09-03-2003 19:21

Darrin#48ELITE

Hey, nice robot, seen a couple like it at Cleveland Regional, just wondering how does the robot fold up or start as at the beginning of the match.

Does the wings retract or are u stuck wide open through the match and also do u have any plans for how to stay at the top of the ramp besides the wedge?

Hope to hear back,

09-03-2003 19:44

Joe Matt

Nice bot. It kinda looks like a tent in a weird industrial FIRST way.

12-03-2003 13:50

Kris Verdeyen

To answer your first question, take a look at our other picture here:

The wings start vertical, and drop down to be 10 feet wide. We can raise and lower the wings independantly, once they are both released from stow.

Immobilus also has a couple of surprises (that may have to do with that suction cup) that I won't reveal here.

12-03-2003 18:51

Darrin#48ELITE

Okay, thanks about that picture, your robot looks like a threat to most rookie teams, but i got another question for you.

Does your robot have an autonomous mode, and what regionals are you going to?

13-03-2003 02:23

Kris Verdeyen

If all goes well, at the end of the autonomous period, we should be locked down on the HDPE.

13-03-2003 09:53

ngreen

I hope not. If it does, please be our alliance partner at Lone Star. You have the only robot I've seen from the regional that looks like a serious threat. But Good Luck, just so we don't have to fight against that machine.

16-03-2003 16:34

Alaina

That's beautiful. It looks like it should belong to Batman...

16-03-2003 16:43

Gope

Ahhh...the infamous 118. Last year at Lone Star you guys were great, too bad we had bad luck and didn't win. I wish we could be at Lone Star this year and avenge our defeat with you guys as our alliance. Oh well.

This thing looks great, If it performs as well as your last year's robot and you guys have ANY luck then I'm sure you'll go a very long way this year.

See you at NATs.

30-03-2003 18:30

Pin Man

That looks awesome!

30-03-2003 18:33

Powers

that looks like the Swamp Thing, only it looks like the wheels are at the middle of the bot whereas swamp things were at the outsides? well, good luck to you, that AI will probably become important w/ that big of a bot.

25-04-2003 13:51

bethMonster

hey that looks like mine

ours looks just like that with the wings down. our wings are have a top view that looks like a right triangle though. we were at the cleveland regional. we saw two that looked like that in houston too, one white and one silver. the silver one got into semifinals.

25-04-2003 15:08

Gene F

Re: hey that looks like mine

The Silver one was us 343. We were top seeds in Curie, champions of Curie and National Finalists. alas... the secret to our success was not using the wings or at least not both in autonomous mode.

25-04-2003 15:40

Kris Verdeyen

Re: Re: hey that looks like mine

Interesting - the secret to our limited success was just the opposite - we were never the fastest to the top in auto mode in Galilleo, so the sail caught most of the boxes that the other team knocked over. The only problem we had was tipping, but we got that under control by the elims.

25-04-2003 15:48

dez250

did you ever get that "wing cover" ripped off of the frame or had a robot puncture through it?

~Mike

25-04-2003 16:13

Kris Verdeyen

We lost it once, but not on the wing. The body cover came off during one match when it was poorly attached. The wing skins were held on first by velcro, then by screws. They did take a beating, though - after the LSR, the robot looked like it had been through the ringer, with holes in the sail, a bent mast, gouges and scratches on the wing skins, and a nearly destroyed surprise bar (that's the agressively pocketed aluminum reinforcement in the middle that doesn't let people just drive through the sail). The systems of the robot were functioning fine, though - all of the armor worked.

25-04-2003 16:18

Gene F

Bottom line answer is no. We took some rather aggressive hits. In one match I swore that I saw a stacker bot skewer the wing and then pull back out. After the match we could not find a hole or mark of any kind. The material was Tyvec House wrap covered with Mylar space blankets. At the end of our second regional there were signs of stress and wear at the beginnings of the cable pockets. We replaced them for Nationals.

25-04-2003 16:47

dez250

wow nice job creating the sail with those materials then, i saw many sails that were destroyed match after match, even saw one where a whole robot when straight through a sail and just kept on going...

~Mike