Today, the subsystem structures were finished being built, and the meeting was a little shorter due to a Xerocraft meeting.
Shooter
Today was the completion of the riveting of the shooter. All that was left was putting bolts through the gussets to hold the two pieces and two pistons together.
Intake
Today the intake team completed the intake. After installing the ABS tube for the roller, the team glued on the coarse plastic paper to help the intake roller get a grip on the ball. Also, the team was able to successfully mount the motor that drives the roller easily, so the intake subsystem was finished for now, and just needs to be mounted to the frame tomorrow.
Drivetrain
As everything was finishing up, talk about what the size of the drive base should be began. As of now, decisions are between making a wide base (23"x32") or a square base (28"x28"), and the narrow base (32"x 23") has been eliminated based on requirements. In terms of holding the ball, the wide or square bases would be okay, and the ball would be wider than the robot if the bot were narrow, making it practically impossible to pick up with a roller intake. The main trade-offs were that the wide base has a huge intake, meaning drivers don't have to be as precise, but is harder to drive, while the square base is easier to drive with, but has a smaller intake, meaning drivers have to be more precise when driving. As picking up game pieces is what takes the most time, we were leaning toward a wide base, and, although it's harder to drive and maneuver with, the intake size compensates for that, and there will be plenty of practice time after build season ends.
Catcher
As the general catcher concepts are finished, and actually making it heavily relies on the rest of the robot, we have stopped practically all catcher action for now and split to help with the other subsystems and awards, so today the catcher was not worked on, and most likely won't be continued until everything else is done.
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