Our robot for the Infinite Recharge competition, named the Millenium Raven, was a climbing and ball collecting robot running on six wheels. This year, our robot was based on a modular design to have easier access to the robot components when modifying and repairing the robot without having to completely take it apart. This also allowed for the complete replacement of a mechanism if it stopped working.
Design Objectives:
In regards to the game, the team decided to focus on being a transport bot that could also score in the lower port. These were our objectives:
- Ability to carry power cells from loading bay to ‘shooter’ bot in minimum time
- Make the robot modular
- Have an inner intake to avoid tech fouls and to lower the potential risk of damaging the mechanism
- Ability to go under the control panel to make it easier for taller ‘shooter’ robots to score
- Ability to complete the rotation and position functions of the control panel
Design Principles:
In order to meet the objectives outlined above, we adhered to the following parameters:
- Meet dimension restrictions (32in x 28in x 40in)
- Minimum ground clearance of 1 ¾ inch
- Pneumatics climbing mechanism to climb at the end of the round
- The Intake mechanism to collect the balls from the field to be more appealing for alliance selection
- Dual speed transmission, one for speed and the other for torque
- Camera to help the driver to align the robot
- Hopper was designed to unload and hold up to 5 balls at a time
- The height of the robot must be less than 28 inches to fit under the control panel
Lessons Learned:
- Learned about the capability of vision
- Learned about the importance of making timely decisions
- Learned about the practicality of modular robots