KTOR Hangs

VEX V5 General Discussion VEX Robot Showcase
#1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wyun5WJiEo

After our initial design meeting, KTOR put a very rough prototype together of a possible hanging mechanism. Not too shabby for a first attempt. We come down at the end a little quickly, but that was an intentional, powered release, we wanted to be sure we could get down as easily as we get up. As always, specs available upon request.

On a related note, now that we have started our design process, KTORdesign.blogspot.com should start filling up with information about what we are building and how we are refining ideas. We may be borrowing a few older ideas as well, so keep an eye on it to see if your team gets a thank you!

#2

Very nice Andrew!

-Cody

#3

So you guys aren’t super high hanging yet? =)

Pikey ~ Team aMEss, Massey University, New Zealand

#4

Thanks! Hope to see some of what you’re working on soon!

We need something to do for the rest of the season, that was just one night’s work!

#5

nice hanging from a table
but how are you going to position with the actual ladder?
from the looks of it, the wheels will get stuck on the bottom rungs when you try to lift vertically like that

#6

Yeah, we don’t have anything, and I mean anything to date. Life has been crazy this year. We honestly might not find time for Vex this year.

With that said, some great stuff is happening so that’s all fine and good.
-Cody

#7

The arm placement isn’t final yet, neither is anything on that machine actually. We just wanted to see if we could lift with that arm. We love the design so far, and as soon as we have a hang on an official ladder, we’ll be sure to post it.

#8

Andrew you tempt me but right this second I’m busting my butt attempting to get into the number one animation university in the US, Ringling College of Art + Design - their CA program is astounding.

Maybe, no promised but I will have more time during the spring term.

We do have an idea though. It’s a triple four-bar.

http://polynomic3d.com/user/smith/PTD2011.png

Done correctly this could hit the high goals and maybe high hang. We also have a solid idea of how to ultra high hang but I’ll have to save that one for another day.

We flat out refuse to touch scissor-lifts ever again, four-bars linked will work fine.

-Cody

#9

That looks cool. The only thing about it that i could see not working as well in real life as it does in CAD is that 4 bars have some slop and this design has 3 4 bars so realistically 3x the slop, i feel like yo would have to do something to ensure each of your 4 bars is precise. It definitely looks doable though.

~DK

#10

we have a 4 bar and slop inst really a problem
the issue i see is the intense gearboxes where the 4-bars connect to each other
the gearboxes itself would probably weigh more than the arm (im assuming mostly aluminum ;))

#11

WOW! I knew I could count on you guys to deliver something I’ve never seen before. I really hope that or something like it gets built, talk about a cool twist on an old design! Thank you so much for posting it.

Hopefully this inspires people to keep on posting their designs, the more we post and improve designs, the better the competition gets!

#12

Very much agreed Andrew! We also have a neat plan to power this one (which I can post later tonight).

I didn’t mean to steal your topic, sorry about that. Lets get back to hanging…
-Cody

#13

At that point, I’m kind of curious what the functional difference between a four bar and a scissor lift really is. What kind of range do you need three four bars for instead of a linear sliding arm tower (think ThunderChickens 2005) and four bar?

#14

Your design is much more discussion worthy, much cooler than our linear lift, for the moment at least.:cool:

Functionally from looking at it, not too much. But I can speak from personal experience in saying that sometimes it’s more about doing something different than anything else. The experience and prototyping knowledge will last us a lot longer than anything else we take from this.

#15

That maybe so, but we don’t have anything to show and (hate to be gloom and doom), but I don’t see myself finding the time. I think I understand what Jason meant at the last world championship. I think my focus needs to be on my animation career - which is a good thing!

So I go back to art, cause Cody wants to get into an extremely expensive ($78,000) fancy art school with the best comp. animation program in the nation.

Seventy-eight grand, can’t get over that one, OUCH!
-Cody

#16

dang! 78k PER YEAR??
and how much years are u going to study for?? O.o

#17

$78,000 total, which includes textbooks, all four years of tuition and a brand new MacBook Pro with software (educational versions of Maya and Adobe CS5).

That does not include housing which is $14,500 per year. I’ve crunched the numbers, attending this school and living on campus (considering my financial aid and income) will end up costing just under $100,000.

That may seem absolutely CRAZY bonkers but consider this, Ringling’s CA program is highly selective. It’s the hardest program at Ringling to get into, thus they pick the best. During the degree program recruiters from DreamWorks, Disney, EA, Warner Bros, Universal, LucasArts, etc. come to the campus looking for talent. They look at students work and provide direct feedback.

Towards the end of the degree program, CA students begin drafting what will become their senior thesis - a short animated film. These huge companies like DreamWorks and Blue Sky will review your screenplay and animatic (animated storyboard) and critique it right in front of your peers. The result is that Ringling students end up creating fantastic short films that go directly into their demo reel. Ringling boasts that their CA program has a 100% employment ratio - meaning every single Ringling student finds work after they graduate. Most students have already been scooped up by the recruiters before they even graduate and essentially have job offers as soon as school ends. We’re talking jobs at huge animation firms, students leave this school and immediately begin working on blockbuster Hollywood titles.

If I get into this school, knowing my personality and tendencies, I’ll be set for life. Most students who come to this school are artists who become computer animators. I’m a computer animator, quickly becoming an artist. By the end of this program, I will have mastered both worlds, both major software packages and several little sub-fields of animation. I don’t exactly know where I’ll end up working, but I’m extremely confident in my abilities.

Examples of student’s senior thesis:

The Monk and The Monkey by Brendan carroll & Francesco Giroldini (see the breakdown)

Flip by Jill Hackett

No Soliciting by Bohdon “Bo” Sayre

Ok, too much time spent on this post, it’s 6:39 in the morning, meh! The school owns, I want in - lots of work to be done.

EDIT: I gotta give Andrew his topic back! E-mail me about Ringling if your interested.
-Cody

#18

1899 actually built an 8-bar link (two 4-bars) and tried powering it. It didn’t work out that well. We powered it like we would a scissor lift with a threaded rod by driving a slide rail horizontally at the joint between the first and second 4-bar links.

We were prototyping possible lifts with linear motion (your design with 3 4-bar links should create, as with one 4-bar link, rotational motion). With two 4-bar links, the mechanism never moves “into” the base, if you know what I mean.

#19

you have to remember that in cvrc (or is it vrcc?)
the can machine their own parts to an EXACT fit so there could be almost zero slop

#20

How heavy is your (KTOR’s) robot? (I’m new to VRC, so I want to get a feel for how strong the motors/gears are)

That’s a cool lifting mechanism!