Saturday, January 4 – 7
Our team watched the live stream and then we began to read the manual. By the afternoon we started generating ideas for a ball intake and a shooting mechanism. Our former captain Blake von der Esch (right) even stopped by to help!
The following are some ideas we considered:
Ball intake and shooting ideas:
- With a “C chassis” an intake roller is mounted inside the frame above the level of the ball on the ground. When the wheel is turned on, the ball gets pulled into the machine.
- An arm with wheels on the end can rotate down, outside the frame, to pull the ball in. The arm has two wheels on it and slides over the ball, then the wheels pull the balls into the machine.
Ball storage ideas:
- Horizontal track: This was ruled out because if we have 5 wheels, that would be 7*5 = 35″ long; this wouldn’t leave space for other mechanisms either.
We asked ourselves, “What if we place the track on an angle?” “Can we fit more balls that way?” “Can the track be curved up?” etc. If we start the intake from outside our frame, that could also give us more room to store the balls inside the frame. - Conveyor belt: This is used to move the balls from the intake to the shooter.
- Ball tank: a vertical tube where the balls sit and move from input to output point..
On Monday (1/6/20) we also started building the chassis frame and our drive train.
Some wood from last year’s Regal Eagle Rampage was recovered and organized to help us build the new field elements.
Students met with Mr. Zabell (our mentor) as he took the lead determining which elements can be constructed from wood and which parts need to be constructed as they are for the official game field.
On Tuesday (1/7/20) we continued to work with Mr. Zabell and we planned how we need to build the game field for our third annual Regal Eagle Rampage. Additionally, we determined the expenses of the materials, for the field. We also continued to design and create a strategy. Furthermore we practiced our 3d printing skills and we can now prototype potential mechanisms for our 2020 robot. Lastly, we put the finishing touches on our flyer for our event, Regal-Robo Rally.
