The best thing I can do to demonstrate this little bot’s capabilities is to link this video from Miami Valley’s Finals Match 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmWwiMOkxU
That’s a really clever gear mechanism! Could someone who knows about it explain more about how it works? Looks like a 4 bar linkage to hold the gear in and then a pivot to place but more in depth explanation would be much appreciated!
Thanks
Oh man, watching those finals matches was the best.
Every time 3201 started giving 4085 trouble the xtreme machine came out of nowhere like an older brother and just pushed them around like you weren’t even trying.
I’ll have more-experienced CAD/design people post a follow-up, but yes, a single 3/4" bore, 2" stroke cylinder fires an E-shaped link that actuates the four-bar gripper arms. 2 3/4" bore, 4" stroke cylinders rotate the gripper carriage (essentially the shorter half of the bot’s upper frame) into scoring position. This action doubles as the action needed to expose the robot’s modest ball hopper (15 balls?? Does it matter? Do we care at this point? And it’s either “balls” or “coal” - never fuel) for ball loading from field hoppers or the loading station (pffft who are we kidding - like we’ll ever do that…
).
Additionally, 2 3/4" bore, 3" stroke cylinders rotate the gripper down from the carriage for floor loading. That has proven most useful on many an occasion. Plus, we can use the gear score and gear floor actions to do the following to the touchpad whenever it isn’t giving up its points to our satisfaction:
While the linkage gripper has proven more than robust and functional, we would prefer to develop a motorized gear intake as an eventual efficiency upgrade.
We aim to entertain. 3201 held up to the accosting quite well. I know we gave them quite a few jarring jolts during the Finals. I expect the experience will prepare them well for future battles in St. Louis (congrats on the Wild Card!).
The open-field nature of this game, combined with plenty of smaller, lighter robots - many with omnidirectional drivetrains - lends itself to some rather interesting displays of bumper-to-bumper energy transfer.
Speaking of - make sure your bumper mounting is ROBUST this year. Like extremely, excessively so.