The robot team went through several ideas for each part of the robot before deciding what to do.
Our original base for the robot was a good design, but after the trial run and seeing other robots we decided that the current base of our robot was far too large. One problem was the fact that the weight of the robot would factor in considerably when it was required to pick up or push things. We decided on the use of a smaller body.
The wheels have been a bit of a thorn in our side. Getting the wheels mounted straight seems like an easy task; it is not. Mounting the wheels straight on the base is easy, but getting them to not be off when attatched to the motors is a problem. We have to solve it by placing risers and tweaking the placement of the wheels.
The arm has taken up a considerable portion of our time. We've tried many designs that have seemed feasable, but in the end were not hardy enough or where inadequate. Our last design had an arm that was lifted and lowered by a string attatched to a motor. The failure with that was that the motor did not have the required power to lift the arm, and that the rubber band used as tendons in the "elbow" kept snapping! It was a failure and we are currently working on a new design to maximize the strength of the motor.
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