Today, we did some more prototyping, which has enabled us to make some tentative decisions. We also started building some field elements and we will continue doing so tomorrow.

If you have yet to see our prototype Frisbee launcher, then click here!

There are just 42 days left until February 19th, which is “Stop Build Day,” in which all of the robots must be bagged and tagged.

Today we worked on prototyping. We completed a functional prototype of a Frisbee launcher. We used this to test how the Frisbee flies when both upside down and right side up.  A video of the launcher is below.

We also built a prototype pickup and conveyor system designed to automatically flip discs over if they enter upside down. The conveyor did not work as well as hoped and needs some continued tweaking.

Tomorrow we will do more prototyping and begin building field elements like the goals, feeder stations, and pyramid. Much of the time will also be spent working on details of the robot and making decisions based on what we have learned from the prototypes.

Today, we fixed up the prototype ball launcher with some bearings and shaft collars. After a few test launches and chain tensioning (yes, we used chain drive hooked up to a CIM motor), we got the ball to launch 27 feet, with some air. For a prototype, it launched a surprising half-field length.

We milled more of the plastic inserts for our robot and turned more rollers on the lathe. And of course, we broke our old pre-WWII lathe again (currently working on fixing this).

We wire brushed all of our robot parts to make them smooth for the welder, which we will send out in a few days. If you have been following our posts, you will recognize that we are somewhat behind schedule. To get back on, we sat down and planned out what we were going to do the next few days in terms of ordering parts, contacting sponsors, and machining.

Here are some videos from today and photos from yesterday:

Today, we worked on some gear box plates and received more parts.  We got to use our new broaches for the rollers to fit them onto our shafts.

We also made a prototype launcher mechanism to test for air resistance (photos coming soon), but do our dismay, it only launched a few feet. This is far from our actual robot’s launching mechanism, but it gave us a sense of ball movement.

We are going through OpenCV and making plans to use a FitPC on board the robot.

More pictures coming soon! Until then, enjoy a picture of the gearbox plate and a quick sketch up of the ball’s movement to score a basket.

Today we modified our bridge tipper and combined the two ideas of a pneumatic and a stiff angle. Our tipper will begin inside the robot and rotate outwards. We tested a prototype bridge tipper (see video below). It is simply an angled block. It actually worked quite well.

In the programming world, we bought new Microsoft webcams. Unfortunately, they do not come with SDK. Therefore, our programmers are vigorously building their own custom SDK to program the webcams with. Currently, we are using C#.

Our robot design is almost complete. We decided to use two wheels for the main launcher. This will allow us to have more stability as we are not tangent to the center of the ball when it is in contact with the wheel(s).

We also looked at a new lathe as our old (WWII era) lathe has been only semi-functional for a few years.

Taking apart the old robot!

Working on the prototype!