climb photos

1114 climb (smith wanted photos of this on the forum)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151311227666883&set=a.10151311225746883.1073741825.503516882&type=1&theater

1114 has an opening at the front of their robot where a steel bar is fixed into position with a landing gear style mechanism powered by a servo. By contacting the steel bar with the corner of the pyramid, the low friction allows them to lean against the corner of the pyramid at an angle when they drive forward. After they have leaned onto the corner, the steel bar is then moved out of position which exposes their telescoping claw used for climbing. The way it can move out so quickly is because it is under a constant force spring and surgical tubing so essentially it has to wind up to keep it in the retracted position. Before the claw extends out, they have a pneumatic system which raises their claw towards the top of their robot to help it get over the corner gussets of the pyramid. After the claw extends out, the pneumatic system lowers their claw towards the bottom of their chassis (at this point the claws have hooked onto the corner gusset) and a ratchet strap winch is used to wind up the telescoping claw thus moving their robot up the pyramid. When the claw comes back into the retracted position, pneumatics with “hooks” shoot out the bottom of their chassis and hook onto the horizontal bars of the pyramid near the corner (the hooks are more like a cylindrical shaft with a metal disc at the end of the shaft, like an upside down “T”) . After they have hooked onto the horizontal bars, the claw then extends out again and repeats the cycle. The bottom of their chassis is also contoured to help them slide over the corner gussets of the pyramid.
This is all I can observe by watching their robot and looking on their website, a closer look at the ratchet strap winch mechanism will be very helpful.
If you look at this video http://watchfirstnow.com/archive.php?id=61428426 at the 2:04 position, you can have a closer look of their insides.

Specs taken from their website:

"Flipadelphia" Bar
• Steel bar in opening at the front of the robot used to drive up the corner pyramid pole to start the hang sequence
• Held in place using landing gear style mechanism which is driven by a servo

Hanging Arm
• Two stage linear bearing telescoping arm capable of level 3 climbing
• Constructed from sheet metal, nylon, and derlin rods
• Extends via constant force spring and surgical tubing, retracts using ratchet strap winch
• Winch is powered by two CIM motors in a custom gearbox using VEXpro gears, bearings, and shafts
• Arm raises and lowers to get over the knuckle using pneumatics

Fixed Hooks
• Two steel shafts extend out of the base of the robot to act as fixed hooks while the arm extends to the next level
• Driven by pneumatics, supported through linear bearings