December

Brainstorming New CNC Mecanum Drivetrain:

Brainstorming New Mechanisms

Watching YouTube to find out the mechanism we need for V2.

We plan to create a 3-wheel odometry mecanum drive base and use a CNC machine to manufacture the parts for a rigid and precise design.

Prototyping using TinkerCAD:

New Intake:

Deposit

Deposit & Intake

Changing the general direction: 

We thought that if we were offsetting by 90 degrees we would have a hard time while transferring samples to scoring baskets. So we’ve decided to not offset by 90 degrees. To make sure everything is correct before we start cncing and won't be a mistake in the future.  Finding the right path is essential because if we aren't on the right track, we can add on more features rather than changing the entire robot. That is something we’ve learned from last year.

We decided to have two different subsystems so we could multitask effectively. While the outtake arm picks up specimens from the observation zone and scores them in the submersible, the intake turret can simultaneously collect more samples.

For the intake turret, we used 5 servos to maximize its range of motion. This design allows us to pick up samples from the submersible without needing to move the drivetrain.

As for the outtake arm, when we retrieve specimens from the observation zone, we don’t want to rotate the drivetrain 180 degrees to score in the high chamber. Instead, we can rotate the outtake arm itself by 180 degrees. However, this rotation flips the clip holding the specimen. To fix this, we added a servo to provide rotational freedom, allowing the clip to rotate 180 degrees and maintain the correct orientation. This way, we can go directly to the submersible barrier and use the slides to score efficiently.

When we were working with the bit meant for wood our workplace would be dirty and hard to clean, the shavings stuck onto the plates from the water and the wood on the CNC machine rotted over the winter break from the water. 

After getting the proper aluminum bit the workstation was so much cleaner and easier to clean up.