First Prototypes

[Sunny]

The prototypes have shown up on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLH-XqNyQ-0

This proves a couple of things.

1. We're on the right track as far as kicking mechanisms are concerned.
2. I think it's a good idea that we're trying to incorporate a hold mechanism. The ones in the video don't have anything to hold the ball in place, and therefore, their accuracy is only about 30%.
3. If we go with a "kicker", then Tanner's drive train is 100% feasible.

About Saturday:

I think that the veterans will be stretched really thin on Saturday.
Tanner will most likely be working with Mr. Dan to get the pneumatics up and running and hopefully have a shooter up and running at the end of the meeting/monitoring the chassis builds.
I hope to be prototyping the "holder", which I also hope is ready by the end of Saturday.
Logan and Kapp should be moderating finishing the chassis(s)(plural). One of them only requires structural building, so that can be done easily, but the other requires wheel prep.

If Kapp brings the vacuum, then someone else will be responsible for hooking up and testing the vacuum.

Busy Busy Busy. I think the more we CAD out, the less uncertainty we will have when we go to build the final robot.

Cheers,
Sunny

[Tanner]

I really like the system they showed at around 0:47. There's Dad's favorite bungee cords in action.

Though I still don't get why people post their designs online... Its kinda just asking for teams to find flaws in their systems.

-Tanner

[Sunny]

Its kinda just asking for teams to find flaws in their systems

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

I'm at school right now, so I'm just gonna post links to a few vids on Chief Delphi so I can watch em later.

http://lamar.discobots.org/node/8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRqj0Mgbq10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yDn6rXIlMI

[Sunny]

http://lamar.discobots.org/node/8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRqj0Mgbq10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yDn6rXIlMI

So I watched the videos, and...

The first video is just the standard C base climbing the bump. It does a pretty good job, although the chains do seem to hit the bump.

The second video demonstrates a roller. It has a roller running along the entire top of the robot, and then it just rolls up against the back of the wood.

The Vacuum one is kinda basic, although I'm not sure if it'd grip it in comp. situations.

[Tanner]

*just now watches the videos*

I can't see the first one, but the design I posted in the other thread with the chains kinda shows that, but our wheels in the middle get kinda close.

The second video idea is neat for moving around, but not sure what you could do from it there - perhaps Dad's kicker kicking underneath the wood? The wood doesn't need to be that big either, could probably just be a bar.

-Tanner

[Sunny]

The second video idea is neat for moving around, but not sure what you could do from it there - perhaps Dad's kicker kicking underneath the wood? The wood doesn't need to be that big either, could probably just be a bar.

The wood is just there to show the 3" intake.

And yeah, it doesn't have to be that thick. It doesn't even have to be that low, we can position it to make room for shooting mechanisms to kick under it.

I also want to point out this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_VAU4O0 ... re=related

It has a pretty nice, high kick without having to change it's angle. And, i think that if they have a good holder, then they can score from the middle almost every time. Might be something to think about when we're prototyping tomorrow.

[Sunny]

I found another design.

Now, this isn't FIRST, but the design concepts behind it are extremely powerful.

http://www.techunited.nl/index.php?p=11

When you go to the picture on the bottom, they explain certain parts of their robots, and you can see how they "lob" the ball, and how they "beeline" the ball.