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Originally Posted by Craig
WOW! honestly, I can't think of a better way to describe that marvel of a robot. I have two questions, first, what is the mechanism for telescoping the arm? Is it threaded rod attached to that chip motor? And second what are the non driven wheels? How do they work?
Once again, Nice work! Cant wait to see it @ the Hershey Center
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The telescoping arm is raised and lowered via a ball screw powered by the CIM. It runs way smoother than I ever would have expected it to.
As for the non driven wheels, those are just simple ball casters. Initially we wanted to go with four independently controlled gear boxes, but we just didn't have the weight or the motors. We then considered having separate steering modules for both the front and rear wheels, but again we just didn't have the weight for four gearboxes. Also, we didn't want to limit our mobility by having pairs of wheels linked. Eventually we settled on the two, two motor independently controlled gear boxes. We felt this setup gave us the most agility and the least weight.
We chose the ball caster because we liked how the didn't resist movement in any directions, compared to swivel casters and omniwheels. The debate over omniwheels was big amongst our team, with myself being one of the most notable supporters of the omnis. Considering how the ball casters have performed so far, I can definitely say that I've been silenced.
If you have any more questions come find me in Long Island, Toronto or Atlanta.