servo to clamp a tube that comes out of the suction cup since you are not allowed to create a vaccum...(by sucking air)

I'm sure we are still not posting any numbers on the force that these suction cups give us but rest assure it is a good amount of force...

02-03-2003 23:41

Dima

correction on that

i am going to be a lazy bastard and not quote a direct rule but:

you are allowed to create vaccume but connecting the sucktion cup to and actuator and then pulling on the actuator!

however the solenoid supplyed to us and not that great with vaccume.


P.S. on the numbers part. You need not to post any if you saw Cradle to the Grave that kind of sucking cup (btw the movie sucked) the one you are using i would estimate around umm between 200 and 400 lbs of force

03-03-2003 07:08

Gadget470

From M12. K1 is basically saying what is considered kit parts, which we all know.

03-03-2003 08:53

Andy Baker

Also...

Also, purchased suction cups are allowed:

(page 44 in "the robot" section's Restricted Parts List)

(allowed): Suction cups: off-the-shelf or custom, any manufacturer, any quantity, any size

This is also shown on the part use flowchart on page 27 of "the robot".

Andy B.

03-03-2003 11:59

Clark Gilbert

Sneak Peek....opps

There is a really good picture off the suction cups in one of the "Ball Drive" pictures. (opps )

03-03-2003 18:35

Naybohoodsniper

I don't think we need to see what a suction cup looks like. At least, I hope not.

03-03-2003 20:25

Powers

After looking at that robot, and remembering you reputation, i am very glad our robot can go under the bar. Good work guys, and nice ball drive.

05-03-2003 22:11

Dan Richardson

blatantly so :-)