1241 THEORY6 2016 CAD and Prototype Resources Release

[GreyingJay]

Very nice! You were fun to compete against in North Bay - tough competition, but if we had to get knocked out of the semifinals, at least it was by the best ones there!

[mr.roboto2826]

Would you be able to explain the timeline you guys went through to produce your prototype robot so quickly? How many people were involved with prototype CAD? 8 days seems incredibly quick to turn out a fully working prototype (none the less a fully competitive one). Great work, one of my favorite robots this year!

[Jash_J]

Originally Posted by OccamzRazor

That is an excellent prototype! I can see how you had one of the best robots in the world this time around. Out of curiosity, which week did you have that prototype completed?

The prototype was completed by the end of week 1.

Originally Posted by mr.roboto2826

Would you be able to explain the timeline you guys went through to produce your prototype robot so quickly? How many people were involved with prototype CAD? 8 days seems incredibly quick to turn out a fully working prototype (none the less a fully competitive one). Great work, one of my favorite robots this year!

Day 1 :
- Read/understand the rules
- Scoring analysis and determine game play strategy
- Outline clear needs, wants and wishes for what the overall robot should include.

Day 2:
- Determined detail requirements for each sub assembly of the robot
- Broke off into groups and brainstormed various ideas for each sub assembly
- These ideas were presented and voted for. Ideas with the most votes are prototyped
- Parametric analysis is conducted

Day 3-4:
- CAD prototype - About 10 students were involved in this, 2 students per subgroup (drive, intake, conveyor, popper, shooter).

Day 5-7:
- Build prototype

Day 7-8:
- Test Prototype

In order to survive the first week, we included things to look forward to such as a mentor vs student dodgeball game at the end of the first week. We also ensured the students had different food to eat every day when they came in (aka, not just pizza) - they were quite happy about this.

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Jash_J

In order to survive the first week, we included things to look forward to such as a mentor vs student dodgeball game at the end of the first week. We also ensured the students had different food to eat every day when they came in (aka, not just pizza) - they were quite happy about this.

The team I was on last year made it a point to enlist parents' help to provide team meals during build season. Each family would sign up for a different night in rotation. We really enjoyed having a different hot meal each night, and we saw lots of cultural diversity represented: butter chicken, stir fried noodles, pulled pork, perogies, lasagna, pasta, ...

We also discovered that gathering everyone together for a meal was the perfect time to do team meetings and status reports. We didn't do the meals this year due to the nature of our build space, and we really missed that team touchpoint.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

The team I was on last year made it a point to enlist parents' help to provide team meals during build season. Each family would sign up for a different night in rotation. We really enjoyed having a different hot meal each night, and we saw lots of cultural diversity represented: butter chicken, stir fried noodles, pulled pork, perogies, lasagna, pasta, ...

+2. We did the same thing and it was great.

[Sudesh Sahu]

Originally Posted by Jash_J

Day 2:
- Determined detail requirements for each sub assembly of the robot
- Broke off into groups and brainstormed various ideas for each sub assembly
- These ideas were presented and voted for. Ideas with the most votes are prototyped
- Parametric analysis is conducted

In Day 2 you say that parametric analysis was done. What exactly does that mean and what specifically did it include for you this year? Also, around how many hours does your team work per day during the first week?

[MalavyaS]

Originally Posted by Sudesh Sahu

In Day 2 you say that parametric analysis was done. What exactly does that mean and what specifically did it include for you this year? Also, around how many hours does your team work per day during the first week?

Hi Sudesh,

For us, parametric studies include 2 aspects:
-Standard Kinematic calculations using excel spreadsheets
-Simple 2D sketches showing geometry of systems that can be manipulated easily to show valuable information

The parametric studies essentially give us a starting point for the prototype CAD and things to look out for once built. It gives us approximate dimensions for key features, while also telling us which features we have to experiment with/optimize using our prototype.

We completed parametric studies for all of our subsystems this year.

Shooter:
-Projectile Motion spreadsheet to determine wheel rpm, launch angles, height of shooter from floor.
-2D sketches outlining ball path through the popper and shooter, showing us pinch values, and dimensions for flywheels/shooter arch etc.

Variables to be confirmed using Protoype: Shooter angles, number of wheels, RPM

Inake:
-Complete 2D sketches showing pivot point and overall geometry of the system, including roller locations, and bumper height approximations.This helped us determine the dimensions/geometry needed to defeat the cheval, portcullis, sally port, and drawbridge
-Torque calculations for determining gear ratios in order to allow the intake arm to lift our robot (mix of both 2D sketches and excel spreadsheet)

Variables to be confirmed using Prototype: Make sure geometry works + Hooks for drawbrige + durability tests in terms of strengths (we ran our intake prototype into the wall approximately 1000 times to inspect damage)

Drive:
-Kinematic spreadsheet outlining gear ratios for achieving our desired acceleration and top speed
-2D sketches showing initial drivetrain geometry going over all the defences to check for lengths, clearances, and wedge angle.

Variables to be confirmed using prototype: Center to center distance between wheels: 11" vs 10" (which we ended up choosing)

Hours of work during Prototype Week:
Kick off Saturday/Sunday: Approximately 11-12 hours per day
Monday - Tuesday (Cadding Prototype): Approximately 8 hours per day
Wednesday - Friday (Building Protoype): Approximately 5-6 hours per day
Week 1 Saturday/Sunday (Testing): Approximately 8 hours per day

Let me know if you have more questions!