I was trying to find a length restriction on pnuematic cylinders in the rule book. Does First allow a telescopic cylinders?
There isn’t exactly a length restriction… but what do you mean by “telescopic cylinders”?
A cylinder that would extend above our robot from 2 feet to 8 feet - 4 stages
can you link to what your using? I’ve never seen a 4 stage pneumatic cylinder.
I don’t see anything wrong with it, we are making two 12" cylinders side by side extend 24" which in turn extend some nested pvc pipes to 80".
I don’t have a picture but we did it in 2016 where one set of pneumatic cylinders lifted the next to reach the rung in stronghold
Were thinking about something similar to this to carry a hook up to the bar
Is that a Commercial Off The Shelf item or are you making that? If it is A COTS part then you need to look at the specs on the cylinder to make sure it is within R75.
R77. The only pneumatic system items permitted on ROBOTS include the items listed below.
Thanks for the help- we want to make sure that we are legal. This will require some more research to make sure it meets the specifications.
It is a cylinder. Cylinders are on the allowed list. It needs to be COTs. Pressure rated per rule. Within the allowed cost per rule. I think the last one will be the problem.
something like this?
https://www.bimba.com/Products-and-Cad/Actuators/Inch/NFPA/Tie-Rod/TC-Series-Telescoping
R12
That is over 500$. Getting a large enough cylinder that telescopes for under 500$ is going to be a difficult task.
I think this is the design we should have used for ours. Vertical four bar to place the hooks up in the air, then a winch to pull them down a bit to lift the robot.
Doubling the stroke length using two equal cylinders, mounted to each other in opposing directions is pretty straightforward. Doing much more than that gets a bit dicey.
Also, pneumatics are not the best choice for climbing. Pneumatic systems are inherently inefficient: the compressor creates almost as much heat as potential energy, then the regulator throws half of it away, and if you’re doing double-acting, you’re using way too much energy to do the easy stroke. Over time, my own rule of thumb for FRC is that if something takes much more than 10 or 15 cubic inches of cylinder (50-75 ft-lb of work after multiplying by a safety factor), there’s probably a better way.
Pneumatics might be a useful way to deliver a hook or two to the RUNG, and let a winch driven by another motor or two turn the winch to lift the robot.
Lifting the full robot weight with pneumatics is a dicey proposition.
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