pic: Linear bearing rails: the Cheesy RAWC way

[Travis Covington]

This design isn't much different from your average forklift. The original design used last year was inspired by a walk-behind forklift that was at my previous place of work. If you look at one you will notice they are almost identical in both form and function, bearing placement and all.

The comment about heat-treating and precision tolerances should be noted. We did not heat treat any of the welded aluminum components of the frame or the elevator. Also, the precision and fit that we were able to attain was also due to the quantity of assemblies that were made. When making four complete sets for both teams, we started out with each set labeled as a part of a complete assembly. After welding, the assemblies no longer fit together as desired (somewhat expected). Luckily, we were able to mix and match sets and ended up with 2 sets that were super smooth (competition robots) and 2 sets that were acceptable (practice robots). With more than 5 pieces per robot, with 4 robots, the mixing and matching process took almost 4 hours one evening to get things to the way we wanted. Not as much preparation and precision as some give us credit for. We wish we were that good.

I also feel the need to mention that this elevator and the previous years robots are as much 968's babies as they are 254's. Students from both teams put a lot of time and energy (and heart) in designing and making such competitive robots, and it’s hard to see those efforts ignored. I think most people who know the specifics of the collaboration would agree that both teams contributed equally. Without certain aspects from each team, neither would be as competitive, engaging, or rewarding to the students as they are when they are working together.