Meeting 1/12
Posted: January 12th, 2010, 8:41 pm
With the shooting mechanisms, possessing the ball mechanisms, and drive train set to go through the prototyping/testing phases, I think the only part of the robot that still has some fuzziness is the hanging portion of the bot.
From what I heard in the meeting, I think the grappling hook idea was really good, but of course we can't shoot it accurately/legally, so I think that idea is kinda not gonna fly. hahaha, fly..oh..jokes.
Towards the end of the meeting, Logan and I were talking about possibly doing a scissor lift.
Pros:
- Scissor lifts are compact, and we can achieve an extremely low center of gravity.
- Scissor lifts are pretty fast. Both in pulling and taking down.
- If the scissor lift, can't hold while the power is off, I can at least think of one way to manually lock the scissor lift in place.
- We can use BOTH pneumatics and a CIM to power the scissor lift & the strength we get by using both will be pretty amazing.
- We can mound the scissor lift in the center of the chassis and angle it to shoot out forward.
- Once the robot gets up, we can even create a latch that latches onto the bar, and thus relieves the scissor lift. (Carabiners)
Cons:
- Scissor lifts are a tricky mechanism. If they're built wrong, they can be horrible and clanky.
- When scissor lifts get too high, they can be shaky, and in the really unstable, but that all depends on how it's built.
- An arm can sit rather high and with the arm there, it would definitely raise our center of gravity.
IMO - I love scissor lifts and what they can do for us. I just feel that if we can built a structurally sound one, then we can create a good lift, but ONLY if it is extremely stable.
The second idea that got thrown around was a simple arm.
Pros -
- Simplicity. There's nothing too complicated about a arm with a couple of hooks
- We can use a worm gear to torque up the arm. Ultimately I believe that a worm gear is the only thing with enough torque to stay put after the power is turned off.
- We can create a system on the chassis so that when the chassis reaches up to the bar, the chassis can latch onto the bar.
Cons:
- An arm will most likely have to be put up on end of the chassis. That means that the arm will face significant torque when going up.
- The chain in the arm might not be able to hold the amount of the weight it most likely will hold.
- An arm can sit rather high and with the arm there, it would definitely raise our center of gravity.
Clarifications
1. When thinking of lifting/staying in place designs, I believe that it will be a good idea to create designs that can raise 120 pounds and support 360 pounds. Granted that 20 seconds is not a long time, and that the chances that 2 other robots can climb on top of us are low, but I think that the top tier robots will be able to do that.
2. When I was trying to figure out the distance between the rollers, I realized that there was discrepancy on the actual radius. A size 5 ball is said to have a circumference between 27-28 inches. Which translates into a radius between 4.29718346 and 4.45633841. I am going to assume a middle value and say the radius 4.375"
From what I heard in the meeting, I think the grappling hook idea was really good, but of course we can't shoot it accurately/legally, so I think that idea is kinda not gonna fly. hahaha, fly..oh..jokes.
Towards the end of the meeting, Logan and I were talking about possibly doing a scissor lift.
Pros:
- Scissor lifts are compact, and we can achieve an extremely low center of gravity.
- Scissor lifts are pretty fast. Both in pulling and taking down.
- If the scissor lift, can't hold while the power is off, I can at least think of one way to manually lock the scissor lift in place.
- We can use BOTH pneumatics and a CIM to power the scissor lift & the strength we get by using both will be pretty amazing.
- We can mound the scissor lift in the center of the chassis and angle it to shoot out forward.
- Once the robot gets up, we can even create a latch that latches onto the bar, and thus relieves the scissor lift. (Carabiners)
Cons:
- Scissor lifts are a tricky mechanism. If they're built wrong, they can be horrible and clanky.
- When scissor lifts get too high, they can be shaky, and in the really unstable, but that all depends on how it's built.
- An arm can sit rather high and with the arm there, it would definitely raise our center of gravity.
IMO - I love scissor lifts and what they can do for us. I just feel that if we can built a structurally sound one, then we can create a good lift, but ONLY if it is extremely stable.
The second idea that got thrown around was a simple arm.
Pros -
- Simplicity. There's nothing too complicated about a arm with a couple of hooks
- We can use a worm gear to torque up the arm. Ultimately I believe that a worm gear is the only thing with enough torque to stay put after the power is turned off.
- We can create a system on the chassis so that when the chassis reaches up to the bar, the chassis can latch onto the bar.
Cons:
- An arm will most likely have to be put up on end of the chassis. That means that the arm will face significant torque when going up.
- The chain in the arm might not be able to hold the amount of the weight it most likely will hold.
- An arm can sit rather high and with the arm there, it would definitely raise our center of gravity.
Clarifications
1. When thinking of lifting/staying in place designs, I believe that it will be a good idea to create designs that can raise 120 pounds and support 360 pounds. Granted that 20 seconds is not a long time, and that the chances that 2 other robots can climb on top of us are low, but I think that the top tier robots will be able to do that.
2. When I was trying to figure out the distance between the rollers, I realized that there was discrepancy on the actual radius. A size 5 ball is said to have a circumference between 27-28 inches. Which translates into a radius between 4.29718346 and 4.45633841. I am going to assume a middle value and say the radius 4.375"
.