Can You Handle 12'-14' Dia. Balls?

FIRST General Forum
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Posted by Andy Baker.

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST

From the pictures I’ve seen… there sure are many ‘rollers’ out there.

We seemed to have some trouble rolling balls with the min. and max. diameter.

We made sure that our balls ranged from 12in. to 14in. dia, across the seam. Some of the 12in. balls wouldn’t roll up our chute so easy, and some of the 14in. would stick at bit.

We will be bringing our ‘calibration hoops’ to Competitions, just to see what size balls we will be playing with. Hopefully, we have allowed for the worst cases.

From the wide variety of shooting % that I’ve seen so far, I’m thinking that some teams did not inflate their balls to 14in. dia. I’m thinking that the balls would stay better if they are toward the 12in. dia (smaller, plus less bouncy).

Remember that the spec is 13in. +/- 1in. across the seam!

So, how did your rollers fare with this drastic deviation in diameter?

Andy B.

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:23 AM MST

In Reply to: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Andy Baker on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST:

: So, how did your rollers fare with this drastic deviation in diameter?

: Andy B.

We made one ball a bit larger than 14’ and one about 12’…all were egg shaped. We didn’t have too much of a problem, and in the limited testing on the final machine that we got done, binding was not an issue. Our harvester actually has the ability to expand slightly for the larger balls, and the double rollers hold in the small ones. How did everyone else do?

Lora

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Posted by Tom S…

Student on team #177, The Bobcats, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells & ONSI.

Posted on 2/25/2000 6:15 AM MST

In Reply to: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Andy Baker on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST:

When we First attempted to use our rollers, we could only pick up balls that were of perfect diameter (13’) - any other size would not go into our rollers. We solved this by having a Swinging roller on springs, whenever a ball goes through the roller, the roller pops up to allow the ball to go through. Therefore we can handle a wider range of diameters.
See the picture below, the black ball is just starting to go into the rollers, you can see that it is moving the roller.

Good Luck to All

Tom S.
Team #177

: From the pictures I’ve seen… there sure are many ‘rollers’ out there.

: We seemed to have some trouble rolling balls with the min. and max. diameter.

: We made sure that our balls ranged from 12in. to 14in. dia, across the seam. Some of the 12in. balls wouldn’t roll up our chute so easy, and some of the 14in. would stick at bit.

: We will be bringing our ‘calibration hoops’ to Competitions, just to see what size balls we will be playing with. Hopefully, we have allowed for the worst cases.

: From the wide variety of shooting % that I’ve seen so far, I’m thinking that some teams did not inflate their balls to 14in. dia. I’m thinking that the balls would stay better if they are toward the 12in. dia (smaller, plus less bouncy).

: Remember that the spec is 13in. +/- 1in. across the seam!

: So, how did your rollers fare with this drastic deviation in diameter?

: Andy B.

4

Posted by Keith Liadis.

Student on team #131, C.H.A.O.S., from Central High School Central and Osram Sylvania and Fleet Bank.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:27 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Tom S. on 2/25/2000 6:15 AM MST:

All I can say 177, is that looks like a LOT of torque on your arm… has your team had any problems with it? It looks very impressive

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Posted by Tom S…

Student on team #177, The Bobcats, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells & ONSI.

Posted on 2/25/2000 3:16 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Keith Liadis on 2/25/2000 2:27 PM MST:

We actually broke our arm (well just the elbow halfway out) at the UTC robot scrimmage. But it broke in the opposite direction than we expected, the mechanical stops on the upper side of the arm popped off, we broke 9 welds, our arms were able to flop backwards. This was not what we expected, but we fixed it and we are much much stronger now. :slight_smile:

Tom

: All I can say 177, is that looks like a LOT of torque on your arm… has your team had any problems with it? It looks very impressive

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 3:33 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Tom S. on 2/25/2000 3:16 PM MST:

I know the feeling of breaking the elbow…we broke ours a few hours before shipping, and didn’t get a part in time…guess what we’ll be doing in Hartford…

Lora

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Posted by Tom S…

Student on team #177, The Bobcats, from South Windsor High School and International Fuel Cells & ONSI.

