Boston Tournament

What I learned:

Reliability and stability are the core of a great design.

Do not overwork motors-if the circuit breaker trips, it’s bad.

Scissor lifts have tilting problems that are VERY hard to fix.

Bar-and-standoff beams are MUCH weaker than C-channels.

Spend lots of time practice driving.

If you have to go to a tournament tomorrow and you need to make major changes to your robot, don’t go.

If you don’t have time to make allies, make time.

It’s never too late to keep thinking big picture: How can I succeed now? How can I succeed in the future? How can I learn from not only my mistakes, but from all the mistakes I see?

All negative thoughts can be saved for after the tournament.

If you can’t right yourself, falling down loses matches. If it happens at all, it happens too much.

For everything, design for everything. It takes longer, but it’s worth it.

Only build if what you are building is what you want.

New Member!

Philip Hubbe just joined the team!

Philip, in blue, working with Tao on the robot

Design Ideas Seen at Boston University

-Back stabilizer wheels that start underneath the robot and spring out on rubber bands
-Green Egg
    -a transmission that engages the drive motors to the lift to increase lifting strength. this robot also used a rachet to hold the robot at the end of the match.
    -big-ball throwing secondary arm that also serves as hanging hook
-Very prevalent duel-roller intake shafts

Universal Vex Design Criteria

#1 Resilience. Lasting damage should be avoided at all costs.
#2 Reliability. If it works "sometimes" it probably won't work at the competition.
#3 Strength. Competitions always put unexpected loads on your robot.
#4 Speed. Get as much done with your time as you can.
#5 Ease. Need for precise driving or programming is to be avoided.
#6 Simplicity. The more complex it is, to more likely it is that something will go wrong.

#? Versatility. Even though you can choose allies to complement your strategy, you still need to adapt.
#? Plan Your Time. You want to be productive throughout the match, so make sure your robot has something to do at the beginning, the middle, and the end. Don't plan to do two things at once, only have the ability to do them both.

Robot Musts for Toss Up

#1 Three buckyball carrying capacity
#2 Quick scoring of buckyballs in the goals
#3 Fast and strong drive
#4 Ability to lift big balls over the barrier, even better if you throw them
#5 Speed is the key. Everything should be fast.
#6 Placing big balls on goals.
#7 If you got this far, you need to high hang with a ball.

That's all for now, but there should be more to come!

New Robot

after using my first design at a scrimmage tournament, I designed and built a new design based on what I
learned. This uses a scissor lift to score balls in goals and high hang. It also uses Mecanum wheels like the one below to achieve complete maneuverability.

Mecanum wheel 

Here are some photos of the finished product:

here are some pictures of the first version robot. 

this view shows the omni-directional sliding wheels and the wheel-legs that raise 

the clearance to 2 inches

this is the chain intake to carry balls