Congratulations to Herricks Robotics Team 4487

12/14/11

Accomplished:

• The new sliding device to lift the crates
• tracks laid out - builts two tiers
• Ordered more metal bars to build another tier with

Problems:

• The two tiers can fall off of each other when elevated to a certain angle
• Must find out how to prevent them from falling - attach an angled piece on the top to prevent it from falling all the way?

Cardboard template to be transfered to sheet metal

12/7/11

Accomplishments:

• Power Supply connected to the robot
• Three treads placed in the interior of the robot (top front and back axles placed for the treads)

Problems:

• The scissor jack that was supposed to elevate the crates cannot hold the weight
• Must think of a new idea on how to lift the crate to maximize the amount of points

• Possible ideas include an elevator like device to push the crate upwards, and a system of pulleys that can lift metal pieces
• Must see if we can use string



Scissor Lift for Crate



11/22/11

Accomplished:

• Had a successful bake sale on Monday
• Finalized design for the base of the robot
• New pieces arrived
• Columns built upward from the brace and three braces on the top were made
• Finalized placement of treads
• Four axels for the treads placed in the interior of the robot
• Attempts made to pull the ball into the robot via treads

Problems:

• Treads cannot pull the balls to the back of the robot
• Make it lower?
• Make the elevating mechanism not get jammed
• make the space between the two bars smaller?

10/26/11

Goals:

• Finalize desgins
• Order more parts if needed
• Commuity service work - building picnic tables for the High School Garden (3 Tables)
• Start to edit the elevating mechanism for the arm

Goals for next week:

• work on grabbing mechanism of the robot
• finalize the base of the robot )possibly start to build frame)

10/19/11

Goals: Find the different sizes and quantities of the parts in order to develop ideas of what to do when we get them.

Resource Kit:

Purchase:
http://parts.ftcrobots.com/store/detail.aspx?KeyWords=resource&by=20&ID=6391&c=0&t=0&l=0

Info:
Resource Kit 

Tank Tread Kit

Purchase:
http://parts.ftcrobots.com/store/detail.aspx?KeyWords=tread&by=20&ID=6395&c=0&t=0&l=0

Brainstorm and Rebuild 10/5/11

Ideas to get balls into the crates for point scoring:

Elevator Idea:

• Balls on a platform that moves upward with treads, picks balls up
• Doesn't fall out from an elevator like surrounding brace all around the platform up to the top of the robot where the balls will then fall out
• Very complicated to assemble

Propeller Idea:

• A flat metal piece will act as a propeller constantly moving in a circular motion, taking balls in form the bottom of the robot and then scooping it towards the top while releasing it to the crate in a swift motion. 
• Could get jammed and stuck at places
• Balls must come in one at a time

Tread Idea:

• Treads would move balls along the tracks form the bottom of the robot to the back where the crate will be
• The balls will then rise and eventually fall off the tread into the crate
• Can put a hood on top to make sure the balls don't continue upwards
• This is the idea we are going to attempt first

Progress:

• Base of the robot was made with wheels attached and the crate flipper idea assembled as well

 

Pictures, Disassembly, Rebuild 9/28

Crate Flipper Idea

• A metal bar with a prong coming out in order to latch onto a crate and then rotate 180 degrees to turn it
• In order to lift the crate we could put it on treads and the treads could lift it upwards
• However, the treads might not be able to lift that much weight

Problems:

• We cant add too many connections to the treads also or else the device wont turn
• We could put the device on an extension form the robot such as a second arm
• Or we could just keep the device on the side of the robot and not consider stacking crates 

Brain Storm Ideas For Our Design 9/21/11

Basic Design for the Robot:

• Cubic
• We would start by building a square base
• Then, we would build on top of the base

Today we found out what we will do in order to collect the balls, how we will lift the crates, how we will score, and how we will potentially move the bowling ball up the ramp.

Jordan's idea for picking up the racket balls. Kind of like a snow blower or paddle boat.

 Goals for next week: Take pictures of last years robot so we can make a 3D model of it. Break down last years robot, organize parts, and start rebuilding our new design. Make it modular (basic chassis design)  so in the up coming years we can easily disassemble, repair, or change the important features without having to start from the ground up.

Engineering Notebook

Here is where we will post our weekly meetings.