The purpose of this thread is to express what you believe are the best features of your robot, not the whole robot just the unique stuff.
Our robot has a lot of unique aspects going for it. It has meccanum wheels and is capabe of shifting between omni-drive and meccanum drive. We have an autonomous system that allows us to flip a switch, do a quick 15 second manuever and then play it back during autonomous mode. We call it Tivo mode and we can store up to seven recordings. Our arm is specially designed to keep the gripper parallel to the ground, and reach to the maximum length limit without going over it by using limit switches and potentiometers. We have a specially designed drive mode called funky mode that gives our drivers more precision at lower speeds. And last but not least our gripper motor is covered by a pop bottle!
I think a really interesting unique feature this year was 2274’s “mouse” that extended their ramp at the NYC regional. Their robot was equipped with a motorized minibot that deployed from under their frame to extend their ramp fully. It helped them avoid the issues that many gravity-propelled ramps had where the supports didn’t fully extend while coming down, leaving the ramp just short of 12 inches. Plus, I think everyone who saw it would agree it was really cool!
My teams bot is chock full of uniqueocity(yes, it’s a real word). The best part has to be what I like to refer to as the Overkill Arm. We have a sliding/telescopic arm that goes straight up. I know 612 has one very similar and I’ve seen a few around but this one takes the cake. Those arms extend to the top rack at the most. We, however, decided to go for the extreme, about 12 feet or so. If we put a long enough manipulator, we could unplug the rack. I’ll try and get some photos up, you really must see this.
The most unique feature of our robot is that the ramps are made out of like metal shelving and wood. When the judges came around they thought it looked cool. Our ramps are lifting so the other bots dive up and we hit a switch the opens our scissor jacks. We got a 12" lift with only little stroke pneumatics. Here is some pictures: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27601 http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27553
Team 537’s arm has 6 axes of motion. 2 axes on the claw, a boom extension, an elbow, a mast extension, and a total arm rotation. The most unique feature of the overall arm is its ability to rotate at the base approximately 450 degrees. We love it b/c we can score while were being pushed around, although our tank style dt doesnt allow for that very much. Here is a picture.
That’s exactly what I thought when I first saw it. I kept thinking about all the teams in Zone Zeal and their minibots. Those things were so much fun, even if robots got tangled up in the teathers all the time!
I believe the most unique feature of our (1824) robot is the hinge point for our ramp/platform. We hinged at the bottom of our robot, 3/4" off the ground. We then used 3/4" steel box tubing from the hinge point. This allowed the entire structure for our ramp/platform to be supported by the carpet (not just the ends). It can be seen here.
No chance for our ramp to buckle or get pushed around.
Team 190’s gripper uses one piston to both close our claw and raise the tube up to a 55* angle all in one motion. In addition, the top digit is a 4 bar linkage that curls around the tube, giving us maximum wrap, while allowing it to fit within our starting box. The grip surface is covered with 50 durometer Shore 00 polyurethane (similar to Dr Scholl’s gel insoles in properties). The entire gripper weighs 4lbs including piston.
Our “wings” have a number of innovative features. They are made from sheet metal aluminum, and no one piece is thicker than 1/16". They have over 2000 dimpled holes in the top for strength and traction. Inside each wing is a complicated string system that activates various features automatically as the wings deploy:
There is a bungie attached to the outer wing sections that pull them out as the wings fold down.
One string attached to each of the three pistons keeps them within the starting box. These slacken to let them pop out.
A lexan anti-rollback device is also held down by a string which slackens with the bungie, allowing it to pop up.
the pistons lock into place with a ratchet system, to keep them from folding under when firing.
The wings have a constant slope of 12*, and an initial lip of 3/8". Thus, any robot with more than 3/8" ground clearance and sufficient drivetrain power can get up. The top lifting surface is 37.5" wide and and 36" long, so most robots can fit no problem. Once a robot is up, the pistons fire, raising them to 13". If the pistons malfunction or the robot does not make it up in time to fire, the anti-rollback device will keep them at 5" (these actually caught 1280 and won us SVR)
To reset, pins are removed from the capstans to unlock them from the globe motor shaft. The driver can then manually rotate the wings back into position.
When folded, the wings are held in place with cotter pins attached to a servo on the elevator. This doubles to keep the wings from deploying early, as well as providing strength and protection to the elevator.
Gotta give some love to the ramps on 461 - watching that unfold was awesome. And I’ll never tire of watching 1555 or 1501 lift two robots well after the final buzzer. Last shameless plug: LOLLIPOP!
our teams tube manipulator is extremely effective
using rubber rollers we simply run into a tube and it grabs it
we drive up to a tube and within a fraction of a second we have an extremely strong grip on the tube
it holds the tube at a slightly elevated from horizontal angle, about 30 degree, so it is easy to place on the rack Inventor Submission, Look at bottom of file
We designed our robot to do “drive by scoring.” Meaning, we were able to score a ringer while still moving, thereby elimating a lot of the defense that would be played against us. The inspiration for this design came from two teams, Wildstang in 2005, and Rhodewarriors in 2006. Both teams scored off the side of their robots, and were able to use their drivetrains to ward off most defensive attacks.
We accomplished the same effect by allowing our grabber to rotate 90 degree to the left and right after picking up a ringer. The picture below shows the extra degree of freedom we have with our manipulator. As I said, in theory this mechanism works great. However, we found it very difficult to actually have any room to drive around in, nevermind a clear shot at any side of the rack. Fighting your way to/from the rack seems to be about the only way to score this year. (Unfortunately…)
We powered this “wrist” mechanism with a window motor, geared down about 6:1. We tried two different codes to operate it. The first had the arm mimic the joystick position, so the co-driver had to hold the joystick in the position he wanted the arm to be in, with position feedback controlled with a gyro. The 2nd mode of operation allowed the co-drive to only use the joystick to move it to position, just like an elevator or arm. We then used a “home position” button to return the arm to it’s vertical position, again controlled by the gyro.
Feel free to ask more questions. Hope it opens up some ideas for other teams.
) than ours at BAE, and you had that wonderful arm too (I was sooooo green with envy).