{IDEA} The open source mechanisim project

[ZeroValue]

I am a senior this year, so I will be headed off to college after I help teach my fellow team members how to use CAD. while I was thinking of projects for them to recreate/improve on, I came across a problem. It is really hard to understand how something works unless you actually build it; and while building something is the only true way to see if it is a good idea(simulations aside), building things costs money. Money is starting to become a issue.

My idea was to start a sort of open source project for First Robotics Mechanisms. Things like simple wheel bases(west coast anyone?) to basic game piece manipulators. I don't want to make a "standard" set of CAD that every new team just downloads and sends to the local machine shop, that would do more harm then good. Instead I want to make a "list" of proven and tested mechanisms so each team does not have to independently test everything they build.

I have been working on three drive concepts, a west coast, a box style(where the wheels are inside a 3x3 aluminum extrusion), and a Crab drive. I will submit them for criticism in a few days(probably not the crab drive, it will take longer).

I encourage anyone who is designing any sort of mechanism for their future bot to submit a copy if they need help or they think it could help someone else.

I haven't ever tried anything like this before, so any input on how to make this work is welcome.

Thank you.