Day 31: More mecanum news & catching video

This morning we got a call from VEX explaining that they had intentionally shipped the incorrect rollers with the 4" mecanum wheels so that they could get the product out faster to teams. The rollers they shipped are for the 6" wheels and thus don't provide a completely smooth motion. This is why we were able to break one since 100% of the load ends up on the tips of the current rollers during part of their revolution.

We worked more on collection today. We strongly believe that collection will be more important than shooting in this year's game. Having a fast and reliable collection system alone will allow you to play in eliminations.

Here is some quick video of our robot catching bouncing balls. We're hoping to be able to chase down balls that are bouncing anywhere on the field and catch them instead of having to collect them, which should be faster.

We're still using the mecanum wheel collector. We tried to build one out of 1/2" schedule 80 PVC but the mecanum wheels out performed it by a lot. We're going to keep trying different wheels and rollers but right now the mecanum wheels are working really well.

- Spectrum


“The best creative solutions don't come from finding good answers to the questions that are presented. They come from inventing new questions.” - Seth Godin