Flip Out Mechanisms

Tips on building mechanisms that extend outside of the robot's starting size.

A lot of times a robot will need to have a mechanism that "flips out", or expands outside of the 18 inch box at the start of the match. There are a few different ways to do this.

A lot of teams will make flip out mechanisms that are triggered by the robot's lift going up - it's fairly easy to hold something in place that moves horizontally with a lift, since the lift is constrained horizontally.

Starstruck was a game that required a flip-out mech for the popular claw design. Many flip out mechanisms were triggered by the claws opening. Similar use of the intake to trigger a flip out is good for other games too.

One example of several flip-out mechanisms being utilized on one robot was 97934V's Starstruck Deploy. Most notably, its claw was held behind its lift tower until the lift was raised.

97934V's Starstruck Deploy

Another successful flip-out mechanism was the 2019 Ri3D team's intake flipout. It utilized a standoff to hold in the intakes until the lift was raised. Then, the intakes flipped out and locked with another standoff.

2019 SoCal RI3D Intake Flipout

This mechanism was not a "flip-out" mechanism in the conventional way, but Antichamber's Modular Cone Launcher was certainly interesting. In Vex In the Zone, several teams utilized their preload by launching it across the field to block another teams autonomous function. This was one particular mechanism for doing so.

Antichamber's Modular Cone Launcher

Contributing Teams to this Article:

• 2775J (Jackson Area Robotics)