The Robot is Coming Together

While most people were preparing for Super Bowl weekend, Team 250 was busily working on their robot. The chassis was up and running by the third weekend; potential drivers have already been testing it out. Our two speed transmissions from AndyMarkee shift on the fly very smoothly.

At the start of last week the students were working on converting their wooden prototypes into metal. We are looking at space allocation, which is interesting since we have several components we are trying to fit into our 28"x38"x5' sized starting envelope. In addition, we have to ensure the components we build stay within the 80" cylinder maximum size when fully deployed.

At the outset of the season, the Team was committed to focusing on herding and dislodging the ball from the overpass. We've moved on and now plan to hurdle the ball over the overpass and to thump the ball off it to start the game.

We've designed a 37" long catapult that we're manufacturing from 1-5/8" Uni-strut. We have incorporated a thumper into the catapult arm, which is made from aluminum square stock with Teflon slide bearings manufactured by the students. The entire system is actuated with pneumatics. Four Clippard accumulator tanks are on board the robot to supply the air. We've also incorporated a compressor into our design to refill the tanks. The catapult has two 1.5 inch Bimba cylinders with a 10 inch stroke. Within the catapult arm is our thumper which is actuated by a ¾" Bimba cylinder with an 11" stroke. Each cylinder is regulated to 60 lbs. of pressure, the max allowed in the competition rules. Piece by piece the catapult and thumper are coming together, but we are still considering what will be the best way to load the ball on it. We're looking at PVC forks, but again are concerned with staying in the 80" cylinder at full deployment. Hopefully we'll have things all together soon, only 6 days until shipping.

In addition to the robot, we need to build a control box that the drivers use during the competition. We generally use joy sticks to control locomotion and various types of switches to control manipulation components. Our control boxes in recent years have been made from oak and acrylic. They are lovely to look at but are bulky and weight a ton! A group of students have been working on a new design in CAD, something modular, I think, so that it is easier to carry over the long distance from the pits to the playing field.

We have reached a point where everyone and everything is pressed for time. Team commitment becomes extremely important, and so far everyone has been doing a great job staying focused and on task. Everyone is fighting for time on the robot, but at this moment the electrical team is wiring. They are very meticulous and carefully labeling both the distal and proximal ends of each wire to ensure easy tracing in case of problems. We are a bit behind schedule overall, but ahead of how things have progressed in the past. We're hoping to finish soon so that we have at least three solid days for driver practice and field testing.

Thanks to everyone who gave us their ideas on materials to use. We appreciate the knowledge the CR4 community is willing to share with us. As a team, we are very grateful for your interest in our progress, and your suggestions and ideas. These ideas have helped to us to think creatively and come up with solutions to our problems.