Pictures, Videos, Scores

[DaPlug]

It took us about 10 runs to get the perfect scores under 2 minutes, but after constant practice and improvements i have dropped another 30 seconds.

Care to share the basic structure of your arm(s)?

If you will share yours with me I can share mine with you. Basically it's one arm, nothing special.

[windu34]

I have two arms that are identical except in height based on the SCARA style design that are controlled via the Master-Slave implementation using arduinos. Controllers are 3D printed with high grade industrial potentiometers in the joints. 2 Arduino Mega's control each of the arms with the base servos on both arms being controlled by a separate Arduino Uno.

[cantthinkofausername]

I can also score a perfect score in 1:50, could probably go faster though. 1 arm.

[UQOnyx]

I wanted to share my experience from States at NJ. We placed 2nd at the tournament. A few things that I noted:
-The majority of teams suck at building events. (sorry but every year, my theory is confirmed once again)
-For an event like Robot Arm, you need practice and confidence. I saw a couple of arms which weren't exactly great, but they could have gotten a decent score. Without practice, the team got a score of... three points.
-In order to place even in a state like New Jersey, one of the most competitive regions for SCIOLY, you don't need to be perfect. We didn't get close to a perfect score, but we placed second in the state. (In our defense, we didn't have enough money to give the arm a full range of capabilities. It couldn't touch the ping pong balls)
-First place is usually a perfect score, or it is really really close.
-Again, practice, practice, practice.

Overall, I had a great time for this event. This was probably my favorite event for science olympiad ever.

[Bazinga+]

I wanted to share my experience from States at NJ. We placed 2nd at the tournament. A few things that I noted:
-The majority of teams suck at building events. (sorry but every year, my theory is confirmed once again)
-For an event like Robot Arm, you need practice and confidence. I saw a couple of arms which weren't exactly great, but they could have gotten a decent score. Without practice, the team got a score of... three points.
-In order to place even in a state like New Jersey, one of the most competitive regions for SCIOLY, you don't need to be perfect. We didn't get close to a perfect score, but we placed second in the state. (In our defense, we didn't have enough money to give the arm a full range of capabilities. It couldn't touch the ping pong balls)
-First place is usually a perfect score, or it is really really close.
-Again, practice, practice, practice.

Overall, I had a great time for this event. This was probably my favorite event for science olympiad.

At the NYS science Olympiad competition the scores were pretty high. I doubt an arm that can't get ping pong balls could have been top 15. I think there were like 2-3 perfect scores and like 5 more almost perfect scores.

[Bazinga+]

Any idea what times for perfect scores there will be at nats?

[windu34]

I'd say first place with ~1:30. Top 6 or 7 will have perfect scores and maybe 3 of those hovering around the 2 min mark.

[DaPlug]

I agree with that. Do you guys have efficient ways of turning the dice to a 6 consistently. If so, what have you guys used?

[jander14indoor]

So far the best ways I've seen are to simply flip it twice in the same direction. In other words a simple 180 flip.
- The obvious solution is an arm where the end gripper can rotate along its axis. Pick it up, rotate 180, set it down.
- I've seen one team with a simple solution that flipped it 90 degrees twice around the same axis that didn't tie up the gripper other than to pick up the die and set it in the device. Since I've been beat up (I don't think fairly, this is a public event, but I am willing to stipulate the other sides view during the competition season) I can't give more detail. But it worked pretty well.
- I haven't seen my favorite idea that flips them all at once. Put a fence beyond the dice, slide a blade under, put a top on it, flip entire assembly as a group. Dedicated manipulator that can operate while the general purpose arm takes care of the other items. Maybe its not as easy as I visualize it.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Chris_L]

Since I'm done with the season, here's my robot arm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPpKp4DPOU