Catapults At Championship

Technical Technical Discussion
1

If I have some time while at the Championship, I’d like to take a tour of the rest of the catapults that are competing and see what designs those teams used to achieve success on the field and compare them to our own catapult to see how we stack up.

The catapults that I’m aware of include:
16 – spring-force based, right?
175 – no idea how this one works
488 – my team, fully pneumatic catapult; now with 100% faster reload time.
2928 - winner of Seattle Olympic regional; springs

There must be more than four. Who am I missing?

2

Do Flingapults count?

Team 3940 will be there.

-Clinton-

3

I am still not clear on the difference, so why not throw them in, too.

Thus, we can add 829 to the list.

4

45’s catapult is a pair of recurve bow (as in “and arrow”) limbs, pulled back by winding a strap around a spool with a motor, and released to shoot by pneumatically disengaging the motor. With the right ball basket, it’ll land basketballs consistently within a few inches every time.

3940 uses the original “fling-a-pult” design.

5

Stop and check out 237’s catapult

6

http://carterandrews.smugmug.com/Ballard-HS/FRC-Team-2928/2012-Build-Season/20966236_22fvQJ#!i=1721264498&k=HLS2f8z&lb=1&s=A

a correction to make, 2928’s catapult uses springs, not surgical tubing

7

45 can also fling the balls a really long way. Watching them on the practice field at Queen City was fun.

8

Ah, of course. Sorry about that. :slight_smile:

I’ll correct the first post.

9

Unless you know something I don’t we won’t be there.

3940 the originator if the fling-a-pult will have to represent!

10

We 'pult, too.

11

175 uses a pneumatic catapult fed from their elevator.

12

Sparky 384 will be there with a surgical tubing catapult

13

Team 3081 will have a catapult at the champs! I am not entirely sure how it works but I have a picture for you! (I am assuming it is solely pneumatics based)

http://kennedyrobotics.com/images/stories/Regionals2012/robot.jpg

14

2474 From Michigan have a catapult, althought they also have a great fender shooter, they won the niles district event in Michigan

15

16 uses surgical tubing with a pneumatic release.

16

My team (714) is using a slingshot system. I’m not sure if you want to include that in your list.

We use a cannon like chamber through which we accelerate the ball with a plate attached to calibrated surgical tubing. Upon moment of release we add a backspin for consistancy in trajectory.

Good Luck to everyone at St. Louis! We’ll be in the Newton Division, see you all there!

17

We didn’t make it to championship but you might like to take a look at what we designed. http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/544890_278981742182900_100002132300180_639202_1230627222_n.jpg

18

3081’s thrower is a pneumatic catapult with spring assisted return.