pic: Team 383 teaser

[Manoel]

loading photo ...

[dtengineering]

I'm thinking it's a big mouse.

Jason

[T3_1565]

ball bot drive system?? I designed something similar, so I hope thats what it is, it would work pretty well in this competition

[thefro526]

ball drive like the technocats second robot in 2003?

[Vikesrock]

I'm thinking it's a giant mouse as well. The wheel is to hold the ball down and the two rollers with the black and white discs will be read by a banner sensor. Should give pretty accurate xy position if it works well.

[Manoel]

Well, those are our wheels, so it can't possibly be a ball drive...

[EricH]

Some form of shooter? Or is it just a trapping device? (I'm leaning towards the former.)

[T3_1565]

Originally Posted by Manoel

Well, those are our wheels, so it can't possibly be a ball drive...

well thats dissapointing... lol is it some sort of sensor for..... something..... a make shift gyro or something.... not sure anymore lol

[tdlrali]

Definitely an encoder, I like this setup. How will you do quadrature?

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by tdlrali

Definitely an encoder, I like this setup. How will you do quadrature?

If they want the equivalent of quadrature they could use two banner sensors on each disc.

[Mr. Freeman]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

I'm thinking it's a giant mouse as well. The wheel is to hold the ball down and the two rollers with the black and white discs will be read by a banner sensor. Should give pretty accurate xy position if it works well.

I agree. The black and white discs combined with a lack of mounting point for a motor give it away.

[Manoel]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

I'm thinking it's a big mouse.

Jason

That's exactly how the CAD folder that holds the assembly is named.

Originally Posted by tdlrali

Definitely an encoder, I like this setup. How will you do quadrature?

The black and white pattern is so coarse that it will be really easy mounting the sensors such that their electrical output is 90 degrees out of phase.
By the way, this assembly is too tiny to use a Banner sensor (the discs are actually 1" washers) so we'll be using standard photodiodes and phototransistors.