Our team is rebuilding our robot from the reverse dumper build into the forwards claw build. I just finished the claw, and it weights quite more than expected (maybe 2-3 lbs). Our towers/arms have a high strength torque ratio of 1:7 with 4 393 motors. Is this strong enough to lift the claw as well as ~5 stars or a cube at a time? What are the average weights of other teams’ claws?
That sounds kind of on the high side. The robot our A team just got ready for our state competition weighs about 11 pounds total with two batteries. The two batteries are about 1.5 pounds of that. Do you have pictures of the claw? There may be some easy ways to lighten the weight.
Their robot uses a 6 motor lift with a 1:5 gear ratio with high speed motors. It was still doing 3-4 cubes or a cube and a star when they discovered that one of the motors was unplugged. They are thinking of dropping two of the motors.
The weight of the arm and claw can be countered no matter the weight using rubber bands. Weight only affects the drive ratio you use.
We are planning to attach rubber bands since we have a 6 bar lift to keep it staying up.
Is there a specific point where the amount of rubber bands is “too much?”
When the lift motors have trouble lowering the lift or keeping it at a down position.