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Mechanical is tasked with the actual construction and overall design of the robot itself-as well as the fabrication of different parts needed for said construction. Typically, this process begins with the design process, and thus first starts with the Empathize phase. During this phase, research into different robot designs is conducted, and notes are taken on what other teams are doing. The theme for the year's competition is also analyzed, which leads directly into the Define phase of the design process.
During this phase, the competition rules are reviewed, and it is through this that the criteria and constraints for the robot are created. For clarification, criteria are what the robot needs to be able to do effectively and efficiently–while constraints are essentially the restrictions placed upon the robot (what is and isn’t allowed for a play, how big the robot can be, etc.).
Once these aspects of our design are set in stone, we can then move on to the Ideate phase. This phase of the design process is when initial concepts and prototypes are created based both on the criteria/constraints and what has/hasn’t worked in past years. These various ideas are then condensed into an overall prototype design during the aptly named Prototype phase of the design process–during which the initial prototype of the robot’s subsystems are created.
The final phase is Test, which is exactly what it sounds like: The robot prototype is tested thoroughly, and any tweaks or changes to the design are recognized, made, and applied to the final design.
All of this work is done in our own in-house shop area. This shop contains many whiteboards for drafting, a full practice field (built by us), tools such as ratchets, drills, hex keys, and wrenches and machinery such as drill presses, vertical bandsaws, circular wood saws, CNC machines, and hacksaws (courtesy of The PAST Foundation).
These tools are utilized to fabricate parts such as metal plates and beams, polycarb plates, and even wooden pieces, such as our trademark Intake Turtle! (iykyk).
Elijah (Mechanical)
Electrical is a small subgroup responsible for designing the electrical board, belly pan, and pneumatics system. Electrical also handles battery, wire and tube management.
To design the electrical board, we CAD (using Onshape) simple representations of different components to fit them with our mechanicals subgroups’ CAD. This also involves communicating with our mechanical subgroup frequently about where space is available on the belly pan. The same process is used to design the pneumatics system, if one is needed.
The wires and pneumatic tubing are mounted on the belly pan with an intricate “plug-and-play” system. For wire management, we use zip ties and twisty ties. We have small adhesive plastic mounts that we can attach zip ties to so we do not have to put in additional holes. We use Anderson connectors to transmit power, and Dupont Connectors (male-female connectors) for transmitting CAN (controller area network).
We use one 12V battery and one continuous CAN line that runs through all motor controllers.
Our pneumatic system typically runs at a system pressure of 120 psi and a working pressure of 60 psi. Overall, we use our small size as a subgroup and our collaborative nature to work through problems and integrate different subsystems into our robot.
Glenn (Electrical)
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed dictum magna ut sapien lobortis aliquet.