Hi all,
It seems like there is at least one of these intake ideas threads for every season so here’s one to discuss intake ideas for Tower Takeover. I was thinking something like
this:
A big claw that can get 2 or 3 at once like starstruck claws
A whole “ball intake” complete with the ITZ rollers and tank tread lifts etc…
What do you all think?
I feel like unless we extend, we can only pick up like 3 caps because caps are 5.5 inches while robot limitation is only 18inches
Please use the term “cubes” for easier communication
How about a lift like a DR4B or something with the intake on top so that you can stack it on the robot like an ITZ robot stacking cones on MOGOs except its cubes on cubes?
Expanding is going to have to be present if you are to pick up more than 3 cubes. Intakes are probably going to be similar to Toss Up, but also with this magazine of sorts. It would depend on strategy whether or not this would be placed on a lift system, or whether multiple lifts would be needed.
I think he just got confused with the yearlong word of “caps” from last season. I had the same problem myself trying to not say caps xD
My teammate always calls each game piece the name of last years game piece. The cubes are caps, the caps were cones.
I mean, we called placing caps on poles “stacking” all season…
I’ve been looking at Skyrise intakes and thinking about building one until I saw this post:
Due to how slippery this season’s cubes are, will a 4-cube conveyor still work?
I’m definitely like a dual-tracked intake that transfers cubes into a passive cube stack holder. flaps are what keep the cubes from slipping out.
sort of like the one in the extended reverse stacker video.
Make sure you design an intake that can pick up cubes from a variety of angles, reorienting them into a known angle, which should allow for you to make uniform stacks. There are a lot of examples if you look at the designs from the 2015 and 2018 FRC Games.
The problem I see with this design is the amount of space the intake would take up. While you would be able to intake and stack fairly well, how would you place cubes in towers. You would need a second arm which would be difficult to fit on top of this mechanism assuming it had to at some point go vertical to stack the cubes. Also, you would only be able to hold 3 cubes at a time with the 18" width restriction unless you were to use a motor to extend the intake.
The intake doesn’t have to be exactly like that. You could store the cubes however you would like to. The point of showing that video was to demonstrate how helpful it is to be able to pick up cubes from any angle, not necessarily store the cubes like that.
Hey! I do that…
It wouldn’t be able to pick up the vertically stacked cubes
Yep. Back in Vex IQ Ringmaster, we kept on calling the bonus tray “the bridge” because there was a bridge in Crossover.
It seems like an idea from Relic Recovery could work. You could use the horizontal wheel style intake with an “angler” which would move the cube “holding chamber” 90º in order to stack the cubes. This could be put on a DR4B in order to create high stacks. It would be similar to Team Gluten Free’s design:
It is normally call the roller intake 
It was widely used in gateway and toss up.
I’m working on a passive intake system, here are some videos:
I’d love to know what’s holding the cubes in.