Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

It's up to you. It's a design competition, so I don't believe our judges will be looking specifically for every single detail that isn't self-explanatory. If there's a hole in the tubing that matches the hole in a gusset, they will know a bolt/rivet goes there. Rule of thumb - if it matters to how the design works, put one in IF it isn't already obvious.


Also, Chris, great looking design so far!

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

I'm joining in this challenge really late, as in Today.

Is it OK for Two students to work on the same CAD?

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

It's allowed.

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Reminder: The Design Competition will end on the 31st of this month, which is in 3 days! You need to send your submission in to BlockBarrage2013@gmail.com before then in order to get it judged.

Your submission must include:
-Your CAD model assembly either as a STEP file or as a Solidworks Pack and Go zip file.
-A short written description of your robot, your strategy, and the engineering process behind your design.
-Your name (and names of those who helped you in the project, if applicable)
-Team affiliation (if applicable)
-Student or mentor

We already have a few submissions, and we're excited to see the rest of them!

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Sorry, no. A single t-shirt will be awarded. I did not plan ahead for group submissions.

-Akash

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Part of the challenge is if a team wins when there's only one prize, they must employ teamwork and gracious professionalism and share it.

Or give it to their CAD mentor. ;)

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Any chance you could extend it to 12:01 AM on the 4th? :/

Oh well, I'll post a crayola drawing of what I would have finished if I had time. I didn't want to work super hard when I needed to catch up on sleep for Kickoff, I guess...

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

I'm sure what you have now + crayola drawing will suffice in inspiring students.

While this is a fun competition, we do encourage everyone to catch up on sleep before the build season. This is just for practice. You need to be prepared for the real deal.

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

For the write up, what is the definition of short?

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

As my Literature teacher always says: "As long as you need to get the point across, and no longer than that".

Our judges don't want to be reading pages of paper, but they are interested in your design.

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

When you say the CAD is due on the 31st, do you mean due by midnight on the 31st or due before the 31st, as in midnight on the 30th?

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Midnight of the 31st/First thing in the morning January 1st. Though I suggest celebrating New Years with friends and family and not working on CAD.

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Here is my final submission. Pretty surprised I "finished" as I've never worked on a full scale robot on my own, just assemblies here and there. If I had more time there was a long list of items I would have changed (mainly the inside of the arm, the claw, and the pivot). I had little to no foreknowledge of telescoping lifts going into this challenge so this would definitely use several more revisions before it hit production level but I'm happy with the results.

echin and I collaborated on the design/strategy portion and then each built separate robots (no shared CAD files). There are a lot of neat differences between the two but I'm excited for when we make one together next month!

Thanks to the organizers and everyone involved on this design challenge! This was a great pre-season activity and hope to see it again next year so we can integrate it with our fall activities for CAD training!

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Brendan, awesome job with such a thorough design!

One comment that may be nit-picky, but thought it was worthy to mention because the principle can be applied in the future.

On your arm pivot, I foresee issues with holding tolerances in the last stage of your gear reduction. Currently, that Center-to-Center is dependent on tolerances in gearbox mounting to frame, top gusset mounting to frame, hole location in gusset, etc. Especially with what I assume will be significant loads in the arm pivot, you want to guarantee proper C-C to ensure longevity/avoid failure in that reduction.

My initial thought would be use the gearbox plates as the gusset on that side, so the 1/4 plate goes all the way to the vertex, and you ensure proper C-C.

Just a quick comment on tolerance stack up, but overall an awesome design! Best of luck this (real) build season!

-Mike

Re: Announcing the 2013 December Design Competition
 

Thanks for the feedback Mike!

I see your point and agree. I can now see with my current setup using chains instead of gears for the final stage would have been a better choice as it would have been more forgiving. Using the gears and "splitting" the gearbox up was not smart. :rolleyes: My original design used chain but it really needed to have a strong tensioning system built in and figured gears would be a better choice but I didn't look at how that would change the approach.