Armadillo Run forum

Excuse my ignorance and lack of discovery, but what is welding?

It's the term for placing materials through other so they are loose but can be held by end nodes. There are many examples, like contest 2 winners Bob and Peter's solutions.

When you place two pieces of material such that their end points do not connect but their bodies intersect. When you do this and press start the pieces that are welded together will move due to gravity or other forces placed on them until the end points of those two pieces touch at which point they will then prevent further movement in the direction they were moving when the end joints collided.

Such a wordy answer I know but that's the best I can do without a picture.

edit: Ah, thanks for the picture KOS!

-BFC

I want to give kudos to Biodroid for his unfolding bridge. I keep looking at it there is quite a bit going on to make the armoredillo move steadily. I often avoid making things that will later need rotating (as there is no way to rotate a group of materials ).

Squint did something similar, too, and that was pretty darn cheap.

Thx, i just noticed that the second rope was uneccesary, I guess my optimalisation removed weight and I forgot to test it without the security rope... Squints variation of the concept is really nice.

BioDroid wrote:Thx, i just noticed that the second rope was uneccesary, I guess my optimalisation removed weight and I forgot to test it without the security rope...

I had that same experience while working on the contest. I had, and needed, an extra support rope for a long time. Even in the final configuration, if you change the timing on the launcher very slightly, the small rope attached to the sheets will snap when the ball hits the first sheet. If it hits at the maximum tension of the system, it's too much. It's right at the edge of not working, as all good solutions should be

I just watched all the solutions, and my two favourite devices were both from cassius:

the pulley which is ACTUALLY a pulley!


and attaching one end of the basket to a fixed point for easy armadillo retrieval: (I'm definitely stealing this one)

Aye, a real pulley wheel is nice and yet so rare (because of this darned budget thing)!

When is challenge #6 ready? Im bored...

It has been ready since Sunday, BFC is fast
I will post it in about an hour.

Woah this must have taken you ages BioDroid!

I always wondered why solutions weren't posted on the main site after a competition ended!

is it OK to tweak them and upload new records?

I would guess so, the winners are stated in this forum anyway.

What does the admins say?