BigWheel Upgrades

By Evan

Task: Get BigWheel ready for the tournament

Today, we built mounts to attach both types of intake to the rack; the rack-and-pinion corncob intake and the red-flapped intake. We also created a new way of mounting the arm to the chassis. The idea is that since it’s attached to the rack and pinion track, it reaches high enough for the robot to put the minerals in the lander. We made the arm with a 12-86 gear ratio. Our next plan is to create the mount, minimizing the size of the arm.

The final addition is a tail for the robot to be able to stop itself from flipping backwards, something that is a very real danger of the design. It will probably be made of polycarb with aluminum or steel support on either side, just in case the polycarb is not enough to support the push of the robot. Part of this process will involve some code tuning so that the robot stops itself, but the tail is necessary as a preventative measure.

Next Steps

There’s still a lot of stuff we will have to do to prepare the robot physically for the competition this Saturday, but I believe it will get done.