Tuesday, 02-17-2015

And so it ends.

Build season has ended.  The robot has been bagged and stashed away for none to touch it.  After a long and strenuous build season the robot is finally done. 

Thanks to the work of the team, the robot - Clawdia - is competition ready.

As for how they plan on winning, the team came up with a solution: an elevator (as mentioned in previous posts), and a claw (also mentioned in previous post). 

The lift is made up of two prongs made of Lexan plastic, and a bar with two metal hooks coming out of it.  The prongs are shoved under the lip of the totes to, well, lift them up and move them around the field.  It can manage up to six totes at a time.  The hooks catch onto the handles of the totes, and can carry up to four totes at once.  So the robot could theoretically manage up to ten totes, if played correctly.

The claw is used to pick up cans - one at a time.  It can lift them up, and move them around - doing so without exceeding the height limit.  And with the fingers, it can even pick up noodles.  In order to even do any of this, the claw has to move.  And with the combination of the fingers, wrist, forebar, and mast, and the hydraulics to even get it going, the claw itself has five degrees of freedom of movement.  Five out of six degrees.  Ain't that fancy?

Aside from the lift and the claw, the robot also has a camera that allows the drivers to see where they're going - even from behind a stack of totes, and cans.
It also uses an H-drive, allowing it to move forwards, backwards, and strafe side-to-side, as well as blend movements to allow it to strafe while going diagonal!  The H-drive even has a heading hold, to make sure that the sliding is accurate, and doesn't go diagonal too much unless you want it to.  In fact, you could kick the robot in a different direction, and it will try to readjust itself to be in the correct angle. 

Clawdia couldn't have been made without the hard work of the team - both the programmers, and the mechanics.  They did a wonderful job.