2013 Antennae

Technical Technical Discussion
#1

In 2013 some teams (see 254) used antennae like components that stuck above the machine and bent back when positioned below a rung of the climbing structure. This provided vidual aid in knowing position for shooting, but I reckon it could assist in accurately positioning at the edge of the colour wheel.

What material was used for the antennae way back then? Is there a better material available nowadays or a better passive mechanical solution for lining up?

Needs to have a high elastic point, so rubber was my first thought.

#2

Usually polycarbonate.

1 Like
#3

Just polycarbonate strips? Would that fracture after many matches? I could see this bending any which way.

Also, quick reply wow.

#4

yeah

nah

yeah

eh

25 Likes
#5

There’s a reason we called lil polycarbonate strips magic plastic for a dozen or so seasons on 330.

1 Like
#6

First word zip, second word ties.

For the record, 2013 wasn’t that much of the dark ages. It was only checks notes, um, eight years ago, so, actually, yeah, basically the dark ages I guess.

8 Likes
#7

In 2013, robots touching the pyramid were protected. I suspect any visual alignment help was a distant secondary effect.

3 Likes
#8

I recall a decent number of teams who intended for the visual alignment help.

#9

If you’re concerned about this, check out 1690’s 2018 climbing mechanism.

Being polycarb, it can suffer beatings, before you are forced to replace it.

If this is the only thing you are wanting the object to do (lining up with the control panel table), then I would definitely just go with zip ties. The super heavy duty ones should last you an entire season. If not, replacement is easy, and wouldnt be more than a minute. Due to the flexibility of the zip ties, you could also be going through the trench if your robot is capable. The zip ties simply just bend and pop back up.

1 Like
#10

Excellent idea

#11

We used zip ties that year (2013) on servos. You can see them come out when we hit / get near the pyramid. We ended up wrapping them in yellow electrical tape and we made sure to let the refs know that if we were near the pyramid - we were touching it.

Penalty!

image

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#12

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-48-in-Driveway-Marker-Red-31464/304668365

Remove the retroreflector (or not!) and you have a durable, flexible post to use for touching the pyramid or other similar indication methods.

1 Like
#13

Long zip ties work great. We used some larger ones from Home Depot in 2016 with tape on the ends so we could see our short robot on the far side of the field behind taller defenses like the Sally Port.

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#14

For more recent examples, look at 2018. You were only allowed to launch a cube into the switch if you were breaking the vertical plane of its boundary. So lots of teams added big zip-ties to their manipulators out to the extension limit so they could launch from further back.

#15

We did it purely for the visual indicator.

#16

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Zip ties mounted, thanks for the idea