Update from 9-29

Recently, we noticed that the arms on my robot wobbled too much. So we set out to fix this. What we came up with was surgical tubing going from connection point of the two arms to a rail. As the arm moves to different positions, the support will move along the rail to line up and continue to provide support.

Grand Ol' Update

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Many advancements have been made on the 6WD robot. The roller claw has been finished and added to the robot. On the 2nd stage of the arm, we've added a 5:1 gearing from the motor to the sprocket. This will make it so that the arm can support the weight of the claw and game objects. (picture 1-3)

The other team has also finished their intake system. They added gearing on the top of the tower so that it can pivot to reach higher towers. Testing for this mechanism will be most likely be done Saturay the 24th. (pictures 4-5)

There will be no updates on Tuesday the 20th or Thursday the 22nd.

Update from 9/1

In preparation for upcoming events. We've decided to create a sensor bot. Using the values/codefrom this bot, we will create autonomous codes for our competition bots.

For my robot, I've added the second stage of the arm. During our next meeting, I will prototype a roller claw.

There will be no update for 9/3 due it beeing Labor Day weekend.

Last Week Off Before School Starts

The area where we usually meet is being cleaned heavily this entire week and upcoming weekend, so the entire team is taking a week off before school starts next week.

We are going to start recruiting for the incoming freshmen and it will be interesting to see how we handle this Fall semester. Last year, the new students worked alongside the veteran members. This year, we may try and field a truly freshmen team and a sophomore fall semester team.

Below is the latest update from the robot that our student Evan is working on -

Below is potentially one idea for what will become the second stage of this arm -

Update from 8-11

Here's a quick update from earlier tonight. We weren't able to do much tonight because we were preparing for Saturday's FRC competition.

The H-Drive had some tower updates. Rack and pinions were added to the tower so that the mechanism can reach the 30" goals. The picture shows one side of the tower, the other side was added after the picture.

The 'H' in the drive was removed so that the tower/mechanism could use more motors

For the 6-wheel drive, I started prototyping a 6-bar linkage/extended 4-bar.

Next Tuesday, I will upload pictures of the prototype. (no Saturday update)

Update from 8-9 Meeting

The above photos are of the completed 6-wheel drive train that I've been working on. I plan on adding gripping on the middle traction wheel so that they are level with the omni-wheels.

Before I add the tower+claw from the other drive, I plan on prototyping a 6 bar linkage and a roller claw. (not necessarily together)

Another member of the team has been working on a drive to support his mechanism. (the c-shaped drive in the video below) The drive was made from a failed holonomic base that was attempted beforehand.

Disclaimer: this base is not to be confused with the other C-Drive/Bracket Drive that I've made.

Our h-drive has also been tested recently.

The video (below) show how the mechanism works. The other members plan on adding support to the mechanism to prevent the shaky behavior when moving. Linear actuators will also be added so that the mechanism can reach the 30" goals.

Update from 8/6 Meeting

This past Saturday, many changes were made to my robot. I've completely redone the drive from the ground up. The bracket drive was not working out due to tipping and excessive weight. This lead to a new 6-wheel drive train in its place.

The drive uses 4 motors to power chain connected to 6 wheels.

The other robot our team is working on has been upgraded in terms of a mechanism.

The mechanism intakes from the front of the drive, then rotates upwards and reverses the intakes so that objects fall into the goals.

07-09-11 Weekend Update

Just a few more photos from the weekend, the 4-bar is coming along nicely, still trying to figure out a way to integrate extending linear slides to connect to the claw -

And here's the table of concepts and drives so far. Getting to the point of just integrating everything together -

Lots of tweaks and changes still happening though. Most likely these robots will still look different in the coming weeks ahead. Don't expect much of an update this week, the students are helping run a VEX summer camp for incoming freshmen students. This will serve as a fun summer learning experience for the incoming students, and possibly a way to drum up interest for the team once the school year starts.

