Preparations??
 

Ive been trying to organize a website so that ill be well prepared going into the new season. I did a lot of models of the materials on our previous robot over the summer too.

Is anyone else making preparations for the new season?

Re: Preparations??
 

Yeah. I've fully designed 2 6-wheel drive systems, a coaxial swerve, a tank tread system, and many other random ideas, as well as about 8 gearboxes. I had a busy summer.

Re: Preparations??
 

LOL, funny you should ask. Okay, well it's just been stuff on making sure we have a team because we, well, we thought we lost our sponsor but I found out last Saturday that they are sponsoring us again, it's just that there's been miscommunication everywhere. But while we thought we lost our sponsor, we were searching for new sponsors and it's been going great. So with our old sponsors and new sponsors, we're thinking of going down to the Arizona Regional as well. We've never been out of state so why not? Other stuff we've been doing is all the students requiring to learn autoCAD and how to reverse engineer a stuff like a clock. Then later we're going to practice building with VEX kits our coach bought last year when Radioshck had their sale.

Re: Preparations??
 

We have a bunch of weekly training sessions including beginner software, advanced software, mechanical drawing, beginner Pro-E, advanced Pro-E, animation, machining, and physics.

We are also exploring the ideas of a mecanum drive system with independant suspension and planning on designing a new ball-lock style shifting transmission.

We have a lot of preparation for this upcoming year.

Re: Preparations??
 

Just to put this thread back on topic, it is being use to discuss what you are doing for you CAD team to get ready for the season. There are other threads discussing preseason activities, and I am sure that your contributions would be appreciated in those threads.

Re: Preparations??
 

8 gearboxes??? wow that's very impressive. I don't suppose i could get a copy of those. my email is negfrequency@yahoo.com. It turns out that on thursday we are taking our robot apart for parts :( but it is a good opportunity to model the parts that i couldn't access last year.

Re: Preparations??
 

Performing stress analysis on lots of different materials. Not sure I trust inventor, but at least its easy :rolleyes:

I want to find a strong "adjustable" material similar to 80/20 that will allow us to build a drive-train with easily tensionable chains.

Re: Preparations??
 

Hehe you could always do it all by hand, thats even more fun!

Re: Preparations??
 

I'd be glad to, but I'm running Inventor 11. Will this be an issue?

Re: Preparations??
 

nope

yea the stress analysis can be pretty fun, but why would it be inaccurate?

Re: Preparations??
 

I don't know about stress analysis...I'm using Inventor 10 to design an omniwheel (I'll post pictures to CD soon), and I ran stress analysis with aluminum. With only 10 pounds of force, the wheel spokes bent way out of shape, much farther than I'd expect with aluminum wheels of that shape and size.

Has anybody been able to confirm the accuracy or inaccuracy of Inventor stress analysis results?

I couldn't confirm the physical properties that Inventor has of aluminum itself because I checked many websites for some of the properties and they disagreed on some of the properties, so I can't tell if Inventor has bad data, if Inventor makes the calculations incorrectly, or if I'm hugely overestimating the strength of aluminum.

Re: Preparations??
 

Keep in mind that programs like COSMOS or Inventor deform the model as a graphical representation of the colored data they'll typically place onto the model. The deformation you see on the screen is exaggerated to make it easier to detect.

Re: Preparations??
 

That explains it! Now I see where the REAL deformation results are. Thanks.

Re: Preparations??
 

Team 103 always prepares by having teaching sessions with the noobs. Also it was a good chance for everybody to reup their skills after a summer of no Inventor. We'd also discuss website ideas, drivetrain ideas, and new innovative things we could do in Inventor. Maybe this year we'll have some surprises to throw out at you.