Selecting Lift System

By Janavi

Objective: Determine the type of lift system will allow us to delatch and reach the lander

In our past post Choosing Drive Train we decided that we will use the chassis BigWheel. After deciding the base we need to now think about the lift system that we want to use to allow us to both deposit into the lander and latch onto it. Evan and I have been experimenting with linear slides to use for our lift. I have been working on a REV linear slide lift system as referenced in the post "Linear Slide Lift". Evan has been working on a separate ball bearing linear slide. As well as these two options we are looking into past linear slides and ones that we have seen teams use in past challenges. We need to determine which of the linear slides works best based on the game requirements this season

Linear slides needs according to game

• Lift and lower robot from latch on lander
• Extend out to Crater from distance to collect minerals
• Extend out vertically to lander to deposit minerals

What we want our linear slide to have

• Light Weight
• Bidirectional (Able to collect from crater and deposit)
• Speed
• Sturdy
• Easy to fix and maintain in case of emergency
• Small in size
• Extend out to around 5 ft in height

Linear Slide Options

• Ball Bearing Lift
  • Heavy
  • Smooth
  • Reliable
  • Never used the before

• Drawer Slides
  • Heavy
  • Low cost
  • Unwieldy
  • Familiar as we used them last year

• REV Linear Slides
  • Light Weight
  • Not very reliable
  • Familiar

Next Steps

We need to select the best linear lift system for our chassis based on the requirements we set above.