Mechanical

With just over 17 days on the clock, the Mechanical Team is frantically assembling our robot. After two days of hard work, our chassis team has gotten the frame mostly riveted together and ready for the drivetrain components while the tower team has built its frame and is installing the urethane cord rollers. As several students have commented, this is the easiest time we have had assembling our robot in years.

This ease of assembly is all thanks to one company: Metal Innovations, Inc. Before the build season, I contacted Metal Innovations to see if they would be willing to laser cut parts for the team, as they had in 2008. They generously offered to donate not only machine time, but material as well. In addition, they agreed to produce enough parts to make two robots: one that will be bagged on the 21st, and another that our drivers will use to hone their skills before competition.  Their generosity has not only helped us build a robot that will work well and look slick, but has helped the team learn about the importance of design.  Seeing the sheet metal parts go from 3D models in Inventor to precision machined parts demonstrated to all of us the power of Computer Aided Design.

A picture of the chassis being built from the laser cut sheet metal donated by Metal Innovations:

As week one draws to a close, it is time to provide an update on the status of our robot. For the past week, our prototyping teams have been hard at work figuring out ways to launch the basketballs. The field team had to “hurry up and wait” for the opportunity to purchase the materials, but have started building replicas of certain field elements. The Computer Aided Design team has frantically been designing the team’s robot for this year, trying to work out its kinks digitally, before a single part is cut.

To give you an idea of what it is going to look like, this year’s robot is going to have a six-wheel drive in a custom sheet metal chassis specifically designed to make traversing the 4 inch tall, 6 inch wide barrier that spans the middle of the field easy. The laser cut sheet metal has generously been donated by Metal Innovations, and will greatly expedite the process of building the robot. The six wheel, drop-center drivetrain will be powered by the two two-speed AndyMark SuperShifters, allowing it to both speed across the field and power through any defenders that happen to get in our way. The manipulator, whatever we decide it will be, will be perched atop our ball collection column, which both collects the basketballs from the ground and stores them in polycord conveyors before they are deposited in the hoops. The electronics board is slung underneath the column’s angled supports, making it the most usable e-board our team has built to date. Though our bumper attachment system is still being designed, it too will be easier to use than in previous years. All around, this is shaping up to be a very good robot.
Now to give you a visual, here is a render of the CAD model of this year’s robot, which was made in Autodesk Inventor.

On Saturday the 14th, the team conducted our first ever Design Review, in which I led the team members and mentors through our robot design, describing how each subsystem works and discussing issues that the team members and mentors saw. Though the review was a long and arduous process, as a team we identified several weak points in the design and worked out solutions to each problem. After the CAD team rectified the identified issues, the sheet metal part files were sent to Metal Innovations for laser cutting.

As we enter into the second week, our prototyping teams will continue to work on ways to shoot the basketballs into the goals, while the rest of the Mechanical Team will begin to machine parts for the robot.

36 Days until Stop Work Day.

First, I must submit a complaint about the quip describing the Mechanical Department: it doesn’t include rivets.

My name is Ian, and I am the leader of the Mechanical Department this year.  My role involves overseeing research, design, and fabrication of the team’s robot.  Ultimately, this job essentially entails making sure the necessary work gets done to build a competitive robot.

The Mechanical Department has been hard at work the past few weeks.  We have been working to design and begin fabrication of our robot for Catlin Gable’s BunnyBot competition.  So far, we have decided to use a very traditional 6 wheel drivetrain based off of the kitbot chassis.  Today, our rookie members decided to use a very simple scoop to gather bunnies after comparing the prototypes they had produced.  Meanwhile, other members have been experimenting with the allowed Nerf gun, deciding how to optimize its performance and mount it to the robot.  If everything goes according to plan, we should have a functioning robot with time to spare.

18 days until BunnyBot, 39 days until Kickoff.