Here's our competition preview video. Unfortunately the file was to large for it to be played on the actual competition date, so here it is now!
Dec 13, 2009
Dec 11, 2009
Design-Expo
Competition Day:
The potentiometer for the fixed-axis motor has been fixed now allowing us to change directions at will as opposed to when it only allowed us to rotate in one direction and if the direction was changed the motor would draw large amounts of current more than the motor could handle and would subsequently short.
The results were dramatic. Our arm was moving faster and was more responsive. It scooped the balls out with relative ease and tossed them into the opponents tank. We were seeded 26th but managed to upset the 7th seed thanks largely to our defensive cart that obstructed the movement of their cart. In the second round, we again performed well but were unlucky as we knocked ping pong balls out of the arena which counted against us in the tie-breaker.
Overall, we were satisfied with the performance of our machine. Improvements we should have made had time been more forgiving:
a) a lighter material for our rotating arm
b) a more suitable way of attaching the spring to our collapsible arm. this would have allowed us to scoop the balls further away.
c) one of the wheels came undone on our defensive cart and hence started to slip even before the competition started which obviously went against us.
The potentiometer for the fixed-axis motor has been fixed now allowing us to change directions at will as opposed to when it only allowed us to rotate in one direction and if the direction was changed the motor would draw large amounts of current more than the motor could handle and would subsequently short.
The results were dramatic. Our arm was moving faster and was more responsive. It scooped the balls out with relative ease and tossed them into the opponents tank. We were seeded 26th but managed to upset the 7th seed thanks largely to our defensive cart that obstructed the movement of their cart. In the second round, we again performed well but were unlucky as we knocked ping pong balls out of the arena which counted against us in the tie-breaker.
Overall, we were satisfied with the performance of our machine. Improvements we should have made had time been more forgiving:
a) a lighter material for our rotating arm
b) a more suitable way of attaching the spring to our collapsible arm. this would have allowed us to scoop the balls further away.
c) one of the wheels came undone on our defensive cart and hence started to slip even before the competition started which obviously went against us.
Dec 8, 2009
Final
The project has finally been assembled. The key shaft was redesigned and now is epoxy-free! We altered the shape of the shaft hole by making it roughly semi-circular and milling the corresponding portion of the shafts.
Dec 6, 2009
Defensive Cart: Success
The defensive cart worked like a charm. We set the gear-ratio to the maximum possible on the double-gearbox 344:1. We figured that more torque would be better than frequency as we simply intend to disrupt others and in order to that we need more grip, more torque!
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