Arthur
Arthur's drivetrain was made of four wheels that were each individually powered by 393 motors for maximum power abilities. The lift was very basic. It was two parallel aluminum arms, each powered by a 393 motor, to lessen burnout possibilities. Each arm had a potentiometer, using buttons on the controller, we could move the lift into preset positions. The lift flipped beanbags over the top of Arthur to score them into the trough, and occasionally the high goal. Because it flipped over the top, we added weights to keep Arthur on four wheels at all times.
2012-2013 Sack Attack
Sir Lancelot
Sir Lancelot had four wheels attached to a U-shaped chassis that was powered by four high speed motors. For his lift, we had an eight bar linkage with rubber bands for increased torque, powered by four motors geared 4:1. His intake was a top roller with flaps to grip the field elements, it was mounted on a pivot point connected to the end of the lift. It could also be used in reverse to pick up the beach balls and flip them up into the beachball scorer. His lift could move the intake system to the stash tubes and flip them onto the top of the stash tubes for scoring.
2013-2014 Toss Up
2014-2015 Skyrise
Merlin
Merlin's drive train was a four motor 1:1 high-speed mecanum drive. His lift was a double reverse chain lift, not to be confused with a double reverse 4-bar. It used a simple but effective chain intake, that had three cube holes, or we could swap one of them for a passive skyrise claw
Bedivere
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The drive train consisted of four high-speed motors, each powering on mecanum wheel directly. This allowed us to strafe side-to-side and turn in our own space. The wheels were mounted to an aluminum chassis for less weight. It had tank tread in the front to funnel balls into the intake. We had optical shaft encoders mounted on the front wheels to make our autonomi more accurate.
The first stage intake allowed us to collect balls that were up against the wall and the bar. It was a free-floating intake made up of intake rollers spaced
2015-2016: Nothing But Net
asymmetrically to prevent jams. The second stage of our intake was what moved the balls from the roller to the launcher. It was made up of a string of tank tread and was powered by one high-speed motor.
Our launching system consisted of two launchers: Our long-range launcher and our short-range launcher. Both launchers were a simple slip gear design, the long-range launcher was powered by two high-strength motors, while our short-range launcher was powered by two high-speed motors.
One of the coolest parts of Bedivere was out Pneumatic ramp lifting mechanism. This system allowed us to low lift up to 20 lbs quickly and efficiently. It used two pneumatic pistons that, when a robot drove on, push into the ground and, with the help of the drive train, pushed the robot up a little over 4".
2018-2019 Turning Point
Al.U.Minium (Al)
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For Al's drive train, we have two Omni-wheels in the back and tank treads in the front. We chose this because it makes it quicker to get in the platform since they have more grip and more points of contact with the platform. We have 4 motors on the drive train so we have enough speed to get from shooting flags to flipping caps.
For the ball intake, there is a triangle conveyor that brings the ball to the side and then up to the shooter. The conveyor is also chained to a rubberband roller to
suck up the balls. They have to be chained together because there was only one motor to work with. Themotor is connected to a large sprocket so the belt can go as fast as possible. The chain to the roller is on a crown gear that is geared 3:1 for speed so the roller will keep the balls in as the robot is driven around.
We decided for this design that we wanted a puncher. We chose it because it is typically more accurate than a flywheel. One of the drawbacks of a typical slip-gear puncher is that it isn't able to be aimed without the use of a second motor. We overcame this drawback by using a gear on an arm to drive the puncher, instead of a slip gear.
Our lift is a double-reverse four bar. It is geared 5:1 for strength and powered by a high-speed V5 motor. When Noah was designing it, he got one of our mentors to help with the math, so that it would be the right height, without being excessively large.
help with the math so that we could make it lift the full 36 inches, while not being excessively tall.
Our L-Flipper is our main scoring method and is shaped like an “L”. This is used to pick up caps and score them. The motor on the back is a Red 100 RPM (Strength) cartridge motor, on a 3 to 1 gear ratio. The flipper flips up and the rollers made out of spacers let the cap tip over and flip to the other color. The spacing of the L-Flipper allows the rotational point of the center of the cap to be the same, so the cap can be scored from either position.
Our robot uses a passively controlled pole-alignment device. When the lift raises it pulls one rope on either side of the robot which go around two pulleys (per side) and then pulls up the alignment device. There are two rubber bands per rope to connect them to the lift. This allows the lift to continue to rise after the alignment device is fully deployed.
El Conejito
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El Conejito is our second robot for this season. He is a cap bot, meaning that he only scores caps and can't do anything with the balls. His drive train consisted of 4 mecanum wheels. We chose mecanum wheels because they allowed us to strafe, making it easier to score caps. There is also a chain on the inside of the drive train, which, when used with our "L" flipper let go onto the yellow platform from the ground.
His lift was a double-reverse four bar. We chose this design because it is a reliable, linear lift that is relatively easy to build and maintain. We designed it with a 1:5 gear ratio powered by two V5 motors with high strength cartridges. We had one of our mentors
Ultimo
Ultimo was our third and final robot for this season. He was a puncher robot with the ability to score caps on the posts.
For the drive train, we had 5 motors. One motor per wheel and one for the treads. We have four mecanum wheels that are oriented so that they allow for strafing when the front wheels are rotated in the opposite direction as the back wheels. In the middle of the drive train, there are two raised chains with rubber grips. They are both ran off the same motor and when used with the cap flipper, can get the robot on the center platform directly from the ground. For our ball intake, we have one high speed motor powering four rubber banded intake rollers.
The bottom roller pushes the ball back into a funnel that brings the ball to a ramp in the middle. The curved ramp brings the ball up and the two middle rollers bring the ball vertically to the top roller. The top roller is off set from the other ones and is also sped up with a smaller sprocket at 3:1 ratio. This is so that the top roller can push the over the lip into the puncher. The middle corridor also has rubber mesh so that it can easily hold another ball while the is loaded into the puncher
We decided that we wanted to go with a puncher. We chose it because it is typically more accurate than a flywheel. One of the drawbacks of a typical slip-gear puncher is that it isn’t aimable without the use of a second motor. We overcame this drawback by using gear on an arm to drive the puncher, instead of a slip gear. When the drive shaft is turned one way by the motor it winds back the puncher, and when turned the other way, the arm rotates around the drive shaft and releases the puncher. This allows us to easily control the power of the puncher by varying the distance we wind it up.
Our cap intake is a simple two-bar, that pitches the caps in between two c-channels separated by a one inch gap. This then swings over the robot and places it on the low post.
2019-2020 Tower Takeover
We put two gears side by side where we previously had one gear. By doing this, the lift worked much better. We also used an insane amount of rubber bands (as seen in the picture) in order to help the strength of the lift.
For the intake, we made several different kinds and finally settled on the one in the picture. Our original was sort of like a clamp that would grab the cubes from the side. We discovered that that didn't work very well for us, so we rebuilt it. Our second intake was more like a cage that would intake the cubes from the bottom. We found that this intake was much more successful. We kept this intake for a while before we changed it to the third intake. The final intake we created was the same as the second but rotated 45 degrees. With the intake like this, we were able to make an alignment device to make the cubes easier to score. We were able to score cubes much quicker and more efficiently.