Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

We were lucky enough to be stationed next to 148 at the Dallas Regional last year.... we were very inspired by their robot-- and worked on building a simplified version in offseason. I am trying to build a simplified version of their octonum drive in Solidworks right now... Though I dont think we will be able to implement it without machining the parts. I see that you guys built your own base... Is that something that you would advocate? (note: my team is fairly new at Solidworks and have never had anything machined). This was our Solidworks design for the robot I posted earlier

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

One of the things that is always preached at work is the concept of a minimum viable product. That is, what is the bare minimum to get done what you need to get done. Along these lines the EWCP took it upon themselves to figure out what minimum actually is. We published two blog posts, a general analysis of 2010/2011 and an in depth analysis of 2011. They are available here and here. We hope you find these interesting and helpful.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

I _really_ like your off-season persistence to build a robot from scratch taking into account the best practices of powerhouse teams... GREAT JOB!

Looking back, I wish we did the same thing from scratch, but, what we did was keep working-on/improving our rookie robot for the two off-season competitions we competed in...

As you can see below, we're kindred-spirits in our admiration of the 148 Robowranglers - Raptor model... ;-)

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

My rookie year was 2011, and our entire team converged on mecanum. I'm personally a big fan of any team who goes for tank. Although I have seen some large improvement over the development of the tank drive. I have fallen in love with 8 wheel tanks although that's mainly because it looks cool. You can integrate wheels with tank so I agree with SuperNerd.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

Keep up the good work guys. It is very inspiring to see young teams putting in the extra effort to learn what it takes to make a great robot. I have watched several other young teams in Michigan blossom over the last coule of years doing exactly what you guys are doing now.

They say that: "Imitation is the highest form of flattery." Personally if I was a judge, I would give team 148 an Engineering Inspiration award for posting design details and inspiring other teams to attempt such a cool mechanism. I know of a couple other teams that have completed very similar exercises.

My challenge to you guys that have built these, is to share some of the wealth you have learned. Possibly a short white-paper (1-2 pages) on some of the good, the bad, and the uglies you found while replicating the general design intent.
Doing the white-paper will help document the pros and cons for your team as well as help others attempting similar ideas in the future. It is also good practice for documenting your designs in clean concise manner to help present to judges at competition.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

Funny how the best innovations come after the competition. That was a very common design choice.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

I envy your roller claw.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

don't ask me to explain how. But the robot my team built this year was able to push several tank drive robots during matches even though we had mecanum wheels. While they do typically have less friction and pushing force, it's not as crippling as you would think

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

This is a good idea. We ran into a lot of weird design and logistics problems when making this design. For instance... I drove all around the Dallas metroplex looking for a 7/8 drill bit and brackets... And then as it turns out the drill bit I found was had the wrong shaft shape and it kept stalling in the drill press...

Thanks for the idea. I'll type it up this week.

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

Unless you're doing something crazy, step drills (aka unibits) like this are awesome for large-bore holes in thin material. They are available in many variants to fit whatever you want to do. Most hardware stores have them too. They frequently have a hex shaft, so no slipping in the chuck, and cut a small amount of material at a time, so no stalling and a very low chance of catching a part and spinning it. Plus they can be used to chamfer the hole when you're done.

Just a thought...

Re: Tips on Improving Robot Design
 

I just finished my teams Logomotion Post-Mortum document. It includes: our process, many pictures, problems/ how we solved them, things we want to improve, and Q&A with team 148!

Official Post Portum document