Our school’s open house was last weekend and we were able to get a working bot done to show off. It still needs a lot of work for our competition on the 22nd but we’re making good progress.
The lift design was based off of jpearman’s triple lift https://vexforum.com/t/new-triple-lift-preview/26775/1 Using four motors set to torque and a 1:7 gear ratio, we can lift up to two cubes. The lift itself goes up to 71’’ and can score all seven skyrise sections (we accidentally grabbed the 7th section too high up in the vid).
Using a CAD software called Creo Parametric, we were able to design the entire bot virtually. This helped a lot with making sure every part fits perfectly before beginning to build, which saved us a ton of time and money.
The lift seems slow for skyrise building. You say it can do 2 cubes? How does it pick them up and how high can it score them?
Very nice linear lift though, i’m impressed nonetheless.
That’s where the problems and headaches begin… As of now, we can only pick up a cube that is stacked on top of another cube, although our lift can handle two cubes at once (doesn’t really mean anything when it isn’t possible). We can score a cube with six or fewer skyrise sections.
And I agree, speed is a big issue with this lift. If we want to “specialize” in skyrise building, we’re going to have to build this in under 1:45. If we have time, we’ll change the gear ratio to a 1:5 or 1:3 and see what gives us that perfect speed. Driver control is also going to be a big thing, we can easily shave 20 seconds off that video with some practice.
Ah, I see. I’m not a huge fan of them, but a vertical claw belt could prove effective if done right, and they can be done with just 1 motor. We used one on our last iteration and it worked well.
That should help, as long as your motors don’t overheat.
Agreed, driver practice is huge, especially this year. From what I can see, your robot has some real potential. I’m looking forward to how it turns out!
Our robot is a 5 stage continuous linear lift with a 2:1 gear ratio and internal high speed motors. It is very fast and can hold 2 cubes and a skyrise at once if done well. I’m not sure how that would work with a cascading design like yours. I would definitely suggest switching to a 1:5 gear ratio even if you can only lift one cube even if it is only for your upcoming competition.
If you have any questions, feel free to P.M me and I’ll help you however i can.
We were able to switch the gear ratio to 1:5 yesterday and it was a huge inprovement. From starting position to max height it now takes 6 seconds compared to 11 seconds with the 1:7 ratio. Even with the gear reduction, we can hold up one cube. I’ll try to post a video of it on Monday.
Great idea, I’ve seen a lot of robots with that design. I’m worried with that the bot will be even more unstable than it is now but we’ll see. Thanks for the idea
