Just found this video today, and in it I saw two very cool robots, similar to two designs we had wanted to build. The first is a combination of the tube stack-claw and the “needle” design, which I thought VERY cool. Second was a hanging robot that could fold up to fit under the ladder, and hung from underneath. (Similar to a design we had, though ours was also planning on scoring.) I will stop talking now and let you see the video, as half of you have probably skipped reading this first and clicked the link anyway, and instead of trying to explain the robots, how about I just show you: Melrose Vex Club at Boston University Academy, Dec 3 2010 - YouTube
We (817) won the final round 57-0 and 59-2. Our partner had a great autonomous, consistently scoring one stack, and they are in middle school. Our needle/claw design is meant to be a compromise between the two major forum designs. To do the Driver Skills challenge, we took out the center needle.
By the way, Green Eggs were at the competition (but not with a robot).
Wow! So it was you guys! I couldn’t make out the team number from the video. Very impressive, and yeah good idea for driver skills; taking out the needle, makes perfect sense. Also I’m surprised about Green Egg, have they competed with a robot this year yet? Or have they kept it all a secret? Hahaha. Green Eggs always impress me and I love how somehow their robot almost never gets on film onto the internet, until very late in the season, which I think is good. Don’t want to give out the mega-awesome designs out too early, right? Although for Elevation, their robot was so concealed and “complex” that no one could see what was going on enough to be able to copy them! Hahaha. I love Green Eggs, just saying. Although I have to say I rooted for Free Range in the finals, as I had predicted them to win worlds as soon as I saw them compete in New Zealand with that robot. (Also because they are homeschooled, as I am.) But that’s besides the point, BACK on topic; I love the robot, and I’m curious to see if it will continue to preform well as all these robots evolve! (That is, if you are keeping it together?)
this is a really interesting twist, most robots that i have seen this season have had one or the other, but this is the first that has both, it seems like a great way to score after all the tubes get knocked down
Interesting combination. What advantages to the needle grabber did you want that weren’t present in the claw and vice versa? Did this combination help you in scoring?
Yes the team from Manchester did have two preloaded tubes. Overall, the competition was rather sloppy. For example there were no lines on the field, and I think some of the goals on the walls were in the wrong places.
The combination of the needle and claw allowed us to quickly pick up stacks, index single tubes, and sort tubes while we were driving. Although it was not demonstrated in this video, it also increased our capacity to eleven tubes.
The two opposing teams were both from Manchester, CT. Their robot with the intake rollers was cool because it was on a linear slide, and the one that could low hang also could efficiently descore (although that was not shown in this video.)
The Green Eggs have not been in any competitions yet.
The needle rollers do not have a motor. The “tower” is pressed into the tubes, and can be lifted with one motor. To get tubes off of the intake rollers, we close the claw and raise the tower, and they fall off the tower into the claw.
didnt anybody bring that up?
i mean if a GOAL is in the wrong place…
and we also had some preload issues at the washington jump start but that was sorted out and clarified after the first mistake
and for the lines, if nobody had line followers, then you cannot really complain. but if somebody DID use it, for autonomous or something, then they should have said something…
Looks like a VERY cool robot, first being holonomic, has a neat single-tube collection mechanism which then in turn routs tubes straight to the scoring mechanism, which is also used for picking up stacks. Definitely needs some work but looks promising! Any ideas for getting it to (High-)Hang? :rolleyes:
what a COOL robot!
and i loved the music too
“we are the robots”
i liked the auto pickup mechanism that can pick up when their arm is up ready to score
think this idea will be very successful to build on
Not a huge fan of that one. It seems too unreliable to be able to feed them into itself like that. It should have the intake belts on the sides rather than the top and bottom. It would work a lot better since it wouldn’t be whacking them up into the air… Beyond that, I think the bucket needs some design changes… Perhaps put a wall on the front and have it scissor open on the bottom? That would be cool, and wouldn’t require that much modification.
Looks like a VERY cool robot, first being holonomic, has a neat single-tube collection mechanism which then in turn routs tubes straight to the scoring mechanism, which is also used for picking up stacks. Definitely needs some work but looks promising! Any ideas for getting it to (High-)Hang? :rolleyes:
~Jordan
The first robot with the 45 degree holonomic drive is a similar concept to Nanakuli’s team. I believe their team number is 2459A? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8_JSheLcI4 I do have to say however, that the concept mentioned above is much faster in terms of scoring.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8_JSheLcI4 I do have to say however, that the concept mentioned above is much faster in terms of scoring.)
First off, your needle and claw design was AMAZING during the competition and our team has somewhat adopted the idea of a claw to complement our needle design.
We also agree that the competition was rather sloppy, especially because of the patchy VexNet connection. This angered our team because all three of our robots were running on VexNet and were experiencing issues with it.
Although for Elevation, their robot was so concealed and “complex” that no one could see what was going on enough to be able to copy them! Hahaha. I love Green Eggs, just saying. Although I have to say I rooted for Free Range in the finals, as I had predicted them to win worlds as soon as I saw them compete in New Zealand with that robot. (Also because they are homeschooled, as I am.) 
But that’s besides the point, BACK on topic; I love the robot, and I’m curious to see if it will continue to preform well as all these robots evolve! (That is, if you are keeping it together?)