Today was the first of several weekdays of school missed by the team, but today is due to a holiday rather than a competition or lack of sleep. As the first marathon day (what most robotics kids call a holiday during build season) of the marathon of a build season, a lot was done and, as the title suggests, affirmation of concepts, as well as pleasant surprises.
Shooter Assembly
As the shooter was the main mechanism for scoring and getting points in general for this game, the shooter was worked on heavily today, with a positive outcome. After taking out the pistons, we put on the crude version of the tower (a large thing that sticks out the back to hold the surgical tubing) we made earlier, and started lacing the surgical tubing in loops around the top piece of conduit at the top of the tower and the catapult.
Also, we finally finished the winch (something that can drive something one way, but be loose when the direction of travel is reversed) (kinda like a motor attached to a ratchet). For the winch, we just used one of our two-speed gearboxes from last year, and took out a gear, so its two motions are forward and neutral. The gearbox has an axle in it that acts as a spool, and there is a strap attaching the axle to the catapult, so when the axle turns, it wraps the strap, again, similar to what a spool does with thread, pulling down the catapult and stretching the surgical tubing in the process. For today, we had the winch be driven by only one CIM motor, which is different, as we plan on using two Mini CIM motors (two mini CIMs has 30% more power than one CIM). Although we had less power, the winch didn't have much trouble with pulling back the catapult and latching it.
As for the shooter performance itself, the shooter had enough power to accomplish what we needed, with a straight-on view of the robot shooting here, and a video of its best shot here. The average shot (as it says in on the page with the video) was similar to the video, at 13.5' high and 33' away, which was fairly high, but solid distance. After changing the angle by elevating the back, we were able to shoot the ball nearly 40'. Even though this was fairly successful, we definitely could add more surgical tubing to increase power.
(For grins and giggles, we also shot the 2012 game piece, the foam basketball, which has a radius one-third of the big ball. Makes for one impressive shot, and that video can be found here.)
This prototype showed us the surgical tubing concept was definitely the way to go in terms of types of catapults/shooters, at it was just a matter of beginning to move into the detailed design process finally for the shooter.
Intake
Since most of the day was taken working on the shooter, the intake side rollers were only partially designed today, in terms of their position and their mounting. Other than that, not much else happened, since the shooter was the big event today.
Drive Base
Similar to what happened with the intake today, not much really happened for the drive base, since everyone was outside socializing and watching the shooter, although the new kit of parts drive train should be coming reasonably soon.
Approximate times of working: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
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