Thoughts on under the bumper intakes?

[rlokesh25]

Personally I don’t see the value due to lost intaking width and internal robot space lost, but I wanted to see what you guys thought?

[Aaron_Li]

High curve, but when overcome, great benefits.

See 4481:

FRC 4481 Team Rembrandts | 2024 Build Thread | Open Alliance

Did someone say: “Prototypes?” As you might have guessed, our Notes finally arrived! Therefore, we were able to test all of our prototypes. Luckily we had some spare time on our hands to design, prepare and write the code for it all while our Notes were traveling to The Netherlands. Ground Intake This ground intake uses a multiple roller setup to change the direction of the note within the robot. [FRC4481 - 2024 Prototypes - Intake test 1] [FRC4481 - 2024 Prototypes - Int…

See 95:

FRC 95 The Grasshoppers 2024 Build Thread

We are heading down a path of a fixed intake inside the frame. I call it the inside-outside intake. [image] [image] -Adds 5in to frame -No deployment mechanism required -Super strong -Full-width intake (should be about 25in rollers + note diameter effective intake width) -Mitigate/eliminate wheel pod guards bumping notes away from robot -Dead axle with over-tube rollers -1x neo drive motor, ~1:2.5 reduction via polybelt

[Kadd]

@rlokesh25

Personally I don’t see the value due to lost intaking width and internal robot space lost

check out 95s latest CAD in their open alliance thread which has a solution to this issue, I think it has its advantages and disadvantages, but it does seem completely viable.

[aven]

we’re currently prototyping an under the bumper intake… there’s a couple advantages. First of all, there’s a lot less moving parts compared to an otb intake that you have to extend and retract. Also, in terms of speed, your under the bumper intake will almost act like a roomba (discounting time to align). You save time from extending/retracting. It also centralizes your center of mass, which is great for moving fast and staying stable, and playing defense.`

[atsekhan]

You already listed some of the disadvantages. I will add to that list that you do not see a gamepiece as it’s being picked up. That means if you go over a not with the wheel, and intake grabs it as well, you may need a few moments to “untangle yourself”, and that’s loss of game time.
Also I am not sure you will have less moving parts unless you’re going with the fixed angle shooter, which limits your range and abilities. And if you have a movable shooter, such intake may not help you with the cycle time.
So far we decided against the under-bumper intake for all these reasons.

[Max_Morehead]

It’s a lot harder to break an under the bumper intake from robot collisions. Even the best teams struggle to make intakes which never break and intakes breaking was a reason that a ton of teams lost matches at champs.

I figure it’s also possible to supplement an under the bumper intake with a intake that goes over the bumpers but passes the game pieces under the bumpers, if acquisition zone becomes a problem.

Edit: especially if you plan to play chicken:

Autonomous Center Line Note Chicken

How do you think the competition for notes during autonomous will play out at the high level? I foresee many of the top teams having a four note auto, and almost all Champs playoffs alliances being able to score the three notes in their wing with only two robots. This means that at least one robot per alliance will be tasked with picking up a center-line note during auto. Will we have high speed crashes or will opponents coopertate and coordinate to arrange which notes to go for? I’ve asked thi…

[Ethan_Noel]

For the tangled protion of your concerns. I would think you could add skirts to the bottom of the robot frame to help prevent getting tangled on notes.

[Aaron_Li]

Depending on that, it could end up worse, where the note gets stuck more than without (see 2020 power cell discussion).

[atsekhan]

That would help, but my concern then would be trapping the note - which is very squishy- between the deflector and the wheel.