Mobile Parts Hospital

[Jack Jones]

Originally posted by Kris Verdeyen
We've used rapid prototyping to build demo models of some robot components for the past two seasons. It's a very brittle, rough, starchy kind of model that's not really good for actual robot parts, but it helps the students and engineers visualize how the thing is going to go together.

It would be great to have something like what you're proposing at a competition, although I'm not sure if the material would be considered an "exotic material" (and thus be illegal) under the current parts rules.

I checked into it. Here are the specs on the thermoplastics:

http://www.tmngl.org/DURAFORMHigh.pdf

We don't see nylon in the exotic material list. Fair market value for an RP part, on the other hand, would be an issue. However, it is our desire to educate the students in the process, which we understand would make the donated part exempt.

We would love to produce even one success story where a machine is able to function instead of just sitting there or going in circles for a couple of minutes. But if we bring the MPH and do nothing else but give the kids a chance to see and learn some leading edge technology, then we will consider it a huge success.

We're open to suggestions - how about OCCRA? We're right next door.