21-02-2003 15:37

Gope

Looks very beefy. I like the tire change, I asume it's for better tracting on multiple surfaces.

You look like you've got a very high cg, have u had an issue with that in practices?

21-02-2003 15:39

The Paco

Feedback!!

cmon guys (and girls) what do ya think??? just finished it and got some pravctice time in before the shipoff...

it performed pretty well at the preship event that we hosted...

the whells are made by an offroad skateboarding company and have great traction. the one in the middle is a racing slick and is slightly larger than the other two treaded tires... we are using 2 CIMs and @ drill motors connected to the tranny that we modified from the technokat's design...

the wings can take out at least 5 stacks in autonomous mode...

the oonly problem is that we are about half a pound overweight last time i checked....

21-02-2003 15:43

Harrison

That thing stack boxes at all?

...and i look forward to seeing u guys at the CR.

21-02-2003 15:44

The Paco

stacking

nope no stacking.... just mayhem and destrucion...

21-02-2003 16:17

JVN

Nice bot guys!

I have just one question. It looks like it's too tall to lowride under the bar.

Is this really the case?
Do my eyes mislead me?

21-02-2003 16:31

Travis Hoffman

xtremachen6 manages to get great traction on all surfaces and excellent traction on the HDPE. If you push the robot from the front, the rear wheels dig into the ground. If you push from the side, it holds its ground. Our tire pressure is also set at just the right level to provide maximum gripping ability.

We expect a lot of contact with other robots (and their bin stacks :-P ) during the season, so using one of our older robots, we subjected xtremachen6 to a range of ramp-based impact tests (our front bumper has the pre-season battle scars to prove this). We also battled it out on the ramp with other teams' robots at our pre-ship event, and we successfully held our position at the top of the ramp. We have had minimal problems with tipping, although I can't claim that it won't ever happen.

We are grateful to Andy Baker and the TechnoKats for publishing their shift-on-the-fly transmission design from last year. We took those designs and made several modifications, and what resulted was a very flexible and robust drivetrain.

In low gear, xtremachen6 can push around our older robots with ease, and it can also drag the dead weight of a 6'3", 330-lb mentor around the playing field carpet on his stomach. I don't know how that compares to other robots pulling Volvos, but it seemed pretty impressive to us, especially to the mentor who was towed. :-P

In high gear, this thing really flies. It's fun to watch as it careens wildly (but never TOO wildly) over the ramp. xtremachen6 charges around like an untamed bull in a china shop, but it is controllable to the point where our drivers can easily reign in that energy and direct it toward our goals.

We can consistently hit the bin wall in under 5 seconds in autonomous mode. During the driver period, we plan on using our power to knock over opposing stacks, if necessary, and be at the top of the ramp at the end of the match. Our wings will be primarily used for bin toppling during autonomous mode. During the remainder of the match, we plan on keeping them retracted to serve as armor for the rest of the robot. If our wings or front blade ever get damaged beyond repair, they can quickly be replaced by removing four cotter pins and a couple screws.

Win or lose, xtremachen6 should be an extremely entertaining robot to watch in 2003. We'll be in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and back up with our friends in Canada this year, and we hope to qualify for the Championship Event in Houston as well.

Good luck to all teams! Let's go out and have some fun together!

21-02-2003 17:19

Travis Hoffman

Thanks, John. I saw your pics, and 229's bot looks great, too! Your eyes are working just fine. We can't go under the bar.
During extensive simulation tests using Inventor's Reactor plugin, we determined that we needed to reach the third row of bins in order to maximize the number of bins falling into our scoring zone. We think that bots with a lower wall contact point could have trouble getting the upper bins of the wall to fall forward during a high speed collision. In such cases, the robots might even undercut the wall, causing some of the bins to fall BACKWARD into the opponent's scoring zone.

Some may say we have limited ourselves by not being able to go under the bar. Well, we actually WANT to operate on top of the ramp and address any obstacles to our progress *directly*. We feel that power and durability are our robot's strong points. Many other teams (but not all) have had to somewhat sacrifice these design aspects in order to create their unique stacking and ramp blocking systems. In a shoving match, we hope we will endure against a majority of these robots. If our attempts to break through at the top of the ramp fail, we will do our best to make the most of the situation. If we're in the opposing scoring zone, we'll try to wreak some havoc on the bins there and those who attempt to stack them. If we're in our own zone, we'll do anything it takes to successfully defend our own alliance's bins and stacks. Regardless of what happens, we hope to put on a good show for the spectators at the competitions.

21-02-2003 18:18

Tyler 178

We did the same tests, but with a broom and an actual stack of boxes, and also figured out that the optimum point to hit the boxes was the top of the third row of bins. But during our kickoff competition we found out that if you go slow, and just hit the bottom of the bins, they do all fall forward. We arms, and hit hte boxes at the bottom of the stack, and they all fell forward. Also, since the boxes are all close together, they sort of fall together.

21-02-2003 22:35

Andy Baker

wow

Wow... that thing looks as strong as a Sherman Tank! I can't wait to see what is under the hood in Pittsburgh.

Good luck Team ELITE!

Andy B.

22-02-2003 01:31

Tyler 178

*Sorry about the bad typing.


It takes less than you would think to knock over the stack though.

However, not all the bins slide all the way down the ramp like most people would probably expect, but get caught on the ramp, and are very hard to push when they are sideways on the ramp because their lids catch on the mesh.

Just something to think about.

Good luck to all in the competitions