Kickoff
Day 1:
We began Saturday’s kickoff with some lunch while watching the Reefscape reveal video then split into small table groups comprised of people from each subteam.
After the video, each table came up with a list of simple actions the robot can take, and placed them in order of importance based on that group’s opinion. These ideas were written on a whiteboard, and each group was given a certain amount of votes to tally by each idea, thereby allowing us to identify the objectives most important to the team and what our priorities should be.
The actions our team wanted to focus on were auto, vision, deep climb, and pretty much every level of placing coral on the reef. Grabbing algae and putting it in the processor was also voted for.
Next, each group began coming up with designs for different systems.
(A drawn design. The chairs were set up on the table to act as makeshift reef poles)
One design proposed was an elevator perpendicularly fixed onto another elevator, which was on a rotating joint to provide three axii of movement. This has subsequently been simplified to be two elevators parallel to one another, attached to the other so it extends three times as far as the original height. This appears to be the current consensus on arm design.
A group also drew a model of the game field so as to confer about strategy.
Day 2:
On Sunday, we began continuing to prototype designs. First we built poles that would act as the reef for testing. We had an idea of a simple mechanism that passively intakes the coral, and allows us to place it upon the reef and just move away. This, however, proved challenging as no matter the angle used, there were complications—such as the coral falling off the reef. As such, we instead began looking into active intakes; these would grab onto the piece, releasing it when required. We decided we didn’t want another moving part, like a rotating wrist for the intake, as that would complicate the design and create more fault points whilst we wanted simplistic, allowing faster movement and hopefully increasing cycles.)
We refined the arm system, putting bearings to hold the elevators together while a chain system pulls it upwards. We watched videos from multiple other teams and looked at CAD files to get an idea of how we want the system to work.
We also debated how we would climb on the deep cage. The majority wanted to shape our robot like a donut, where a hole in the middle would grab onto the cage and allow us to climb while keeping the center of gravity more or less near the bottom of the center of the robot; a stable climb.
A video was found from team RustHOUNDS that showcases a climber system that is quite simple; it extends a hook that goes through the cage to latch onto the top on the other side, rotating to pull it in, which moves the center of gravity over the center of the robot, raising it up.
Currently, no designs have been finalized or decided—so we shall wait and see what the team comes up with in the future!
