Over my teams four robots that have been built we have used some quite unique parts that worked quite well for us.
Rubber LEGO tape (2019) (commercial purpose to stick to tables and wall for LEGO to be stuck to) was used as the contact point between the hatch panel and the fingers of the intake. Why it was there someone stuck it there and it worked well. It was brought to the team as a tread replacement in 2018 since we wore our wheels flat (was not used wheels were left balding)
The plunger (2019) (original use unclogging clogged toilets) I refer to it as the plunger as it got quite the bit of recognition at two of our events last year having the same one donated to use by another team (4976) at provincials. Brought in to the fold after it was selected what style of mechanism we were going for and the importance of the flexibility and room for error in the intake was key so instead of designing and making a light weight shock system to go at the end of a painters pole. A plunger was brought in the next day and had the range we were looking for and it went on from there
Crazy carpet (2020) (a long sheet of plastic that has two handles in it that is used for sliding down snow covered hills) having a low âeverybotâ styled robot it was brought up that spending 80 dollar on the top dome piece was not going to be frugal on our part and we are concerned about wear and tear on the original top piece banging into our climber (was redesigned and was wider than everybodyâs footprint) so it would be needed to withstand impacts. Enter the idea table the 5 dollars (I believe not even needed to be on the BOM) the crazy carpet was replaced riveted to the proper locations and worked very well. (Was also bright lime green so that was a plus. )
What else have you seen that has been weird that has made it mark known on your robots?
We have had many âinterestingâ parts on our robots, but every year without fail, we use medical tape (used for the animals at the farm when they broke a bone). It has great friction and works very well on intake mechanisms.
For a few years Iâve preached the gospel of Samâs Club cutting boards, which brought back memories of GUS using similar ones to make parts over a decade prior. Theyâre $9 for a 15"x20", just-under-1/2"-thick piece of very durable polyethylene plastic that cuts like wood. Youâd pay double at McMaster for a similarly-sized piece made to tighter tolerances.
In 2018, we used them as cube intakes arm platesâŚthen when our cartâs caster pulled through the mount at Smoky, we bolted through another one as a rescue.
In 2019, it became our hatch grabber. (I donât know why I donât have a picture of it mounted properly, but it was originally mounted to the wrong bar.)
In 2020, we made a bootleg GreyT shooter out of them while prototyping. Our friends on 2815 then took some and cut them to the original drawings on their Xcarve for both of us to test with. While our design paths diverged in the end (we decided to dump low), the final 2815 machine not only had a cutting board shooter hood but also cutting board intake and conveyor plates.
My favorite so far has been Hotbotz (2640) and their 2019 robot. Itâs hatch mechanism consisted of two scrub brush heads and a toilet seat. It also had three toilet brushes and another toilet seat as parts of the cargo mechanism. The whole thing was named, appropriately, The Royal Flush.
Kit of Parts tote on our 2010 robot rookie year. We needed something to protect the electronics and hadnât heard of polycarb yet (not that we had the budget to buy any).
We covered our flywheels in flex seal this year after we had a failed (and slightly scary) attempt with urethane. The flex seal has actual had some pretty good results and had the season continued we probably would have used it at competitions.
2017(Offseason): We had brush like part that was made from a part of broom to slow down and stop the gear from falling down the slide. We also drew a face around it
2018: We had 2 dog leashes (buttom of the bot, covered in ductape) that pulled the climb rope (in blue) so it wont get tangled when we move the elevator up and down
2019: We had surgical syringes pulled by pneumatic piston to create vacuum (more like suction) that held the hatch panel. Worked extremely well.
Side
Front
2020: Our cannon wheel, the one that shoots the power cells was a blue V shaped wheel that is used to sort Avokados on a conveyor belt. We ended up replacing it with a 4 inch HiGrip wheel as it coulnât really handle the speeds that we needed.
There was a robot on a team that shall remain anonymous that came out to a match with their mascot head duct-taped to it. Unfortunately it hadnât been reinspected so they had to pull it off before the match âŚ
In 2017, our robot was designed to act as a continuation of the slope of the human player station. On our first tests, we realized we never accounted for the bumpers, so we needed a way for the gears to bridge the gap the bumpers caused. The solution, a flap. We put a flap of lexan on a shoulder bolt and used to surgical tubing to deploy it. Since it has to be in the frame but come out, we made a little metal stick out and wedge a slide latch door lock underneath it.
After autonomous, the cylinder for the shooters hood would fire, pulling the pin and releasing the gear flap. In the video you can see it deploy once the cylinder gets retracted. If you pause, you can even see the latch and metal tab it got wedged under.
Well it was added later in the season, but after our first Semi-Finals match in Tesla, 2017, we managed to get a gear stuck in our hopper. Since we determined that it can not happen again, and lost us the match, I believe 2084 remembered they had a mattress sale sign in their pit from a fundraiser they did, and gave it to us to chop up and cover the top. In the end, we ran through the rest of Tesla and Einsteins with the mattress sign. I think the sign is still sitting on the shelf somewhere. We made a better cover for IRI and WMRI.
2012: Used the cap from a bottle of Bengal roach spray (Guaranteed to Work) to lift the basketball into the flywheel shooter. Unfortunately, we swapped it for a swiss cheesed PVC end cap shortly before bag.
2014: on prototype robot, âWoodyâ, we used a bungee cord and zip ties in lieu of energy chain.
2015, made a âstring potentiometerâ from a Loweâs tape measure, a 10-turn potentiometer, and a radio knob to interface the two.
2016, used part of a Rubbermaid garbage can (grey version of the RC from 2015) as a protective layer for the drivetrain gearboxes. One of the prototype intakes featured most of a 5 gallon bucket.
2017, used surplus coroplast signs as our initial prototype gear glide. It worked better (slicker) than any other plastic we tried, so we went with coroplast on the competition robot. We also used a magnet and metal plate to hold the end of that gear slide inside the frame perimeter at the start of the match.
First one that comes to mind is 997âs totestack.
The best explanation I can gather is that it was an attempt at blocking 2471âs shots using totes duct taped together, but it took no longer than 40 seconds to get disabled, I think due to 2471 accidentally cutting the tape at about 116 seconds.
