Phase 1- Payload

Overview

In this phase of the project the team had to create a payload for the mechanized arm that followed the criteria of a 1.5" x 1.5" x 1.5" cube and had a least a volume of 1 cubic inch. The team first created four individual sketches and chose the best payload design.  The best payload design was then sketched in solid works/Onshape and was prepared to be 3D printed in its physical form.

Constraints

•  Must fit within a 1.5” x 1.5” x 1.5” cube 

• Must occupy a minimum volume of 1 cubic inch

• The part should be easy to pick up by the Grasping Mechanism

• The object will be printed using fused deposition modeling with 0.6mm nozzle and a 0.15mm layer height.

Sketches

• Andrew's design promised a fair balance between stability (resistance to being knocked over) and grip ability (lips for the claw to grab onto to resist slipping). However, the "lips" of the design are the smallest out of any design, which suggests his design could be optimized slightly to help the claw pick it up better.

• Jorge's design was the most aesthetically pleasing out of all that were proposed, however it likely would not meet our goals for stability and grip ability. In other words, it would likely fall over easily, and its awkward shape could potentially cause problems when attempting to pick it up with the claw.  

• James's design had 90 degree edges and a deep cutout in the middle, which in theory would provide the claw a region to easily grip onto without the piece slipping out. However, because the team has yet to design the claw, it is unknown what the claw would end up looking like, or how the claw would approach and pick up the payload. It would be ideal to use a design that would allow a claw to pick it up easily, without slipping, from a variety of different angles. 

• Paul's design was similar to James's, and featured more cutouts at various points, which promised to be more forgiving and provide more points for the claw to easily pick up the payload compared to James's. However, this did not completely eliminate the fact that this design is ideally meant to be picked up from the top, and only at 90 degree angles (when a payload face is facing the arm). A design more akin to Andrew's, for example, would potentially be more forgiving in this regard. 

Decision Matrix 

Final Design 

Bounding Box & Properties

Estimated Mass

Mass Properties

Payload Construction

Links & Uploads

SOLIDWORKS Part: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eoFg0EGXBYs2WtGWg395aMKig-cSlP-K/view?usp=sharing

STL File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qyCfzFgxOlTBzBoPSD-tcfeOYQnGrspo/view?usp=sharing