Pneumatic Catapult (IQ)

I had the idea of building a catapuld using pneumatics to score in the high goal. Since we do not have them yet, does anyone know if this is feasible (using at most 4 cylinders)? I know this is possible in V5RC and FRC, but I have never heard of doing this in IQ.

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Pneumatic aided catapult
I admit, it was more challenging to find them.
Likely because the design isn’t the most efficient
I wouldn’t recommend using Pneumatics solely for the catapult.
I believe they could be used for a PTO, to aid the catapult, while being used as a tensioner, and to change the direction of a flywheel.
I do not think it will be as good for a catapult.

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Feasible? Why sure. Winner robot, maybe. Practical, no. Rubber bands are your best motive power source.

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Yes look it up On YouTube I saw a team and have tested myself with two cylinders and it worked great.

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I did a search: 4 topics. only one was IQ and did not have my answer

I forgot about Youtube

I have my reasons. I only need a catapult to shoot in the high goals. I have a seperate mechanism for low goal.

I don’t want hthe extra stress rubber bands exert on the robot. Lighter robot = Better acceleration.

Was this for Rapid Relay? Could you give me more details?

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Ok, rather than doing a rubber band tension mechanism or a two stage rubber band setup, adding 4 pistons and a tank was a much lighter robot. Got it.

All that plastic with holes in it is really heavy. The use of triangle bracing is a pretty arcane engineering concept.

Happy you were able to make it work, can’t wait to see the reveal video!!

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Yes this was indeed for rapid relay. It was two cylinders in a catapult and when the team wanted to shoot to high goal they would activate them and use it as a spring for more tension. After a bit of tuning it worked pretty well. No additional bracing needed.

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I forgot pneumatic wern’t made of air… I still don’t want the stress on the robot. I think that is what is causing my drivetrain to drift (also innovate award possibility)

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Sure possibility, but it seems unlikely you could win it with just a different robot, it would have to work well

Are you 100% getting pneumatics?
It might make more sense to save the money for something else

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Sorry to revive but my team 30394A did this.

Fun fact, my team won innovate for a wall stake mechanism that we didn’t even have on our robot for the competition (It caused too many problems before the matches started). It just has to be a unique and well documented design.

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