The final version that ended up on our bot had a couple notable issues.
Handoff to end effector was somewhat finicky. This could probably be rectified with a harder wheel durometer, more compression, or more rows of wheels (potentially smaller ones since you’re fighting the extension limit)
Testing this one at very severe angles of the coral, like close to perpendicular, sometimes resulted in jams. This issue might potentially be solved by changing the entrapption star spacing slightly so the aluminum plates don’t jam it (which was the main failure mode) or, alternatively, running the wheels at a more severe speed differential if you have the software team and controllability to do so and still suck in the game piece to the compliant wheels.
We did not take the time to test this as I recall, as we decided pretty early in the design process that we wanted the versatility of the other intake we went with and focused further development efforts on that. It might be wise to do your own prototyping with the provided CAD file and see what happens!
We did not have time to install a climb mechanism during the 3 day build. The objective was to climb on shallow cage by attaching a hook to the middle stage of the elevator, but we ended up omitting it.
The belt sizes used were 90T (entrapption stars to compliant wheels, 24T-24T pulleys), 80T (VP to entrapption stars, 18T-18T), and 70T (entrapption stars to entrapption stars, 18T-18T). Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for sharing—your robot looks awesome!
Our team is planning to implement an algae intake system similar to yours. How well did the 550 motor perform for the intake? Also, what gear setup did you use?
I’ve gone through the details you shared, but couldn’t find this specific information. I apologize for any inconvenience and greatly appreciate your help.