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Rack Em Up Robots!
"Gotta rack em all"
Spring 2017
Professors Garay, Gravish, and Delson decided to visit the billiard tables on campus one Friday evening to celebrate what a great group of MAE 3 students they had this quarter. Profs G, G, and D love to play billiards and sometimes even will have friendly wagers to motivate competition. However, on this particular afternoon playing a game of 6 ball (a variant of 9 ball billiards that your profs enjoy so much) an argument broke out. Every time professor Gravish racked the balls professor Garay could not get a ball in on the break. After some heated words, professor Delson calmed the professor Gs down.
"Guys, guys, there is no need to fight about a pool game. If I am going to play with you two at all in the future we need to have an impartial racking method" Said prof. Delson
"I don't know Prof D, I think it will be pretty hard to make a mobile robot that can rack a game of 6 ball in 60 seconds. Pool balls are slick and they are pretty heavy at 160 grams each." Said prof. Gravish
"I have just the group of engineers who can solve this challenge!" Said prof Delson.
Enter out intrepid engineers in MAE 3 to solve this issue. Your MAE 3 professors are challenging you the students to devise a racking robot, capable of collecting billiard balls distributed across the competition arena and racking them for a game of 6 ball billiards. This robot competition is not for the faint of heart however. There are significant challenges that need to be overcome:
Interacting with dynamic features of the arena to collect billiard balls.
Manipulating the smooth billiard balls and transporting them across the arena.
Lifting and placing groups of heavy billiard balls.
All of this is to be done using low power motors, custom fabricated transmissions and drive trains, and limited to four control inputs.
Competition:
Two robots will compete head to head for 60 seconds. Robots will try to collect as many billiard balls as they can and deposit them in their scoring area to score as many points as possible. All scoring will be done at the completion of the contest after all parts have finished moving.
Ball Collection Sites:
There are several areas where balls can be collected: the tilt depot, the side walls, the arena floor, and the centerwall.
The Tilt Depot:
Three billiard balls are stored in tilting tubes at the end of the arena. By tilting the tube the ball will roll out into the playing arena where they can be collected and transported back to the scoring area. The tubes can be tilted by either pushing on the raised end or lifting the lowered end and each tube rotates independently.
Side Walls:
Two balls are perched on the Side Walls of the arena. These balls can be picked off of the rails and taken to the scoring area. Be careful not to disturb them too much or they will roll down the rail to the center of the arena.
Arena Floor:
Two balls will start in the arena center to be transported to the scoring area.
Center Walls:
Two balls are placed on the center wall which either team can collect for extra points. You can potentially lose your balls by having them roll under the center wall!
Important Highlight: Center "Speed Bump"
To prevent your balls from casually rolling to the other side, we installed a small 1/8in tall speed bump at the center of the wall.
Scoring:
1pt = Any billiard balls that make it past the raised divider but not up to the racking surface are worth one point.
2pts = Billiard balls that get onto the racking surface but not into the racking triangle.
3pts = Billiard balls that make it onto the racking surface and into the racking triangle.
negative 10pts At the end of the competition, if any part of your robot remains in the vertical plane of on the opponents half of the field you will lose 10 points.
Tie Breakers:
Tie Breakers:
In the case of a tie, the team who scored the first point wins the tiebreaker.
See Full Contest Description for complete details.
Robot Contest Results from June 13, 2017
Complete Contest Pyramid and Results
Pyramid 1, Pyramid 2, Pyramid 3, Top 3
Contest Winners
High Quality Presentation Award
High Quality Animation Awards
High Quality Design Feature Award
3D Printed Feature Awards
Machine Design Awards
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