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futaba wrote:Hello,

Does anyone know when printable layout and scoring spread sheet will be available on the SO webite?

Thanks,

I made a printable layout a few weeks ago. Give me a day or two and I can format it a bit an share it. I think there's a good chance there will be an official one the national website...

How many arms are you guys planning on building. If one, why?

windu34 wrote:How many arms are you guys planning on building. If one, why?

Why more than one?

iwonder wrote:

windu34 wrote:How many arms are you guys planning on building. If one, why?

Why more than one?

can move objects faster thus reducing time

windu34 wrote:

iwonder wrote:

windu34 wrote:How many arms are you guys planning on building. If one, why?

Why more than one?

can move objects faster thus reducing time

I think some of the tasks that earn points will be enough of a challenge for many teams, and since they earn points would be more important to perfect. I think it's reasonable to experiment with multiple arms if a team has trouble getting all the objects in optimal locations in time (and the team already is controlling the arm to the best of its ability) or if a team can already successfully get all objects in optimal locations/positions and want to improve time.

So is it reasonable to assume that most teams that do well at nats in robot arm will have 2 arms?

windu34 wrote:So is it reasonable to assume that most teams that do well at nats in robot arm will have 2 arms?

If it is very difficult to move all the objects to optimal locations/positions within the allowed time, probably. But whether other teams approach the build with only one or multiple arms is really important to your own performance.

bernard wrote:

windu34 wrote:So is it reasonable to assume that most teams that do well at nats in robot arm will have 2 arms?

If it is very difficult to move all the objects to optimal locations/positions within the allowed time, probably. But whether other teams approach the build with only one or multiple arms is really important to your own performance.

I just want to get an idea of other peoples prospective plans

I haven't seen anyone run with this years objects, but here's some comments based on the last cycle of Robot Arm.
I saw a few double arm designs, only really an advantage if your robot was slow. Otherwise a big risk of interfering with each other.
Here's the things I saw that improved success.
- Stiffness. The robot has to move without bouncing and shaking to allow accurate actions.
- Speed. There's just a lot to do in the time allowed.
- Control method. I don't think you can beat the master/slave system for intuitive control. I've seen joy sticks do well, but not anywhere near as consistently and error free as master/slave systems.
- Power, we had some heavy objects last time, don't know if it will be as critical now.
- Clever use of end effectors. One team had a smallish arm, couldn't reach to the corners. But it's other features were good. They had a simple hook that they reached out and dragged the boxes close with. Reach no longer a problem.
Practice. The best robot arm is no good if you haven't used it before.

The observations of this ES anyway.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia MI

jander14indoor wrote:I haven't seen anyone run with this years objects, but here's some comments based on the last cycle of Robot Arm.
I saw a few double arm designs, only really an advantage if your robot was slow. Otherwise a big risk of interfering with each other.
Here's the things I saw that improved success.
- Stiffness. The robot has to move without bouncing and shaking to allow accurate actions.
- Speed. There's just a lot to do in the time allowed.
- Control method. I don't think you can beat the master/slave system for intuitive control. I've seen joy sticks do well, but not anywhere near as consistently and error free as master/slave systems.
- Power, we had some heavy objects last time, don't know if it will be as critical now.
- Clever use of end effectors. One team had a smallish arm, couldn't reach to the corners. But it's other features were good. They had a simple hook that they reached out and dragged the boxes close with. Reach no longer a problem.
Practice. The best robot arm is no good if you haven't used it before.

The observations of this ES anyway.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia MI

I'm not sure if you recall but I know of at least one team that had a design capable of the full range of motion with three motors, but perhaps the best part is that they reduced the coordianate system from spherical coordinates to cylindrical, which simplifies the kinematics and motion control if you want to do some fancy positioning.