The CAD for the cart design is at: Team Spyder 1622 - Pit Documents
There are some new modifications that have been made and I will be updating the CAD to reflect that soon. In particular, the team managed to break the 3D printed parts that created the handle so I re-thought the design to something much stronger that does not rely on 3D printed parts. Also, I am readjusting how the cart seals up for shipping as we work out the bugs through this season of travel.
Hmm… it seems like that folding cart was left out of the shipment for Magnolia.
Indeed it was left behind, we didn’t have enough vehicle space at magnolia to transport it around so we left it behind. It was at Arkansas and we’re intending to have it at all future regionals.
Furniture dolly. Easy to store, cheap to buy, and surprisingly easy to get over the cable bumps.
https://www.harborfreight.com/30-in-x-18-in-1000-lb-capacity-hardwood-dolly-58314.html
Not sure if this has been said yet but make sure the wheels arnt touching the cart. I’ve seen two robots accidentally do auto on the cart, it wasn’t pretty.
I’ll add one more item to the musts:
Allows the wheels to run while the robot is on the cart.
During the offseason last year we worked on our new robot cart and let me just say what a game changer it has been. For the first time we are actually able to run a systems check without having to shove 2x4s under the robot not to mention electrical maintenance doesn’t require the robot to be on its side with students hunching over the bot!
Previously we were using a cart that we traded for a few cim motors back in 2005! Let’s just say it wasent the fanciest of carts, and every year since then students have designed new carts and every year the project gets scrapped.
So last year I took it upon myself to design the ultimate robot cart and after several iterations here it is!
Features:
The only gripe I have about this cart is that the wheels are a tad big although having them be a large diameter does help when going over bumps!
We designed and built this cart from scratch last week, finished it just in time for our regional over the weekend!
That’s what we have now. Painted the wood purple, replaced the grey carpet with nice black fabric, and added a removable “T” handle made from two pieces of extrusion and a hinge. Gets the job done and can be taken apart for travel if needed.
We also needed to build a new cart this year to be more compact, after adapting our old cart for many years. Started with an early revision of our aluminum robot baseplate (complete with inspection sticker!), and designed a wood frame around it.
To that we mount some robot specific geometry, a spare battery holder, tool holders, a handle, and casters. The middle is open so we can roll a creeper in for work under the robot.
The driver station can fit underneath as well for transport to and from the pit.
We have an extremely simple cart, dubbed the War Wagon. It’s a wooden wagon with a detachable shovel handle and wood blocks as a robot stand (not attached to the cart). Easily maneuverable, durable, and quite cheap.
As someone that retrieves the flags from the MC during introductions, and returns them to their respective carts, can I make a general request to please please please put your team number on the cart? It doesn’t have to be high-level bumper-rule specific, just obvious. And maybe decorative. Otherwise you may have a random flag on your cart as I only have a 33% chance of guessing the right cart.
For many years, 3946 used a metal garden cart similar to this:
The robot sat on top, wheels hanging over the sides, and the cart body held batteries, tools, driver station, bumpers, strategy boards, non-powered signal devices, and whatever else. We later added some planks to the back so we could stand the cart on end in the pit so it used less room [this also helped control the “whatever else”]. Good whether you’re taking the robot across a concrete floor for a regional or the park for an outdoor demo.
Though I also like @theworkshope’s above - for the 2016 off season, we had a robot pit workbench with an open bottom for working underneath; that 10 wheel drivetrain required constant tinkering.
If possible, I recommend the handle part be removable. We have this, and it means that when we get back to the pit and need to work on it, we can just slide it off and set it aside while we have access to all sides of the robot.
We use a similar concept to @GeeTwo where we have two 2x4s in set with another set attached on top, this year because of our low ground clearance we added a sheet of plywood to the top so the robot sits on it’s wheels
