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Originally Posted by NWChen
I love that roller mechanism.
How did you manage to operate (close/open) the roller arms while keeping them compliant with the shape of the tote/container?
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We'll have another video that explains a bit more on how it works but the simple gist is that the arms are spring loaded and only actuated open. They are free to expand as needed but are constrained by a hard stop on either end. A DART is able to push them open when needed. We thought about pneumatic here but decided it might be nice to have some control on the width when navigating in tight spaces. The actuator seemed to be a way to achieve that.
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Great Robot!
Especially the wheels to align the totes! That is something we did not think of and I actually think is a great idea!
How reliable was the 4 bar? we were debating doing that for a little but decided it would be too hard to do.
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Thanks! We were thrilled with how the wheeled intake came together. Quickly acquiring a tote at any angle is critical this year.
The 4 bar works very well its fast, doesn't back drive and is smooth to operate. The primary limiting factor for weight is how much a tote can support before damaging the handle. Something that we didn't show is that with a little bit of programming the wheels can be reversed to adjust the bottom tote into position on the downward ark. This makes the operation for the driver nearly as simple as the linear lift, though maybe more programming intensive.
We also like the fact that we have some forward reach if needed. There is a decent chance there will be "debris" on the field which you need to reach over to achieve a stack.
In terms of challenges, we had to do a lot of work to make the structure as rigid as possible. I also don't believe we 100% nailed the packaging. We created a 2D CAD that landed the linear actuator in what we felt would be an optimized position. But a structural change caused us to need to move the linear actuator clevis down a bit and changed our range of motion.
I'm planning to create a tutorial over the next few days on a method to design linkage systems like these as well as a handful or other linkage designs we looked at using.
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Hi Dan, Do you have something other than a musical youtube video... maybe an engineering notebook, or something else with more technical detail and insight explaining your design decisions and the various tradeoffs involved? Thanks.
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I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the music. Stay tuned for more technical details, tutorials and how to's. Also feel free to watch our other videos for more insight into why we made certain decisions. We will be creating playlists to make hunting for team specific content easier.