Posted on 2/25/2000 3:47 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Lora Knepper on 2/25/2000 3:33 PM MST:

I love the way your bot can hang and transfer balls… Amazing feature!!1

Tom

: I know the feeling of breaking the elbow…we broke ours a few hours before shipping, and didn’t get a part in time…guess what we’ll be doing in Hartford…

: Lora

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 6:46 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Tom S. on 2/25/2000 3:47 PM MST:

Thanks…I must say that I was perplexed by the Bobcat this year. Perhaps another alliance in Hartford again this year?? :o)

Lora

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Posted by Daniel.

Coach on team #483, BORG, from Berkeley High School and NASA Ames & UC Berkeley.

Posted on 2/25/2000 4:25 PM MST

In Reply to: Re: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Lora Knepper on 2/25/2000 3:33 PM MST:

Hey Lora!

I’m looking at that pic of your robot and this burning question keeps running through my mind. Is your arm REALLY longer than ours? We thought we were CRAZY to go for 8 feet (measured from the side of our robot) but for some reason yours looks even longer. Can that be true? Wow. What are your specs?

-a fellow bannana lover.

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Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 2/25/2000 4:41 PM MST

In Reply to: gasp is it really longer? posted by Daniel on 2/25/2000 4:25 PM MST:

Okay, Mr. Monkey Man with the 8 foot reach,

Deliver the pictures or get out of town :wink:

We know your game.

Give it up.

Joe J.

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Posted by Daniel.

Coach on team #483, BORG, from Berkeley High School and NASA Ames & UC Berkeley.

Posted on 2/25/2000 5:38 PM MST

In Reply to: Always asking about OTHERS never telling talking HIS robot! posted by Joe Johnson on 2/25/2000 4:41 PM MST:

Delivery date and drop off point has been set.

In a few days the pics will be digitized.

Patience, my friend.

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Posted by Lora Knepper.

Student on team #69, HYPER (Helping Youth Pursue Engineering & Robotics), from Quincy Public Schools and The Gillette Company.

Posted on 2/25/2000 6:44 PM MST

In Reply to: patience, my friend. posted by Daniel on 2/25/2000 5:38 PM MST:

Do I dare give any more info to you Daniel without some dirt on the BORG bot?? Hmmmm…what a dilemma…

I suppose I will though (out of Gracious Professionalism) :o)

the pic that I posted on my site was before a slight modification of our harvester. It was a 9 foot long arm, but we had to shave 10 inches off the harvester to make weight…(along with a few motors, but that’s another story!) So from there, you can do the math…now where are those pictures??? :o)

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Posted by Daniel.

Coach on team #483, BORG, from Berkeley High School and NASA Ames & UC Berkeley.

Posted on 2/26/2000 12:54 AM MST

In Reply to: You are lucky that I’m a Gracious Professional! posted by Lora Knepper on 2/25/2000 6:44 PM MST:

If you INSIST!

I am sending an image that I just dug up today for you guys. It’s a real old image of our robot getting welded…and one with the frame way before the structure was built…with the wheels sitting on top. This is THE BEST I can do right now. The video camera has been retrieved from the workshop so it’s only a matter of digitizing now. Gimme another day =)

Pics one and two will be up as soon as it’s a reasonable hour on the east coast I imagine. Seems doubtfull it’ll get posted before then…

Hope you like them!

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Posted by Steve Prairie.

Student on team #173, RAGE, from Rockville High School /East Hartford High School and UTRC.

Posted on 2/25/2000 8:09 AM MST

In Reply to: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Andy Baker on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST:

We havn’t had any trouble harvesting balls into our basket, but with some of the smaller balls, we’ve had a little bit of trouble dumping them. All we need to do is postition our basket at a diffrent angle when we dump them.

Steve Prairie
RAGE Team #173

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Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 2/25/2000 9:34 AM MST

In Reply to: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Andy Baker on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST:

Worked fine with ours…our roller design slightly compresses the ball anyway, and we haven’t had any pressure-related ball jams yet…

Nate

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Posted by Michael Martus.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Coach on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central H.S. and Delphi Automotives Systems.

Posted on 2/25/2000 2:07 PM MST

In Reply to: Can You Handle 12’-14’ Dia. Balls? posted by Andy Baker on 2/24/2000 11:39 PM MST:

The Chief has no problems with the variety of sizes. We made sure that the balls ranged in sizes. Remember that the 13’ measurement plus or minus 1 inch at the seam, still in some cases will not account for the ‘Bluge’ of some balls that adds another irregular inch or so.

A team that designed their collector for close measurements is in trouble. Can you say ‘Ball jam’.

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