Churro Hook

By Max

Task: Model a part to help the robot climb the churros on the mountains

Most of the big-value items in terms of points have to do with the mountains, so climbing mechanisms are a must have. Since the tank treads have problems scaling the churros on the middle and upper mountains, we need another way to pull the robot higher. Our solution was to put hooks on the ends of long, heavy-duty cable ties that we could extend and retract using a DC motor. We decided to make the hook a 3D printed part so that we could fold it and store it inside the robot until first deployed. We ended up making three different versions (all are below, as they appear in PTC Creo) as problems showed up with the first and second version.

Reflections

The final version of the churro hook works well, and with two hooks mounted on one motor (geared down for extra torque), the robot is able to reliably pull its own weight up the ramp after hooking on to a churro. Unfortunately, the axle that controls the movement of the hooks gets in the way of the trigger for the slide mechanism, so a remake of the trigger model is due some time in the near future.