Clever, subtle adjusting intake. Nice!
It originally didn’t actuate and we intended to extend our frame perimeter beneath it, but realized that we would have trouble breaching some defenses with both the extended perimeter and bumpers. Linear actuation seemed to be the easiest method to work around that 
And it works to hold the ball on the catapult I imagine
Any thoughts of signing up for the Eagan week 0 event and bringing it down there? #hinthint
How big is your intake? How large is the gap in your bumpers? We’re talking about building something similar, but there’s some discussion about whether maximizing roller size is worth doing (in which case we’d have to come over the bumper). Thanks:)
We had pretty much the same discussion, and given the time restrictions went with this design. The gap in the frame is somewhere around 11-12 in.
Yep, it helps to retain the ball when traversing the defenses.
With this exact design, Perses actually cannot fit legal bumpers on the intake side. This is easily remedied by making the robot a few inches wider-- we used the square kitbot configuration, which comes out to about 112" of perimeter, which is enough for you to add a few inches of width and have both a wider intake and a legal robot, both of which are great side effects
Edit: I just thought I’d add on some more relevant information. Jimmy is right-- the gap is about 12".
Will a 3x3 8" pneumatic wheel drive train fit on the square chassis, or will the outer wheels interfere with the outer plate?
Lol.
Cool actuation on the intake, serves many purposes.
Can it do the low goal?
It can, provided that the ball has not been sucked all the way up into the claw. It would be trivial to add a cylinder or servo which pushed the ball back out of the claw and into the intake, but 72 hours is only time for so much.
10/10 Would compete in.
Think Perses could hurtle the low bar?
Yes. Using the AM square chassis length, the AM pneumatic wheels will fit without any additional cuts.
A small update: Still working on a nice writeup of all the stuff that went into Perses, but with school starting that’s slow going. For now, here is a link to our 2016 (woefully incomplete) CAD model (you can also find it in my signature). It might see some updates, but it’s enough to give you a good look at what we used CAD for over the course of our build.
Another fun thing: For our build, we asked all the people involved to contribute to a collaborative playlist on Spotify for us to listen to over the build. Now, I know it isn’t anything substantial, but if you’re interested, you can find that playlist here. I’ll warn you, we are college students, so there are some not so family friendly songs and song titles in there. You click through at your own peril.
I realize it’s coming a little late, but thank you to everyone who supported this endeavor, from our monetary and parts sponsors to the families who brought us meals. We do this for you guys, so if you have any further questions or you’re in Minnesota and would like to arrange a visit, let me or any of the other 'Snow Problem members in this thread know. Good luck and keep strong to everyone as we pass halfway through build season!