Roller Claw Proof of Concept

By Fernando and Ren

Task: Experiment with Claw Designs

Today we built a proof of concept for a roller claw concept that we came up with. This claw took inspiration from a passive rubber band pincer gripper designed by a team on the unofficial FTC Discord server. It also took inspiration from a previous roller/beater intake designed by Iron Reign for the Relic Recovery season (see below).

Some changes we had to make were the beater bar and the walls of the intake system. We experimented with different sized beater bars and the amount of them. We finally decided to go with thin beater bars that are 15mm and 10mm and use 1 beater bar belt to continue the intake process, while 2 beater bars are on the first axel. This setup allows the samples to be taken in by a multitude of angles, yet continue through the intake until it needs to be ejected. The build of the intake was changed from a rectangle, to having a triangle-like entrance. This change allowed the edges of the samples to get caught and slowly turn the sample to the correct position, creating more intake positions of the sample.

So far this intake system works well. It can intake samples in almost every position, except completely horizontal. This can be fixed by slightly hitting a sample to turn it in-game. It does however allow some samples to eject unknowingly. Another issue we have found is it intakes slowly, causing cycle time to be relatively slow compared to other teams. Overall these are minor issues, and it is an effective intake that we will continue to develop.