Posted by Ken Leung at 2/8/2001 6:33 AM EST
Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.
In Reply to: Righting a robot…
Posted by Chris Orimoto on 2/7/2001 12:09 PM EST:
As you said, there is no “kicking a robot’s bottom” this year. So there are no real physical damages to your robot from other teams.
So, in that sense, because there won’t be lots of shoving around the robot don’t have to worry about tipping over by other robots.
But in different situation robots are going to want to tip over whether you like it or not. Especially when your robot have a high CG. I guess if your robot has a pretty decent high you probably want to watch out about tipping over compare to lower CG robot. Might not want to have a fast robot with a height of 5¡¦ and most weight on top go into the field alone without any components designed for those description.
I am sure not much people are going to design a top-heavy robot that¡¦s going to tip easily. But what I am talking about is when robots are feeding big balls or small balls to the top of this year¡¦s goals¡K Or maybe even when they are ¡§hopping¡¨ over the bar. At those situations you are going to want to make sure that the CG is as low as possible.
For the sake of argument let¡¦s say the CG of robot is going to be high when feeding balls or going over bars. Then in those situation the robot is likely to fall when accidents happen. Maybe it¡¦s just because the driver did a sudden move, or maybe other robot accidentally bump your robot with their corner of the base. When these happens, the robot will want to right itself when they are on the side¡K don¡¦t want to just sit there for the rest of the match getting in the way of other robots.
And these are actually likely to happen, looking at the size of big balls and the CG of robot when lifting those balls 7¡¦ in the air. Or when robots with not too high of a CG aim to go over the bar suddenly find their CG 18¡¨ higher in the air and things seems to be a lot more shaky at that height. Then at the time it is important if the robots can right themselves up.
For example, I remember a robot last year that¡¦s constantly tipping over because it unfold half of robot¡¦s body high in the air trying to feed balls into the goal. So either other team will push it to fall or it made sudden moves that made itself felt. What¡¦s amazing is that they have these two forks at the bottom of the robot that always pivoting out around the base and right itself up. It seems as though it¡¦s never going to stay on the ground. So in this case it is important for the robot¡¦s strategy to right itself easily and quickly, and that¡¦s what it did, and ended up winning a regional. I think it¡¦s HOT TEAM¡¦s robot.