In this assignment, Ball Bots, my design team had to create a robot that could perform the task of placing a small ball over a wall of about 3 inches tall. The robot must also be able to turn quickly to face the ball and pick it up. My design team chose a shovel structure to pick up the ball and place/toss it over the wall. Our first prototype is below.
At first our robot had many problems. It was slow and too flexible. It wasn't very responsive and did not turn well. The shovel performed fine, but we knew we needed to improve the other parts to make the robot perform better in the arena.
At first our robot had many problems. It was slow and too flexible. It wasn't very responsive and did not turn well. The shovel performed fine, but we knew we needed to improve the other parts to make the robot perform better in the arena.
In the second prototype, we attached the two motors tighter on the back to fix the flexibility problem and some of the response problem. Before we made this change, the robot often was skidding instead of driving because it would bounce. After the change it became a little slower, but was more powerful and less likely to fall apart.
In our third prototype, we addressed our poor turning ability.I took off the wheels to fix the axle. After we took off the wheels
Sean asked me to connect to our robot and try to turn it without the wheels. After trying the turning in the arena, it was more responsive and faster. We decided to keep the wheels off to make sure that we are as fast as we can be.
Sean asked me to connect to our robot and try to turn it without the wheels. After trying the turning in the arena, it was more responsive and faster. We decided to keep the wheels off to make sure that we are as fast as we can be.
Our last prototype, dealt with the responsiveness of the shovel in the front. We decided to change the structure and add gears to make the arm stronger and faster. The reason for this is that we could now toss the balls from farther distances than the normal short distances to get the balls over the wall faster. We also made the shovel wider to hold three balls at once.