1/6/2014 Day 2: On to the Next Steps, Time to Apply Strategy

Today (first day after school) was the beginning of the splitting into subgroups, which are shooter/launcher, intake, drivetrain, and catcher.  Each are definitely at different stages, but all still going according to the Engineering Design Process.

Shooter

After much discussion involving the shooter and playing with the ball, a couple concepts were thought of.  As there was a similar game in 2008, we mostly pulled from the knowledge and past experience of the mentors, who were on a team in 2008, as well as videos from robots in 2008.  As seen by punching the ball in the air, the ball could be launched with a puncher, but only for a fairly short range.  Instead of a puncher though, the shooter group began prototyping a spring powered shooter using our old robot cart, surgical tubing, a small pole, hose clamps, and some 2"x4".



By the end of the day, we finished and launched twice, but both were ineffective and fairly weak, although this was most likely due to the lack of tension in the surgical tubing.  Overall, today was a very promising Day 2 for the shooter.  Day 4 will consist of adjustments to the shooter, and the shooter is now already out of conceptual design and burying itself into preliminary design.

Intake

Similar to the shooter, the intake was quickly leaving the conceptual design state, but was stuck in a debating state.  As we have worked with different types of intakes, the intake group had several concepts down, and it is more so a matter of the catapult group to finish first.  Similar to the other past designs, the two primary ideas are a roller intake and a claw intake.  The roller intake would need at least one motor to power it, while the claw would need at least two motors or three pistons to power it.



As roller intakes are simpler and almost immediate in the intake process, while a claw is a little slower, the idea of using a roller intake is being leaned toward by the intake team.  Other options are being considered as a "just in case" a different type of intake might have other advantages.  Also, we observed all of the "Robot in 3 Days" teams are using roller intakes for their bots, and are extremely effective and consistent in picking up the ball.  The biggest question, though, as brought up previously, is "What is most compatible with the shooter?"

Drivetrain

As we decided to use a basic tank drive, we plan on using a modified kit bot, 6 wheels and 6 CIM motors (simplest thing that meets and exceeds our requirements).  The size of the kit bot is 32"x32", which is too large, but the launcher is needed before modifying the drivetrain.  Although it will be modified, the drivetrain team finished putting together the large kit bot and started mounting the electronics to it, so we can test any prototypes we build.



Catching

While the other three are essential and absolutely required for the robot, the catching mechanism is what I decided to work on, due to a previous lack of concepts, other than increase surface size, and lack of interest on the catching mechanism from other members.  Today the catching team worked on possible ideas of catching shapes, with a funnel as the easiest, since it is passive and the most logical shape for catching and passively directing an object.  By the end of the day, we had a general idea of how it would work and be actuated, but was not yet sure what material it would be made of.

Approximate times of working: 3:30 PM -7:30 PM (Half hour break in between)