Videos of Mechanism Prototypes

Below are some videos of prototypes we have been working on over the last week -

So something nice that i saw while watching the first match of the year over again. Team 1727 D used a conveyor cage but to make the objects come out towards the goal they had one hard flap to push the piece through (at least it looked like it). if what i am working on fails that is definatly possible

Modified Claw

Not much of an update, just that the claw concept has been modified and is nearly ready to be tested. Both drive bases are nearly finished as well with mechanism construction taking priority now.

C-Drive Base Drive Test

This video was taken last Saturday. We call it the C-drive base and one of the nice advantages that it has is the ability to pivot around game objects to allow manipulators to grab the game objects from the correct angle or side.

Drives Nearly Finished and Conveyor Mechanism Prototype (with video)

The team has been meeting all this week during the day to help run the Lego camp for younger aged students. During the evenings, we are still working on finishing the two drive systems which are nearly complete. Thanks to Radnor Robotics who let us borrow their game field and border for practice.

Ranier worked on getting his conveyor belt concept up and running. The initial sketch was shown in a previous post. It currently uses a belt on each side to move the game objects up and down.

Below is a video of the first test -

Carpet Day & Lego Camp

The team took some time off from VEX on Saturday to organize the wood shop room. This is done every summer so that students can practice driving the previous year's robot and actually learn how to drive a mecanum drive system.

The rest of the students worked on assembling Lego game field pieces for a summer camp being run by Team 357. Each week students will be able to come to Upper Darby High School and get to build Lego NXT robots under the guidance of our teachers and students.

The claw shown in a previous post has begun to be manufactured and it is looking promising. It can pick up both a barrel and a ball individually and it can also pick both of them up if they are stacked.

Look for more updates this week!

Conveyor claw mock up on word

Green squares are motors green circles are gears.

Lesson on Torque and More Brainstorming

Updated By: Michael Pereira

Today team 357 had a mini-lesson about Torque. (Torque = Length of Lever Arm x Force [ t= (r) x ( F) ]. This is important to figure out the appropriate gear ratio to account for when designing our mechanisms. Using the formula for torque, we can determine how heavy and large our mechanisms can be without risking destroying our motors in the process.

After the lesson on torque, we discussed possible mechanisms to use for this year's competition. They included specifically a conveyor system on a 4-bar arm and a claw mechanism attached to a 4-bar arm.

After that we had split off into our separate groups and worked on different parts of the robot.
Some worked on the H-Drive and a member, Evan, completed the C-Drive prototype drive base. Two members of the team began working on a conveyor-belt system for a mechanism.

More photos after the break!

Video from Alex's Lemonade

06-14-11 Tuesday Meeting Update

Tonight the team discussed what mechanisms can be used to play the VEX game Gateway. The team is prototyping an intake roller claw, conveyor belt mechanism and a standard open / close claw.

The team has narrowed the drive choices to an H-drive, a 4-wheel and a 6-wheel drive. The B team has proposed a C-drive, but it has yet to be decided to be tested.

Tonight the team also listed some design requirements to have a list of requirements for everyone's prototypes to follow for the overall robot's design:

• Consistently score game pieces.

• Reliable autonomous-consistently simple

• Score at least one game object at a time at a minimum

• Have the ability to manipulate both types of game objects - barrel and ball, regardless of the game piece's orientation

• Simple, reliable drive train; simple to operate on a controls level as well

• Have the ability to score in all goals, regardless of the goal's height

• Must have for first competition: At least 1 at time game piece scoring

• Nice to have for first competition: holding and scoring multiple pieces at a time

• Driver should just drive and not have to worry about controlling any scoring mechanism

• The other operator should handle all scoring controls

• Utilize Pre-loads and Human loaded objects

Posted by Kevin Phan on 06-14-11

Claw Concept

This is one idea for a claw that is in the works. This was mainly created as a study on how the game objects being stacked on top of one another would effect how they are picked up. While the barrel and ball have the same outer diameter, the ball's cross sectional area decreases as you move lower and higher in reference to the floor.

Alex's Lemonade

Royal Assault participated in the Alex's Lemonade Stand event at Penn Wynne Elementary School last Saturday. We had lots of young students have a chance to drive the VEX robot from Round Up, see some of the photos below. For more information on Alex's Lemonade, go to www.alexslemonade.org

Check out more photos from this event after the jump.