Image 1
For my Computer-Aided Machine Design class, we were tasked with designing and building a robot from scratch to compete with robots built by other classmates. Each team consisted of 4 students where the objective was to create a robot that could drive on uneven terrain up a ramp to grab and shoot both tennis balls and pucks into a mini basketball hoop. My team decided to design a claw mechanism attached to an arm composed of a 4 bar linkage system to keep the claw parallel to the floor. This allows our robot to not only pick up tennis balls, but the flat puck as well since the claw must be in line with the puck to grab it. We had various constraints from how many motors we could use to money we could spend. In our final competition video shown below, I describe our design process, technical improvements, how we manufactured the robot from scratch, and show our robot in action! Click this link to read our report and the math/physics behind our robot.
The motors used on our robot for the drive (Image 3) and arm are also homemade. We dissected electric screw drivers (Images 5-6) for their motors and built our own gearboxes to house the motors and change their gear ratios to better suit our robot’s technical specifications. Each teammate made their own motor, and mine is pictured in Image 4.
Since our robot is made from scratch (Image 1), we used SolidWorks to entirely model our robot (Image 2) before machining to ensure accurate tolerances and dimensions. Our CAD model is fully functioning in order to test the movement of our arm, gripper, and gear belt. In order to actually build our robot, we utilized numerous machining processes such as laser cutting, turning, CNC and manual milling, 3D printing custom CAD models, soldering, drilling with a drill press, broaching, resin casting, and cutting with the horizontal and vertical band saws.
Image 3
Image 6
Image 2
Image 5
Image 4