As we finish our 1st regional, we aren’t particularly satisfied with our Hatch/Cargo mechanism and are looking to redesign it for our 3rd regional (We compete too soon to make a total change for our 2nd event).
I’m making this post for two reasons, reason 1 is to give recognition and talk about the teams that are killing it and reason 2 is to crowd source our search for a new mechanism.
We are searching far and wide for the best designs and a few awesome ones have popped out to us already like the 1323/973/2910 hatch roller. I was wondering what the mechanisms are that are standing out to other people and teams.
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There are several specific hatch mechanisms that I have seen so far that work well, but they all share some general characteristics. First, they hold the hatch panel firmly in a mechanical grip. The hatch mechanisms using velcro have not proven to be as reliable as desired. Second, they have some way to thrust the hatch panel forward independent of the movement of the robot to secure it to the hatch. Finally, they are coupled to some method of centering on the hatch panel at both the loading station and the hatch end, either on the mechanism itself or by a drive that allows strafing to find center. Whatever solution you come up with, those are the criteria that you’ll likely need to meet to make it a real success.
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I’d suggest looking at Team 95’s gripper. It’s been iterated through out the season. The version used in week one can be seen here: Hatch Gripper Mk. 3.
A link to the CAD for our latest gripper revision can be found in our Onshape project here: Team 95 2019 onshape. Drill down to the hatch mechanism tab. The latest version includes some lessons learned from our first event, including greater off center tolerance and a spring return to center.
Skunkworks Robotics has a pretty good integration of a hatch and panel grabber. They’ve played both their competitions, so you could take a look.
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930 uses passive hatch alignment by having the mechanism able to move. They also have a grabber that hold it it tight and grabs easy. If you see them I’d check it out.
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7671, my favorite rookie bot ever, is using a bucket as their cargo mechanism. They are #1 in the NC district right now.
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Second the 973/1323/2910 hatch roller, definitely inspired us. Haven’t seen a better way of grabbing the hatches yet.
I’ve seen many good cargo mechanisms, but all the best ones seem to have a slow, controlled release.
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Thus far, the best bot with both cargo and hatch I’ve seen is team Breakaway 3937. Their bot’s cycling time was insanely fast with both hatches and cargo (especially cargo), capable of solo filling a rocket without defense in 2 minutes. Although my team knocked them out in elims with some good defense (go 4087!), with practice against defense, I could see them ranking as one of the best in the world.
Check out this match to see what I mean.
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Personally 3324 at Miami was pretty good.
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Any pics/videos of that? We’re trying to get an idea of how we have to play with our simplistic robot.
My Rookie Team, 7486, used a similar design but we used some pieces of polycarbonate in a V-Shaped box and pushed it forward with a pneumatic piston.
We competed at the Miami Valley Regional if you want to try and find some of the videos that FIRST posted on YouTube.
We had a slow start because we didn’t have any driving or scoring practice but after the first few matches, our robot was very consistent and scored well for a rookie, landing us a spot in the Top-8.
I think that 4027 had a very very Efficient system for hatch panels.
Team 4414, who won the Del Mar Regional, has a very simple but effective pneumatic hatch mechanism. Here is their reveal video: link
Our hatch mechanism is a cross between 4414’s mechanism and the one from team 95, which someone showed in a picture above. It is definitely the most effective manipulator we have ever built.
The most effective hatch mechanisms I have seen are ones that can push the panel onto the rocket (often with pneumatics), and don’t have to be lined up perfectly because they have some side-to-side play in them (like 95’s mechanism).
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Will definitely second 7671, it was an absurdly simple yet incredibly effective mechanism. I’ll also throw out our (4561’s) cargo intake, it handled cargo incredibly smoothly and allowed us to get pretty fast cycles.
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Fire Hazard did remarkably well for a rookie team. That bucket mechanism is as elegantly simple as they come and worked beautifully. They ended up leading an alliance to the finals at Wake Co., only losing to the #1 seed in the end after three matches. They should be very proud.
You did indeed. The finals were a perfect study in teamwork, with your team handling cargo, Cortechs handling hatches and climbing to L3, and AstroBots working some pretty effective defense. Congratulations on the win.
btw, Sid says hi.
2910 isn’t using rolly wheels anymore! They swapped before their first competition to a pneumatics system.
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I may be a little partial, but our (1684) hatch/cargo mechanism works very well. Designed by our team captain & driver, it held up well at our first comp and was quite effective.
Is there a picture of it anywhere?
@OwenD Here is a video of our V2 hatch mechanism. Thank you to 5803 for the inspiration.
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