Hi, we were just starting to remodel our robot for a regional in september. Not only are we changing it a lot, but we need some help. We were wondering: what did all of you use to hook onto goals, if you did? What I mean by this is did you use hooks? arms? And, if you used hooks, what kind of hooks? simple metal “hooks”? curved? square?
Any information you would be able to give us would be greatly appreciated, as we are still a rookie team (well, sort of, after one competition) and want as much help as possible.
We had hooks on our robot.
They were a four piece design. They were mounted in pairs on each end of the bot. They were mounted to a rod that was attached to a motor (can’t remeber name) with a chain. They would rotate around and lock onto the tow bar on goal. We had limit switches to keep the hooks locked onto the goals.
To see pictures of our bot, go to gforcerobotics.com
Hope this helps
Our first method was grabbing the goal at the base using pneumatics. We called it and alligator grabber because thats what it looked like. Our second method was also using Pneumatics. We grabbed the poles using a kind of scissor method. I wish I could have given you a better description. Our website is terrible and doesn’t have good pictures so good luck!
Team 45 had some sort of a bar that extended out with a finger that would go into the slot between the Bar and the Wooden Base, they were excellent at grabbing from odd angles.
We too thought about it after our robot took so long to grab the bar since our design required the goal to be lined up pretty sqaure and after reigonals the best design we could think of was arms similar to the Hot Bot. They used them mostly to grab Big Balls with but they reached pretty much around the goal so they could grab it from any angle and even if it was off center from the gripper. However in the super short time period we completely messed up the cam action and gave the arms so much leverage the air cylinders couldn’t hold it securely (completely backwards from what we wanted). With either of those 2 designs you would have a sure winner. Someone from either of the teams can explain their systems more clearly I am sure.
I have pictures, if you need them of some of the above stuff
Matt
I had such high hopes for that contraption too!
Speaking of goal grabbers… i just finished a new design thats gonna go on the back of our bot (hopefully) for battlecry…
What it is is basically a ratchet mechanism so we just have to drive into the goal and it will lock on (in theory 
)
I attached 2 pictures of my new device…
Well i can’t quite figure out how to attach a picture… the IMG button doesn’t seem to be doing anything… soo…
http://www.geocities.com/tas246tom/Grabber1.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/tas246tom/Grabber2.jpg
If you are wondering how it works… just ask… or you can come and see me at battlecry and i’ll explain it
Tom
Here is a pic of the new stabber we had for Motorola and Nationals.
Here is the grabber that we used in Grand Rapids.
Here is a pic of the stabber at the extended position…
Woops… the links above didn’t work… i’m going to upload my pics to CD now 
Tom
And the other pic of the goal grabber with a piece of the PVC in it…
*Originally posted by Tom Schindler *
**What it is is basically a ratchet mechanism so we just have to drive into the goal and it will lock on (in theory )
I attached 2 pictures of my new device…
Tom **
Looks good! Are you going to attach a motor so that we can let go of the goal?
P.J.
PJ… I’m going to use 2 servos… one for each ratchet… i’ve just gotta get into the FIRST room so i can find a couple of them
Tom