DRIVE:
Tank drive
Two 393 and four 3-wire motors
Geared up 1:2.5 for speed
2.75" wheels
Slightly faster than 1:1.67 on 4" wheels
LIFT:
6-bar linkage
Two 393 motors
Geared down 5:1 for torque
Can reach across to opponents 20" goal (with game object in the way)
INTAKE:
Dual side-rollers
Two 3-wire motors
Direct-driving 24-tooth sprockets with rubber flaps
OTHER:
Intake ramp/hopper lies low when lift is down for easy intake, but angle increases as it raises for quick scoring.
3-time Tournament Champion
3-time Tournament Finalist
Highest Robot Skills score achieved: 35
Highest Programming Skills score achieved: 28
Thank you for checking this out! I hope to see you at the World Championship. Please do stop by our pit area Thursday-Saturday. If you ask questions here, I will try to reply ASAP, but I’m rather busy here in Anaheim.
Thank you so much! However, I wouldn’t bother coming to our pit tomorrow. You might see the cases our robots were shipped in, but not much else, as no one on our team will go there until Thursday.
No, the ramp no longer extends. We had lifting issues with more than 3 or 4 game objects before we lubricated everything and balanced out the rubber bands, so we made it only hold 4. We found this was as much as we really ever needed to pick up anyway, so we just kept it. (After lubricating and balancing, it now has no trouble lifting 4 game objects, and lifts much more quickly.) Also yes, it does slow down a bit with more game objects, but as I said, now with lubrication and all it is faster overall.
o.O Who are you??
P.S. Love playing with you guys, too!
Haha. I did really like your robot when I saw it – though ours isn’t quite as dramatic/noticeable, we did have it at that tournament.
Thanks!
Thank you, Andrew. You remind me once again that I have not yet revealed the Morpheus Drive… . Maybe after the new game is revealed, I could determine its usefulness… .
Thanks for all the comments! Anyone going to Disneyland tomorrow (Wednesday)?
Another very nice Sparks robot – congratulations.
About half the Exothermics kids will be at the parks tomorrow, but I don’t think they will be in their safety green shirts. Look for about 30 robot kids and chaperones.
Thank you very much! For the CAD compliments, too … haha.
We prefer the Isolation Zone, as our robot tends to be best there. However, we do have a fairly good set of Autonomous routines for the Interaction Zone, also, if our partner has a better Isolation Zone Autonomous, that is… . (Most likely not going to happen very often… .)
It was designed to be as light as possible – I think it turned out to be around 11-12 lbs, if my CAD weights are at all accurate. I wasn’t able to weigh the robot this year.
Clean build as always, nice job Jordan.
Some questions, for when you get around to it, maybe after worlds…
I’d like to see how your code improves from year to year too, so post that when you can.
Are only the center wheels powered on your 6wheel?
Your diagonal braces are very interesting. Are those locking collars at the ends, bolted through their setscrew holes? Thats unique. A close up picture, or exploded view would be great.
Can you list batteries, power expanders, and port assignments? If you were going for lightest weight, you would have used the small battery…
Independent left and right arm motors are kept in sync with pots?
You might try remote arm motors chained to a sprocket driving the small sprocket, to improve your CG. KTOR or AURA claimed chained arms gears didn’t work for them, but yours looks like a good vehicle to try it again.
Why Aluminum instead of Lexan for the scoop?
What are you using for Arm pivots? bolts? shoulder-bolts? hinges? axle/bearing/collar?
A picture from the back showing bottom tower joints would be nice.
A picture from the bottom showing drive rail joints would be nice.
good luck.
I’ll answer what I can, and get the rest to you (and everyone else, as well) ASAP.
Yes, they are. I was thinking for awhile of a way I could power the omni wheels, but the chain wrap would have been difficult, and we actually decided we didn’t want the extra traction, especially there at the corners, even though they are omni wheels.
Thank you! Yes, we bolted one collar from its setscrew to the metal, then another collar to the standoffs with a coupler, and bolted them together with a regular screw & locknut. They work very well, and are very easily adjustable.
Port 1 → Left Drive 393 Motor
Port 2 → Left Drive 3-Wire Motor
Port 3 → Left Drive 3-Wire Motor
Port 4 → Power Expander a → Left Lift 393 Motor
Port 5 → Power Expander b → Left Intake 3-Wire Motor
Port 6 → Power Expander c → Right Intake 3-Wire Motor
Port 7 → Power Expander d → Right Lift 393 Motor
Port 8 → Right Drive 3-Wire Motor
Port 9 → Right Drive 3-Wire Motor
Port 10 → Right Drive 393 Motor
All batteries will be NiMH 3000mAh. After trying the 2000mAh batteries last year, we did not like the quick power drop we got with those, however we love the 3000mAh ones.
Actually, they are not. Once we had independent left and right arms, I was worried we would need synchronization code, and I started to program it, but we soon found that it wasn’t even necessary. However, we did find that two Potentiometers wouldn’t be a bad idea, because in a Final match we ended up losing (and lost the tournament) because of a bad Potentiometer. We now have redundancies built into our program for if our main sensor shorts or becomes unplugged.
I haven’t ever tried this before. We haven’t ever had any center of gravity issues with this robot (it hasn’t ever gotten close to flipping over), so I don’t worry too much about it.
Aluminum ended up being the same weight or lighter than the same area of Lexan, and we were able to get it quite smooth, so it works.
Originally had all bearing+screw+locknut, then switched to all shoulder-screw+locknut, and now we have a mix of the two. The three joints in a vertical line in the middle are now bearing+screw+locknut, and the other four are shoulder-screw+locknut. We had twisting/wobble/friction problems with that many shoulder screws.
I will try to remember to get pictures of these things tomorrow (technically later today) at the competition, once we get our robot put back together. We were so busy the day we shipped our robots that I didn’t end up being the one taking the pictures, and so I didn’t end up with as many as I would have liked.
Thank you for the post! (I was looking forward to it!)
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