bots we build
twitch
Our robot's name is twitch because when the robot finished
downloading a program, it would start twitching randomly. Twitch is a relatively
small robot with a simple, yet light chassis. It uses two sets of two motors
(four motors) to drive. This allows Twitch to move fast with a good amount
of torque. The arm is attatched to two towers to give the arm enough height
to score in the corner goals. Attatched to th arm is a basket used to collect,
store, and dump the balls from either the feeder or the ground. There are
zip ties attatched to a spinning axle to collect and dump the balls. Two
motors move the arm for torque, one motor to move the basket, and one to
spin the zip ties.
Before we came to decide on this design for twitch's arm
we tried a few others. One design that we tested but decided not to use
was a scissor mechanism that moves the baseket upwards. We decided now to
use this design becuase it was too heavy and there were problens wiuth friction
when the basket was being lifted. Another design that we tinkered with was
a desigen where the balls were sucked into the base of the chassis and then
brought upwards by means of tank treds and some sort of prong. We decided
not to use this design at first because it would not have been able to reach
the center goal, it turns out that our current design does not do this either.
lassie.
Lassie was the robot built for the previous year's challenge.
The chassis that was built for Lassie was the same basic design that was
used for twitch. The chassis was pretty much the same motor-wise and gearing-wise,
but the wheels were bigger and exposed. The micro controller and battery
pack was on a platform, and there was a plow on the front of the robot to
push balls to the shooter. The arm was attached to a tall tower and had
a hook at the end to hang on a pipe. The robot was so light and strong that
it could lift itself up!
