Thanks to CMTA (Canadian Manufacturing and Tooling Association) we received a $90 000 for CNC manufacturing and tooling.  Our school will be the second school in Ontario to offer a Computer Aided Manufacturing course. In addition to our in-house capabilities we also benefit from the support of Blackburn Industries, Zakron Industries and Panal-am.

Initial concepts are prototyped using our laser cutter and 80-20 for structure.

Critical dimensions are then determined for CAD

Overall robot design is done using Krayon CAD - a robot planning library allowing us to work out basic positions of subsystems very quickly.

Design of subsytems then commences with priority being the game piece path - drive base, intake, storage, shooter.

As subsystems are finalized through design review a BOM is generated and parts are manufactured or purchased.

Once all cricital components are in hand the manufacturing process starts - all team members participate in CAD training allowing them to easily view the design during assembly.

This process is iterative - testing determines the effectiveness of a subsystem and adjustments are made to ensure:

• reliability

• consistency

• ease of repair