2353’s Buddy Bar was simple and reliable when we got the chance to use it. They had to change it up a little bit so it wasn’t sticking out but the way they changed it up was pretty cool. It would fold over their own climber and with a pin and some string the Buddy Bar would be deployed with their climber being secured on the actual bar of the scale.
At 2015 CMP, I recall a team with an aluminum ladder as a rather creative and distinctive part of their robot’s elevator; I wish I could recall the specifics. IIRC, it was a rookie team, located pretty close to us in the Carson pits.
what…
How did I just now discover this… it’s absolutely insane.
Just watched a match video. They spend the entire time quietly doing the vault exchange, then at the endgame whistle they zip over to the scale and do a climb. It’s like “wait whaaat? This whole time, you… whaaa?”
Is that an actual ladder?
I’ll add another one in.
Back in 2005, I saw a then-rookie team (I think) at Sacramento. They had the following cool features:
–Rubbermaid bin, clear, upside down over their electronics (KOP chassis)
–Short stepladder, open over the bin
–PVC pipe for an arm (don’t recall how it was mounted to the stepladder/actuated)
–PLIERS, handle-side out, stuck in the end of the PVC as a tetra manipulator.
That would be a team on a budget… Don’t recall where they ended up ranked but I still recall that robot.
3229 gave me a panic attack the first time they climbed. The first time it happened, everyone at the competition just gasped. It was terrifying.
The first match I saw it in https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2018ncpem_qm16
It was terrifying every time they did it!!!
I’m surprised they never broke anything.
Here is another match with a little better view: https://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2018nccmp_qm64
I like how Boneyard (2682) backs away…
1126 had a pretty unique climb + double buddy bar system. The bars are actually really stable when we tried them out on the practice field. They have pegs to keep your robot’s hooks in place on their bar and said they could adjust their locations as needed for their partners.
At Smoky Mountains, 6858 had an actual power cube milk crate on their robot for some of their electronics.
I was very impressed with 2122’s “pseudo-turret” intake that allowed them to place cubes while planting their chassis perpendicular to the scale. A clever solution that definitely improved their cycle times.
Thanks for the shout out! We unfortunately never got to properly use it on the field but we did have some fun just hanging around the practice field and providing some monkey bars for robots to play on!
2013’s shooter from 2016 was pretty unique in the sense it was so fast it would take your head off if you stood in front of it.
As I recall, it actually broke one of the ball arrestor chains inside the tower, and the team was then told to slow it down :ahh:
If I recall correctly, 5817 Unirex from the same year was one of the fastest shooters as well.
2 Minicims direct driving 8” wheels with like 2” of compression. That shot was a laser and broke through the nets we built to stop it.
If 3250 isn’t the most unique robot this year IDK what is. Once it intakes a cube it pivots and literally shoots it into the second roller claw mounted on a pivot on top of the elevator. There climb is a freakin grappling hook that they shoot cuz why not?
What’s also pretty unique is it looks like the robot started out at it’s first event with a pretty conventional roller claw on a 3 stage elevator with the hook mounted to the elevator. It’s pretty impressive that they were able to commit to changing their robot design so drastically in between events. I’d be interested to hear about what motivated them to make that decision.
Thanks for the mention – it turns out that scoring on the scale is way easier when the cube is already 2ft off the ground. The mechanism was ~14lbs and could be added/removed with two bolts, two anderson connectors, one CAN cable, and a small code change. Because we could add or remove it in around five minutes, we were able to decide match-by-match what configuration we wanted (with any necessary inspections, etc.). We only used it when it was strategically viable – i.e. no other scale-bot on our alliance, and only one scale-bot on the opposing alliance. I think we only used it three times in official play, each to varying degrees of success.
Because this thread doesn’t have enough links showing off the mechanisms/robots, here’s a video of one of Spark’s more successful matches with Stretch 7 attached.
Absolutes such as ‘unique’ should not be modified with most, very, extremely, or other modifiers that indicate degree. Either something is unique (one of a kind) or it is not. (I had to get that off my chest for the 3rd or 4th thread this year asking for ‘most unique pick-a-thing’).
See 1519…
…with the lift stage being on a turret.
$@#$@#$@#$@#, they’re the mostest unique!
I’m going to do it! I’m going to talk about my own team!
We had all of our systems sit on a 22inch turret. TBH maybe wasn’t the most effective solution, but it made our season possible. Without the turret, we would have had the worst robot imaginable. So for that, I nominate 5980 as one of the unique robots I had the chance to see in 2018. Not the greatest. Not even that good, but unique.
:yikes: