We’re looking at some sort of elevator for moving the disks from a scoop to a hopper. We’d then push the disks from the hopper to the shooter. We’ve got a scoop designed to get the disks off the floor but we’re not finding an materiel that’s sticky enough create sufficient friction to be able to lift the disks. Any thoughts out there on how to improve the friction?
You might want to check out the suction cup tape or grip tape from Inventables.
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/grip-tape
There’s a product donation voucher (or equivalent) for them in the Kit of Parts. Lots of neat stuff there.
is it a vertical climb or is it slightly angled? because the Force of Friction can be reduced drastically because the Normal force would be canceled out if it was angled.
Try non-slip mat or what we call ‘carpet grip’ here. http://www.cakesaroundtown.com.au/catalog/images/non-slip-matting-BLUE.jpg In Australia you can find it at all discount variety stores. I’m not sure what you’d call them in the US, but it’s a fairly cheap, easy to use, versatile and sticky material.
By lifting the discs do you mean pickup off the floor or convey along a surface?
If you want to convey off the surface, you can use some timing belt similar to what you received in your kit, but turn it inside out and experiment with the teeth to come up with a system that works.
Our initial thought is to use a platform to scoop up the disks and then use a transport to lift them up to a hopper. Our current approach has about a 33" tall robot. That means we would have to go full vertical for roughly the full height.