Build Blog Week 1, part the first
January 9, 2009
Ah, a new build season. Six weeks of work, sweat, insufficient sleep, crazy ideas and fun. As usual, the season started off with kickoff, more specifically the game animation. For those of you who haven’t seen the video yet, you can find it here. After picking up the kit of parts, (it’s like Christmas, only better), we brainstormed on the bus ride back. We came up with a few ideas, some of which ended up not working, and some which are still undergoing testing.
Manipulator Ideas
Our first idea was to use some sort of conveyor system to pick up and shoot the orbit balls, however, various logistical and technical difficulties caused us to look elsewhere for the manipulator. The second solution we tried was just using a bulldozer type blade on the front of the robot to shove the balls back to the human players. We decided to use the blade on the final build, but decided to design something to make the robot able to score as well. To that end, we turned to a dump truck style system, dumping balls from a hopper directly into the trailer. Sadly, the rules update rendered this idea illegal. With idea number three dead in the water, we decided to modify it enough to keep it legal, but still effective. The hopper idea was kept, but the delivery system was changed from a dump truck style to something more akin to a catapult. A model was built, tested, and found to work. Once we have a trailer built, more tests will be conducted and the true validity of our ideas will be seen. That remains for this weekend/next week.
Drive Train Ideas
Since the new surface and required rover wheels kill any of our preseason drive train ideas, we were effectively back to square one. As with many teams, our first idea was an airboat design, but once again, the cold realities of physics strike, and render the idea impractical. For a driven wheel system, we decided test out a few different designs, a four-wheel go-kart steering system, along with skid steering systems of various chassis types and wheel numbers. More on that next week.
Other Events
Well, aside from getting this website up and running, (about a month overdue, sorry), we’ve been running around trying to find more orbit balls, with limited success. We succeeded at getting a damaged one, which was also the last one in stock at the local wal-mart. The ball is now repaired, huzah!
The Goodies Section
January 8, 2009
Ah yes, the goodies section. Where all the random stuff we churn out can find a home. Expect to see a build blog this year, where we'll be Chronicling the construction of our machine.
