2010 Teams 254/968 Collaborative Build Blog

Today, the team worked to optimize the kicker and arm. The surgical tubing on the kicker was replaced with trampoline springs, to make it more easy to get a repeatable and known force. A gas spring was installed on the first stage of the arm to aid in arm deployment. Finally, limit switches were added in the pole grabber and on the arm to completely automate the lifting.

Now, thanks to help from the software team, once the arm deployed switch is flipped, the arm will deploy automatically. While the switch is still up, the robot will lift immediately once it is locked onto the bar and will stop when it has reached its final lifted position. This automation is an improvement in speed over what human drivers were able to obtain, due to prior uncertainty about whether or not the robot was locked on the pole.

Today, the design team worked to design the polycarbonate side shields for the robots. Due to weight issues, we will probably not be able to implement all of the polycarbonate shields on the robot.

The team also designed the cutouts which will be made on the bumper spacer tubes. The cutouts reduce the weight of the tube by over 50% by pocketing the side faces to keep proper bumper spacing and facing down the top and bottom faces from 1/8" to 1/16".

Today, the design team completed the design on replacements for the Hard Stop Mounting Plates. The replacements will extend the plate back to support the PTO shaft directly above the gearboxes after said shaft was identified as a potential point of failure. The plates also include provisions for a new bar to mount the surgical tubing for the kicker on.

Later on in the day, the manufacturing team built two prototypes of aforementioned plates which will be installed and tested tomorrow.

Today the kicker plate was shortened.  The shorter plate contacts the ball higher up on the ball, giving it a flatter trajectory. A rope was added as a hard stop, which prevents the kicker from contacting the roller system.
Original video unavailable.
Original video unavailable.
Original video unavailable.

As of 2:00 PM today the robot was delivered to drayage and confirmation of shipment has been sent to FIRST.

The Robot Was Crated Tonight.  Final Weights of Shipped Components:

• Drivebase (without cRio) - 52 lbs
• Arm - 19 lbs

The superstructure was withheld as part of the 65 lb withholding allowance.

Today, we (almost) finished assembling the drivetrain and kicker winch gearboxes. We also made further progress on the bumper fabrication.

Here's some photos to pass your time.

Today progress was made on the bumper pieces, including machining the wood and corner brackets.  We hope to finish the bumper structure by the end of Friday, to begin material cutting and sewing on Saturday.  At this time, I do not expect the bumpers to be complete before ship, as the sewing is estimated to take a few days.

Tonight we drilled the arms to fit the bushings.  Below is a picture showing the drilling operation.

Tomorrow we will begin assembling the arm, and make any necessary adjustments for proper fitment.

MANUFACTURING

The manufacturing team worked hard today to machine the ratchets and finish the bar grabbing clamps.  The lathe was also hard at work making spacers, standoffs and shafts.

ASSEMBLY

After the arms returned from the powder coat shop today, several members of the assembly team assembled one complete arm (minus sprockets which will arrive from anodize tomorrow).

FIELD CONSTRUCTION

The field construction team worked hard today to continue to carpet the bumps and other field elements.  The field should be completed in the next few days.

At the proving grounds, multiple teams worked on various parts of the robot to ensure that major components will be complete by the weekend.

In the design department, students and mentors completed the PCB design for both the gyroscope carrier and a revised LED driver. The PCB was sent to fab at 11:00PM. We will receive them Friday.

Down at the assembly line, students and mentors assembled major components in the drivetrain gearboxes. Unfortunately, the entire gearbox was not fully assembled due to the lack of a few components(PTO sprocket, gearbox standoffs).

Both robots' wiring is almost complete. Tomorrow, we will complete the wiring by adding the 4AWG cables.