31-03-2014 12:46

lynca

Re: pic: Team 3309's 2014 Robot Gateway

Great picture !

The side rollers on the intake arms look nice !
I'm curious about the small pneumatic cylinder at the tip of your intake.
Is that the main method to prevent the ball from moving in your intake?

31-03-2014 13:06

Mark Sheridan

Re: pic: Team 3309's 2014 Robot Gateway

We call it the pocket piston. Its to force the ball to stay in the catapult pocket (Lacrosse terms yay) when we are being hit. We saw 1678's system to hold the ball but we could not afford the mass. So this is a low mass compromise. Its not as effective but we would never run the robot in defense without this feature. With the piston extended, it operates like as a one way ratchet, allowing the ball in but not out. We retract the piston when we shoot.