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THIS IS MY ENGINEERING CLASS PORTFOLIO - TO RETURN TO MY COLLEGE APP PORTFOLIO CLICK THIS BUTTON
I was tasked with building a BattleBot to push other bots into a hole, It has to be within certain dimensions and use only a provided servo and two motors, and respective controllers for these functions must also be included in the bot. It must be fully enclosed and have every part inside secured.
My design did not use the servo as I believed this would only hinder the performance. A servo takes up more of our already limited space and would increase the height of the robot, making the center of gravity higher and more likely to tip over. Reduced height also allows the bot to move if flipped. I also wanted my design to have no frills, nothing that could decrease reliability. Later in my design process, I decided to mess with the gearing of the motors as to increase speed or torque. I went with speed as my robots would probably not be heavy.
My final design has tracks powered by a gear reduction from the motor. It was low to the ground and not very high, as to make it impossible to flip or get a good grip on. The tracks would be made from rubber bands, which I tested on our track material and turned out to be high frction. The cobination of speed, traction, and low center of gravity would give my robot an advantage over my opponents, here is the design.
On the left, you can clearly see the gears designed to be mounted onto the motors and spin the rear axles, on the top right, you can see the roof.
Here is a closer look at the gearing. It took several tries to make it fit, but I did get it to work, but it was not very reliable, so I ended up scrapping the idea. Fortunately, I had thought of the possibility of this and designed the place where the wheels were originally to be able to be switched with the motor with minimal modifications.
The new design required different wheels which, as you can see here, had a hole for the motor to go in.
Here you can see the bumpers and the holders for my battery and other controllers.
The photo to the left shows the final product, which had several changes. I removed the cover of one of my controllers as it was not needed. I cut out part of the other controller's housing as it was pressing a button needed to connect to the main controller. I also cut off the front and rear bumpers to comply with size rules. The last modification was the addition of a small wooden circle on top of the motors, this was so that when the roof was attached, the motors would not move, increasing stability and control.
This is a top view where you can see two custom rings on the front axles. This prevented them from falling off, and after this, the bot was running clean and within standards, except that the tracks would keep falling off
This problem was intended to be fixed by attaching two guards on the sides that would keep the tracks on the wheels; however, before they were even attached, I could tell this would not work. First of all, they broke the width requirements when they were put on, and I could not make them any smaller. They also only created friction and didn't even prevent the tracks from falling off.Â
This failure caused me to go without the guards and compete with the tracks normally. Although the rubber bands could be repurposed to be wrapped around the drive wheels if they fall off, they still could provide some traction. Here it is with the roof on.
To the left are the failed prototype wheels and the gears.
In an effort to make my robot more lethal to other robots, I decided to design a cannon to fire at my opponents
The cannon had an opening rear hatch that stored gunpowder and a small plastic pellet. In testing, it worked and fired the pellet far.
This cannon would be attached to the top of my bot, making the bot similar to a tank. Due to many reasons, it was never actually attached. First of all, remotely firing the cannon would be very difficult within the space. The cannon would also only have one use and would probably do no damage. It also made the robot unable to move if flipped over. The main reason for not using it is probably that it wasn't allowed.
In the end, the robot worked and was able to drive. It could have competed well if it did compete, as long as the tracks didn't fall off.
THIS IS MY ENGINEERING CLASS PORTFOLIO - TO RETURN TO MY COLLEGE APP PORTFOLIO CLICK THIS BUTTON
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