Our launcher consists of a 2 motor puncher and a 4 motor puncher each of which hits a single catapult arm. 3 distances can be gained by using either puncher individually or both together. Having several distances is useful for when we throw different numbers of stars from different places on the field. The launcher is able to:
• Low power puncher only
o 1 star - 11 feet with 5 feet height
o 2 star - 8 feet with 4 feet height
o 3 stars - (not tested)
• Medium power puncher only
o 1 star - 15 feet with 5 feet height
o 2 stars - 11 feet with 5 feet height
o 3 stars - 8 feet with 4 feet height
• Both punchers together
o 1 star - (too far to do indoors)
o 2 stars - (never tested but will be too far to ever be needed)
o 3 stars - (11 feet with 4.5 feet height)
All tests were carried out using Skyrise cubes as we have not yet purchased the new elements. Half a Skyrise cube is about the same weight as one star (half a cube is 210g and a star is 270g ) so we used between 0.5 and 1.5 Skyrise cubes for our tests. Once we get some of the game elements it wont take long to adjust the bands on the launcher to fire similar distances for stars. We found heights be throwing over boxes stacked on top of each other.
We will be revealing the mechanism used for the punchers in future videos in the next few weeks. Currently it has about a 1.5s recovery time but we will try to improve that.
So now for the videos:
Vex Starstruck 1 - - YouTube
Vex Starstruck 2 (2 star test) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 3 (wallbots are dead) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 4 (Star test) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 5 (Multiple star tests) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 6 - - YouTube
Vex Starstruck 7 (Launcher close up) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 8 (Launcher mech in detail) - to be announced
Vex Starstruck 9 (H-Drive Testing) - to be announced
We are using limit switches to tell the launcher mech to stop. The launcher mech we are using has a built in hang lock and the 6 motors from the launcher combined can lift the whole robot in about 3s but we have not yet made a hanging hook so we are far from being able to properly test hanging but we will be aiming to high hang.
If you want early access to any of the unreleased videos above then private message me and I will do my best to send you the video as soon as possible.
This year we will be competing in VRC and VEX U in the UK with hopefully several teams in VRC. We have members from 4664A XLR8 and 4664C The Green Team as well as members from other previous teams and new members as well.
That shooter is amazing! But I have a couple questions:
Does the cube in the video represent the mass of the stars?
How does it accumulate the stars?
Does it fit inside of the 18x18x18 before the matches?
That pre-season robot is really amazing! Very cool!!!
Yes the half cube is about 210g whilst a star is about 270g. Our launcher is not anywhere near overheating so the difference in weight will easily be compensated with bands without causing any problems
The robot is within the size limit apart from the spatula which we are currently building locks for so it can extend and start in the size limit. We will reveal the spatula when it is finished
Our actual spatula we are working on is made with acetal and so has low friction with the ground. Some teams used spatulas in early season sack attack so im sure there will be videos of robots which have used them on vex tiles.
High arc. We saw that there was a need for a holonomic drive in this game - to provide greater manoeuvrability and so a faster scoring rate. We chose a H-drive over and X-drive due to the shape and space issues with an x drive, along with the distribution in power of the drive.
Wow, that was quick. It looks like an extremely capable robot as well. If I understand it correctly, the two punchers hit the catapult arm either together or individually?
I feel like this is a repeat of your nbn robot post.
Could you please make the information a public resource (the whole purpose of the forum) instead of making us go through the tedious task of privately messaging you for information that could be posted publicly.
The only difference being this time, they have evidence of the robot working. They are simply withholding all the specifics. As it is this early in the season, I am surprised they have even shared their robot.
We are honestly not planning to have a repeat of that this year. We foresee us having plenty of time to complete our robot this year since we no longer are doing VEX within school - but rather at home. As for the with-holding information, it hasn’t been a month since the game was released. If you really want to see how out launcher works. Just message me and I can share some information that I do not wish to share with the public yet - but will in due course. We created this post to help the community, and we intend to do so gradually but I feel that it will first be useful if teams brought new innovations to the table themselves. This robot shows more what CAN be done. The how will come in due course.
