Welcome to my page about my Robot for MIT's Design and Manufacturing I Robot Competition. My robot and I won fourth place overall. I will be going to Bangkok in August to represent MIT in the International Design Competion.
Initial Concept
My strategy was to quickly push in the lower pucks into the lower bin then move to the upper bin to move the arrow, deposit five balls into the upper bin, and move the multiplier almost simultaneously.
About my robot
I had a very unique design from the other robots in the class.
I was one of the few in the class to use bevel gears for their primary driving transmission. This put the motors parallel to the wheel, and allowed for a shorter clearance between the wheels. This made my robot skinnier than others, and allowed me to move along the wall to push my pucks into the lower bin with one turning motion
I had one module that had a "finger" that opens the upper bin. However i designed my robot to have the bin door fall on top of a declined ramp which guided the 20 balls into the lower bin. on average, i was able to get 12-15 balls to go into the bin.
Theen there were my two modules design for scoring at the upper bin.
I had a magazine that held my five initial balls. Unlike most of the class though, I opted to drop them from the top hole instead of the sides so that i wouldn't have to move away from the front of the arrow. This was effective in maximizing my scores throughout the competition. even though i didnt always get all five balls into the upper bin, the lower range of my scores from the lower bin, upper bin and multiplier were in the 400's. this would best any robot in the class who did not go for the multiplier. the design for this magazine had to be ambidextrous, so i made mounts that clipped into the magazine and held in with springs. to move it to the other side, i simply had to unclip it, and took about 15 seconds.
Then there is the module from which my robot gets its name.
On the back of the robot there are two aluminum tracks that are 25 inches in height. There is a bar that slides along this track to which my battery and control box were attached to. this weight of over 2.5lbs would be held at the top in the beginning of the competition. there was a tether attached to swingin arm, and when the robot moved forward, the tether was released and the weight was dropped. the weight was attached to a pulley system which and extended my arm and allowed me to get the multiplier. This allowed me to use gravitational potential energy to lift my arm instead of a motor.
Finally, my multiplier arm. It rotates on a motor with a gear ratio of 525:1. I was trouble shooting the part that latches onto the arrow until the final day of impound. At first there were two prongs that lifted the arrow but they had the tendency to get jammed past the 2x mulitplier. the i decided to make a jaw like lifter that rotates with the arrow. I added a spring to return the jaws to the level position when ever i needed to align with the arrow. With this final design, i could consistently get the multiplier to 3, before the backlash in the gears would make me drop my arrow to the other side.
Most of the time i could score 750-1400 in competition, which was good enough for fourth. The main weakness of my robot are fast scoring robots that could block my from the top bin, which is how I lost my first match to David Sanchez.
I felt that my robot was unique and successful. the uniqueness of my robot allowed my opponents to not easily narrow down my weakness. For example, in the Elite 8 match, my opponent tried to pin my against the corner by the upper bin when our scores were tied with the pucks in the bottom. Because of my ball magazine which was above the bin though, I was able to keep my balls and drop them into the top bin.
Some pics from competition night
Setting up to compete
Top 8 finishers
My Brothers from Phi Beta Epsilon
My TA Gerald, who was very helpful in helping me choose my design as well as supportive during the competition
