Preliminarily, as noted by Scott Evans, I hope that the trip crank is correctly fixed at the 2 o'clock position rather than the 11 o'clock position when viewed from the west -- there are four ways of assembling the trip crank, only one of which is correct (see the official setup diagram).
Based upon a large number of tries, the syringe does NOT seem to roll back to base with just a hand trip of the lever (I’d estimate this was the case in 90% of our tries).
However, when the trip crank is hit by a moving robot, the transferred kinetic energy of the impact causes the syringe to roll a little bit up the ramp, after which it rolls down all the way to base most of the time (again, I'd estimate this was the case 90% of the time).
We never had a situation where the impact caused the syringe to fall off the north end of the ramp, but that might be something to watch out for -- it would depend on the design of the trip arm on individual robots.
In our teams' designs, the trip arm was motorized but was designed to move only after tripping the crank. Consequently there was no additional kinetic energy from the rotary motion of the robot's trip arm at the time of impact with the trip crank. Other designs may yield other results.
Good luck,
Anant Narayanan
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Anant S. Narayanan
McLean Robotics Institute
202-421-3826 (cell)
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In our practice if you hit the handle to the syringe too hard it will fly forward making it impossible to retrieve. We had to slow our robot down to make sure that it did not hit the handle too hard. Also remember to set the syringe up with the back wheels touching the leaver part of the handle. If you set it up wrong in practice, touching the front wheels, it could go up the ramp a ways and then fall back.
MikeCoach WAFFLEBOTS!Team 7574--On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Sonya Shaver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I'm replying to this email late, but we also had problems with the syringe at our regional tournament. I think the syringe was not set correctly, because our robot pushed it all the way down every single time, but the syringe would roll forward, over the top of the ramp, instead of rolling back. This is not what it did in our practices. We were able to make it roll backward consistently, whether it was with our hand or with the robot, but at the tournament, it was totally different. I actually think that there is a certain way it needs to be set, and if it is not set correctly, then it will roll forward instead of back.For example, with the pressure tester, it does matter "how" you push it. If you push it too fast, it won't work. However, we thought that the syringe was more straightforward, if you push it all the way down, then it should roll back. Because this is what it did consistently throughout our practices. In fact, this was one of the first things we did. But a lot rides on that, because then if you don't get the doctor and the blood cells, then you won't get the points for the other missions that involve those pieces.If anyone can comment, I would be grateful for advice.Thanks!SonyaOn Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 9:27 PM, VA/DC Referee Advisor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Jeff,yes, we expect the syringe to roll into base in normal operation. You may ask the referee to check that it is doing so.SteveOn Nov 14, 2010, at 7:57 PM, Jeff Schatz wrote:Can anyone assist with a syringe question based on the tournament experiences thus far, if the models are correctly constructed, will the syringe supposed to roll back to base on its own? Ie if you tripped the red level by hand as a test, is it supposed to roll back to base? If it does not seem to be rolling back to base, can you request the referee to adjust the wheels before the start?Thanks,Jeff
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Michael Brown
Y!:nrune AOL:nrune
GPS: Team Virginia Brown's
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