Ballbasaur

From Team 449 Wiki

Ballbasaur
Ballbasaur.jpg
Ballbasaur promotional image.
Robot Details
Game Name: Aerial Assist
Year: 2014

Ballbasaur was our 2014 robot for the game Aerial Assist.

Mechanisms

Catapult

Ballbasaur had a pneumatic catapult to shoot the balls into the high goal. The ball intake would suck in a ball and place it on the catapult. Under the catapult were two 1.5" bore, 8" stroke cylinders that were almost parallel to the catapult arms. This seems like a bad choice, but this allowed the cylinders to build pressure and only start moving when at the full 60 psi, as opposed to before they were charged. This led to a delay between pressing the shooter button and the robot actually shooting, but it led to much more powerful shots. When the cylinders did start moving, they rotated the catapult about its pivot, which threw the ball. An earlier idea was to use a spring catapult, but this was abandoned after it cracked a pillow block on firing.

Intake

The intake consisted of a spinning shaft, parallel to the ground, that was pneumatically pivoted out on two arms. When it spun, it sucked in the ball and placed it on the catapult.

Catcher

At our first event (NC Regional), Ballbasaur had a catching mechanism. It was removed after it was found that it provided no added benefit.

Drive

Ballbasaur had a 6-CIM, 6-wheel tank drive with two WCP single-speed gearboxes.