Today was a big day for us, the programming team got the drive code done, and the code needed to operate the motor for our hurdling device, affectionately named “the boot.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDXdFw8Stfc
Thoughts?
I like it very cool and it looks very safe.
We only had one problem with it and that’s that it’s a bit top-heavy when we raise the boot. See here:
We were wondering if anyone else came up with a similar design? We saw a lot of catapults but nothing that would kick like ours.
Very interesting design, I don’t think you’ll end up seeing many (if any) of those kind of designs at regionals (not a bad thing, I quite like it). I think you might eliminate the “tip the robot when the boot gets to the top” problem if you put something kind of spring of softening system to stop the arm.
By the way, what does your “boot” weight? It looks like it weighs a lot, but I can’t tell.
-Greg P.
Congratulations! I know well the cheer that rang out as it hurdled for the first time… we were up and launching (using pneumatics) from the robot for the first time this weekend, too.
We had considered an idea like this, but you are the first group that I know of to have built one… and almost certainly the first to post it to CD!
How heavy, by the way, is “the boot”?
Jason
P.S. It would look great with a real boot on there!
curious…very curious. This is a far cry from the 1000 lifts and catapults I’ve seen on CD. Very nice. My only worry is when you are reseting the boot and another team hits you from behind; possible tip hazard. Aside from that very cool.
I wonder how sticky they’ll be about the 80 inch cylinder rule. My guess is that you exceed it if your forks are extended and the boot is resetting at the same time. While you can tell them the normal operating sequence won’t exceed it, during the heat of the game you can’t guarantee it won’t happen.
Very interesting idea.it looks effective, does it work consistently? Can your drive train maneuver well?
-Misfit :yikes:
Right now the boot weighs 12 lbs at the end. We’ll also be weighing our robot down for better stability.
That’s a good point, we extended and checked and we’re around 78.5 inches.
As for working, it will shoot every time, we only have problems trying to pick up the trackball with our forks, that’s something we’re going to try to improve before the 19th.
Our drive train, I haven’t seen much more than a few seconds of it maneuvering, but we were going cautiously to make sure we could pick up the ball. I don’t know what our top fps is right now.
Nice work! It probably helps that you hug the ball to the carriage.
We have a new traction system implemented in our drive train, so it’s quite effective. The boot can be stopped mid-swing so it’s also safe. I took several videos myself, but haven’t gotten them to our media subteam yet.
I’m very impressed, I didn’t think the boot was going to work as well as it did. Nice job.
Now that design might just win you an innovation award, very very creative.
Also, I was thinking, instead of using a 12 pound weight, you ought to just use your battery :rolleyes:
Very interesting and creative.
Looks neat and safe.
One question though. Have you tried it with a slightly deflated ball? Some teams have noticed that the balls inflation varies with temperature.
Hope you have a great year.
Awesome design. Can you control how far you can go, or is it rigged only to go a certain distance? Still, it throws that ball FAR!
hah, my team joked about doing this exact thing with no thought that it could be done so well…great job
lol very nice, i like the design.
We joke around about attaching a hiking boot or something of the sort onto the end of the arm all the time! 
That is too insane! (in a good way) 