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Nuts and Bolts

  • Sriram Sethuraman (Mechanical/Software)
  • Mark Mitchell (Mechanical/Electrical)
  • Cole Ruehle (Electrical/Software)
  • Pyae Sone Nyo Hmine (Software)
  • Nico Mangiafico (Mechanical/Software)

Daily Log

1/11/2024

1/12/2024

1/15/2024 - MLK Day

  • Lab was closed so we redesigned the frame and added an intake system

1/16/2024

  • We laser cut and assembled our new frame and also discussed strategy
  • Our intention was to test the intake but we didn't have the time

1/17/2024

  • We tested our intake design and it has promise.
  • There are a few problems to solve such as increased friction on the bands and better fastening and smoother rotation which we will redesign this weekend.

1/18/2024

1/19/2024-1/21/2024

  • We redesigned the robot in onshape and ordered our necessary components after prototyping the intake design.

1/22/2024

1/23/2024-1/25/2024

  • We were waiting on the parts we ordered, and 3D printed other components. We attached the glued components to the robot.

1/26/2024

1/29/2024

  • Complete redesign of the robot after realizing that our stacking mechanism wouldn't function properly. Completed CAD of robot, laser cut out all parts, and fully assembled the base structure of the robot, maintaining the previous wiring.

1/30/2024

1/31/2024 Tested different motor types, along with began prototyping a better way to connect the front motor to the shaft system, used for intaking blocks into the conveyor.

2/1/2024 Added top shelf to aid in intaking the blocks consistently along with debugging motor problems previously discovered. Created and tested differing lengths of belts, coming to an optimal solution and allowed the belts to dry for the final competition.

Strategy

  • Our main strategy started out as defense.

  • Initially thought that eating all the blocks would be the best strategy, along with defending the opposing teams stacks on the center platform, then finally placing a stack on the center platform to gain the maximum amount of points.

  • Then moved to a more floor stacking strategy, since it would be much easier and the opposing side would be unable to knock the blocks over.

  • Lastly, after realizing that our stacking mechanism would not be able to work in time for the competition, we pivoted to a much more robust and simple strategy of simply eating every block we can in order to minimize the risk of stacks not staying upright.

Design

  • When we started the project, we were immediately insistant that we use a large front intake to make the collection process as seamless and easy as possible. This would also allow us to collect the majority of blocks that we use over all of teh competition in the first few seconds/ minute of the competition giving us an advantage of choices to make with what to do with the rest of the competition.
  • Our first design involved sturdy rakes that pull blocks in putting them onto a wide conveyor with a choice for storage or stacking in the back. We did not tesign the stacking component, but planned to have stored blocks fall directly into an internal storage componenent.
  • To improve that tesign we designed the input that would tak ethe block up to the stacking location;. At the top it would be moved by a servo either into the stack, or pushed over into an internal storage. It brings all blocks up to a high point making it easy to either drop them into a stack or into a large storage compartment. We also switched from solid rakes to using grippy wheel rolers on a pivoting arm. These arms allow for the weiht of the wheels to push down on any blocks being taken in, but also allow htem to move up to maintain constant contact with the block they are bringing in.
  • We found that the process of stacking blocks was more difficult than storing for points. Also stacks were easily klnocked over by vibrations and movement of the vehicle. Due to that we have addapted a storage apporack necessitating a change in teh design of our robot. Now we increased the number of rolers, and shortened the conveyor to allow them to be taken in more efficiently. We also added variable mounts for the motors, which will allow us to maintain tension on all belts. Finally we expanded teh rear storage and added mounting points for the NUC, Power converter, and Battery. Finally we removed back wall/support found in the original design to improve that ease of wiring, and added new mounting screws for the front side walls which we found were under a large amount of stress.

Challenges:

  • One of our major issues throughout the process was the deurability of our materials. In order to build the large intake with a conveyor we needed a large number of ruber bands with non-neglegable tension (As with too little tension they would deform allowing the blocks to roll back down". This caused us to have issues with using simple roller designs such as dowells and bolts rather than well built bearings and machined axels to hold this area of tension. Furthermore, we had a goal of building substantial proportions of the machine (especially the arms and top plate assembly which obstruct the view to large intake system). While we originally had faith in the fact that this would ne adequately strong to pull in the blocks but they turned out to be brittle to the extent that it was detrimental to our progress.
  • Github was a struggle for us since we weren't able to push all our files in the src file after the 3rd commit. Because of this, we weren't able to save our progress properly which causes issues when we had hardware issues and had to replace our NUC. But, we were able to save the file locally so having that log was helpful for us in debugging our new code and getting our robot ready for the competition.