Quick, agile, she floats like a butterfly. Tough, she hits you where it hurts the most, stings like a killer bee. Not pretty, but she is always ready for a fight. Announcing the EngiNERDs' 2011 robot: Muhammad Ali, or just Ali for short.
We are aware of the whole Ali-being-a-guy's-name thing and don't care. We will allow the pronunciation of Ali as Alli, but this is frowned upon.
Specs:
4 wheel mecanum drive, 1 cim each, gearboxes integrated into the frame
Weight at bagging is 95 lbs. Only minibot deployment and a couple other small things (sensors and such)
Dual banebot 775 driven arm. Transmission drives a clevis pinned through the chain, which then pushes the arm upwards with power transferred through a thin aluminum plate.
Pneumatic-powered arm extension
Two independent banebot 395s run two set of rollers in our roller claw. This allows pickup, rotation, and spitting of tubes. Inspired by 67 and 148
Short pneumatic cylinder holds lower claw 'prongs.' This allows opening of this jaw to facilitate scoring of tubes. We found that spitting was not an optimal solution. This also accommodates over-large tubes, by opening up the jaw a bit for them.
Note: Robot was not fully wired and plumbed or even motored at time of picture-taking, but those tasks were completed prior to bagging.