Welcome to our April Tag Arena!
Last year we used 3 Orange Pi processors. This year we are using a single Asus Nuc processor.
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With the beginning of week 2 starting we set our new goals yesterday and continued work. Some of the goals for the week are as follows.
-Mechanically finish the elevator and end effector
-Finish a full reef mock
-Finalize the intake to prepare for assembly
-Finish wiring diagram for elevator and drive base
-Continue work on field localization
-Prototype the handoff with the full elevator and ground intake
We have a ton of new developments that have happened on Saturday and into today
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Elevator and frame
We began fabricating the elevator on Saturday and were able to get the uprights done, all the tube cut to length, and we got it mounted to the frame. Last year we utilized a similar continuous elevator, but we had a lot of issues with rigidity so we are putting a lot of effort in beefing up the stages to stop the elevator from splaying.
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Intake Testing
The intake prototype got finished on Saturday and we began testing different wheel configurations and different geometry. With the way the intake mounts to the frame in its proper orientation it can pick up coral from about a 45 degree angle. For apart of our strategy we also wanted to have very fast L1 cycles so we would be using the ground intake to “poop” the coral into L1, because each side of the intake is independently controlled, we can create spin on the coral and make it land parallel to the lip of the troph which made the shots very consistent.
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Electrical
We began looking into simplifying the electrical work for the elevator because with last years robot we had lots of issues with encoder wires pulling out. Because of this any motors going on the elevator will have the sparks mounted on them, so we only have to run can and the power wires down the elevator.
It’s been a great week and we hope to accomplish even more to come!
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Should point out that the ground intake is also designed to pick up and deploy algae, but not for a net shot! Also, those red entrapment stars looked really cool, but were not helpful. Spirit of Open Alliance, the successes and the dead ends…
Great progress! Looks like you guys are cruising right along towards first robot version built
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That’s the plan! We hope to be scoring coral by the end of week 3.
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Sample Bumper
We think we’ve finalized our bumper discussions. If we can source it a mono layer of 2.25 XLPE (2 pound) should suffice for this year’s game. But we might end up using 2 inch thickness and adding a layer of floor tile. So, how do you laminate these?
Whatever you do for adhesives, press the layers in a wood vice.
We tried several things. 3M double sided tape works, but is a bit fussy. Gorilla Glue spray adhesive - total fail. On the other hand, plain old Crazy Glue, here as a generic, worked well.
We are going to keep this in the pit for people to scrutinize. Next year the game could be a bit more…energetic!
Last section left open for now. Who knows, we may need to try something else.
From left to right. Floor tile over XLPE, floor tile under XLPE, beat up old pool noodles from last year, and TBD…
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