Introduction

Prototypes will be decided on next Tuesday during the team meeting. During this meeting, the leads of each prototype will go over their designs and do demonstrations of working prototypes. The team will then vote for the subsystems they like. After the team has voted the build leads will discuss the prototypes and make the decision based on how all the designs will work together. The drivetrain might be sent out around the time we finalize the prototypes going on the frame; however, discussions of sending in the frame on Friday are still floating around. At the build leads meeting, we will be discussing whether or not the active will be over the bumper or through the bumper. We will start CADding the prototypes that are decided on as well as any prototypes that are ready to be CADed. After we decide on prototypes we will be able to start building and CADding different parts of the prototypes. Also, PLEASE SEND POORVA PICTURES, IF YOU DO NOT SEND A PICTURE, IT CANNOT BE DOCUMENTED.

Active Intake

For today no major work was done on the active intake. It is still the same as yesterday with the pivoting except just a few rubber hard stops was added to prevent it from bending too far when it goes down. Today we were using CAD to create parts for the active, making it a little more efficient and less bulky by changing some of the angles and lengths of the bars in the front part of the design. 

These not yet specified changes will allow for less weight to have to be pivoted meaning that when picking up blocks or suddenly having to pull up the active, the robot can do that with relative ease and speed. We have some concerns with the way the robot might work since right now this system is quite heavy and the elevator will be significantly slower if it was attached to the lift system, but if there was another subsystem added to pull the power cube out of the active, this will slow down the picking up of blocks and also 

this system may not be strong enough to pull the cube out of the grip of the strong rubber wheels. We have ordered green compliant wheels that very effectively grab and hold the cube which is great for pulling in the cubes but is going to be incredibly difficult if there is another subsystem that has to yank it out.

Elevator

Today we finished all stages of the elevator. The elevator will allow blocks to be raised up to the scale, and may potentially act as a climber. In its current state, it is able to reach up around 90 inches. The video below is a prototype test of just one stage. Additionally, some freshmen started to work on a claw inside the elevator to manipulate the cube.

*Picture for this prototype version will be available at a future date.*

Other lift prototypes:

This is another prototype for a lift that is being worked on in the room. It takes the elements of the lift and also adds a little bit of what seems to be an extension to make the arm go up instead of using a lift mechanism.

 

Climber

A portion of the team has been working on a climber. The main idea behind this climber is to have a detachable claw that will grab onto the bar and use a winch to
lift the robot up. The hook that has been inspired by a logging hook. It is like two hooks that nestle together. The hooks can only be pushed apart from the top. This allows the hook to grab onto the bar and not let go of the bar. This hook is delivered by a spring-loaded arm. The hook detaches from the arm as well. The arm is what is currently being adjusted. The plan for tomorrow is to make improvements to arm spring.

Other prototypes

Another candidate for the apparatus we will be using to grab the power cubes is, simply put, arms that close in on the power cubes. Two pneumatic powered arms are attached   “arms” that are fastened perpendicularly to the pneumatic cylinders. These arms will be fastened to opposing sides of the robot, and when activated, will close together. The arms will effectively grab power cubes between them so that they may be lifted to be placed on either the switch, scale, or within the vault. While this design is unable to grab cubes that are at an angle to the robot, it does have the advantage of being simple.

Programming/Pure Pursuit

Programmers started working on Pure Pursuit a couple days ago. We primarily focused our effort on it today. Seeing the robot slowly move from stand-still to making unpredictable jolts to the more controlled movement has been very exciting. Even though we are way ahead of schedule (good job!), debugging Pure Pursuit can seem like a slow task. However, with each nail down in fixing the unexpected, we are approaching our goal.

CAD

Today, there was a CAD meeting. This was a very important CAD meeting as we discussed when we were going to send drawings of the drivetrain to CEM to get it machined. The general consensus at the meeting was that the drawings should be sent after prototypes are finalized in the event that one of the prototypes requires the drivetrain to be resized. However, given the estimated return time of 1-2 weeks, it is still debated whether this is a good idea. Additionally, the deadline for subsystem CADs was discussed and set for January 22nd. However, due to the long return time, ideas of an earlier deadline are still floating around.

IF YOU ARE LEADING A PROTOTYPE, GET STARTED ON ITS CAD ASAP! THE SOLIDWORKS KEY IS AVAILABLE FROM THE CAD LEAD
THE HP LAPTOP IN THE ROOM HAS SOLIDWORKS AND DROPBOX INSTALLED