Rainmaker 1 - 1999-2000
Rainmaker 2 - 2000-2001
Rainmaker 3 - 2001-2002
Rainmaker 4 - 2002-2003
Rainmaker 5 - 2003-2004
Rainmaker 6 - 2004-2005
Rainmaker 6 was a robot that picked up 7" diameter Nerf balls using two rollers diagonally spaced from each other that crossed the narrow side of the robot at one end. These two rollers, covered in orange tubing sucked up the balls and put them in the aluminum framed Lexan hopper that took up most of the space of the Robot.
The team tried to develop a shooter and lift assembly to shoot balls into the upper goal, but it was overweight and never made it on the robot. The robot was run in tank drive by CIM motors.
Rainmaker 7 - 2005-2006
Rainmaker 8 - 2006-2007
Rainmaker 8 was a robot with a flat base that had aluminum panels underneath it to weight it down and balance it's arm. The arm was about ,75 meters long and had two black foam rollers with a single circle of orange tubing around them driven by a CIM motor at the end used to pick up inner-tubes. The arm came off a ,75m aluminum post coming off the end of the robot. The robot was run in tank drive by CIM motors. The team had also built two pneumatic ramps that never made it on the robot due to weight constraints, however, they did sit behind their crate in the pit during competitions, providing the illusion that they could simply be attached at any moment.
Rainmaker 9 - 2007-2008
Rainmaker 9 was a robot with a lot of pneumatics on it. The design concept was that it could launch 10 pound 1m diameter inflatable "trackball" over a 6 foot goal (the field). it used two giant springs to fling an aluminum frame with a lexan "smile" (to hold the ball at a certain height on the frame) upwards and forwards at a very rapid rate. This was then re-set using two large pneumatics and locked in place until needed again by a pnuematic that pulled a piece of aluminum into a dock built into the aluminum frame to hold it down. The balls were lifted onto the aluminum frame using two pneumatically operated lexan strips dubbed "walrus tusks" in Portland and using specially bent aluminum tubing dubbed the "spatula" (also driven by two pneumatics) in Seattle. these stuck out in front of the robot to slide under the ball, and then were lifted by the press of a button to place the ball on the frame. The walrus became a sort of inside joke to the team, as it attacked many unattentive team members during the build season. The ball was prevented from going over the back of the robot by a carbon fiber rail. This robot had a tank drive system driven by CIM motors, but also had the ability to switch into dune drive.
Rainmaker X - 2008-2009
Rainmaker X, thusly named due to the team's obsession with Apple Inc. was designed to suck up "moon rocks" into its hopper, and then to spit them out into the opposing trailers. It had an opening on the wide side and a two roller set-up at the bottom much the same as Rainmaker 7's. it used aluminum U-beams hooked to chain to bring balls up to the top (hopper) it then used a black foam roller which pressured the moon rocks against the lexan floor to throw the balls into trailers. It was driven in tank drive and powered by CIM motors.
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Past Robots
