pic: The gearbox that makes us so powerful

[keenanmolner]

loading photo ...

[FunkyRatDemon]

You forgot to mention it can move easily w/ a 123 lb person on it (r0b0t)!
We need to get a movie of it going!

[Alex Cormier]

um, is there anything special done to it, or is it just a plain ol' AM?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

um, is there anything special done to it, or is it just a plain ol' AM?

It appears to be narrowed, since the sprockets are missing (and one of the gears is narrowed). Nice and compact.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

um, is there anything special done to it, or is it just a plain ol' AM?

Originally Posted by Billfred

It appears to be narrowed, since the sprockets are missing (and one of the gears is narrowed). Nice and compact.

I think he's talking about it having what appears to be three CIMs. (Mind you, I might be imagining that third CIM, it's hard to tell)

[FunkyRatDemon]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

I think he's talking about it having what appears to be three CIMs. (Mind you, I might be imagining that third CIM, it's hard to tell)

We removed the sprockets and installed encoders!

[Ari Allyn-Feuer]

Originally Posted by lukevanoort

I think he's talking about it having what appears to be three CIMs. (Mind you, I might be imagining that third CIM, it's hard to tell)

The third CIM is illusory; it's two small CIM on each side. I almost wish we'd made a bracket and gearing for a third motor each side, since we're not using the big CIMs and we appear to have the weight (underweight bot, a first for us!)

The boxes are AMs that've been modified by removing all the sprockets (chain drive, yuck!) and making it thinner. Then we lightened them with holes in all the gears. Then we put Grayhill encoders in them and mated them to our track drive. We'll be able to have more pushing power than our last robot, easier turning, and more than double the speed, without costing any more weight. Should we decide on a different gear ratio, we can set ourselves up to go 20 f/s or push with double the power between two exhibition matches. Plus the sensors are insanely useful for both regular mode and Autonomous.

It's got a software automatic transmission to manage the gearing, assuming our driver decides to use it rather than manually shifting. He's got a speedometer and odometer on a laptop running a Labview VI on the OI. During the autonomous mode, well, we'll see what happens. I'm not done testing it yet.

Ari.