Final Post

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we spent a lot of time machining last-minute components and making adjustments. One of the adjustments was to lighten our scoring arm, which backfired and cost our team valuable time. By the day of the seeding though, our machine was completely finished. If we had some more time, there are a couple of minor adjustments that we would have made to increase our motor efficiency. Our finished robot consisted of a jamming arm and a scoring arm. The jamming arm was made of square tube stock and a ratchet, both of which attached to a piece of aluminum hex stock. The jamming arm started in the upright position and was driven by a motor with a string. The string came off the jamming arm when the jamming arm swung down. The momentum of the hammer (the heavy weight at the end of the jamming arm) pushed the flipper backward. The ratchet locked and held the jamming arm in its position.

The second part of our robot was the scoring arm. The scoring arm had an outer tube, an inner tube, a threaded rod, two planetary gears and gearboxes, a coupling, a motor mount, and a mounting plate. The scoring arm was driven by a motor outside of the frame, which was connected to an axle (by a coupling), which was fastened to the motor mount by some set screws and e-clips. The inner arm contained a threaded coupling, which allowed the inner arm to be driven up and down by spinning a threaded rod. The threaded rod was connected to a coupling, which connected to the motor, which was mounted vertically. We used a low gear ratio to allow the inner arm to move as fast as possible. The motor was mounted by an L-bracket and the mounting plate.

In the slot bots competition, our robot failed to successfully score as the result of a lack in power from the outer motor. This power was lost because of the flexible coupling. If we had more time, we would have made a different type of coupling. Our jamming arm worked successfully, but unfortunately, our first and only opponent’s strategy was to score on top, not in the slot. Even though our team didn’t win, we feel that if we had more time, our robot would have done much better in the competition.

Final Bill of Materials