Hello!
I’ve seen lotsa robots now with and without anti-tips. Do you think that they’re necessary?
What are some pros and cons?
It all depends on the robot. If your robot doesn’t reach super high you don’t need them, but if it is really tall you may want them. But if you have a good driver you probably won’t need them even with a tall robot
I personally have not seen any robots with anti-tips yet, but their necessity depends on your robot. If you are not having any tipping problems, then there is not point. If you have some occasional tipping, I would recommend just get some extra driving practice. If you are tipping a lot, maybe consider anti-tips. I say this because they may be difficult to design in a way where it does not obstruct your ability to score in 20 point.
@RoboTurtleLord @Easton how would additional driver practice aid in anti-tipping? Would the same go if two people were controlling the robot (drive and lift), except the person on the lift was changing (depending on the competition).
Well if the driver wasn’t too good they might go backward then forwards too fast with the lift up and fall over. Driver practice will help the driver learn the limitations of the robot, and what will cause it to tip or not tip. If two separate people were drivers, it might take more practice so that they don’t accidentally do something at the same time that would cause it to tip
@Easton so when doing driver practice, it would be important to also know how the other person operating the lift tends to play the match? eg if they liked to leave the lift up//stack while moving//move the lift up and down harder/slower?
If you are choosing to go with dual drivers, communication between the drivers is key. If your robot has tipping problems, however, driving practice and anti-tips are only temporary solutions. You should really be looking at redistributing the weight on your robot in a way that tipping isn’t a real problem.
How would we be able to re-distribute weight on our robot? Our lift (rd4b) is in a position where we can internally stack while being as small as possible (25 hole chassis). Should we just make the chassis longer?
Definitely, and this is achieved through practice. However, as @Mystical Pie said, it is better to just fix the root of the problem which is either weight distribution or wheelbase.
@Easton Without having to make a major redisgn (competition in a week ish), how would we redistribute weight?
Making small robots is a fun challenge, however a 25 whole long chassis is arguably too small for an internal stacker unless your mobile goal is completely inside your robot. Making your chassis longer will almost definitely fix your problem.
Our driver did a prolonged wheelie once to keep us from tipping.
awesome, thank you!
I would love to see that… True skill
Unfortunately I wasn’t there to see it, I was at our table messing with a passive intake design.
Ooo passive intake. Fancy.
Although the season is just getting started in PA, I haven’t seen many anti-tips this year.
This year (unlike last year) when people expand their robots upward they aren’t particularly top heavy.
In starstruck it was necessary to lift heavy objects, but this year when its only one cone at a time, the robots don’t seem as tippy.
Just getting started? Ours started in november.
I don’t think anti tip is necessary unless as a desperate measure, personally.
Our first comp was December, and not many since oof