In week 5 of build season, our pneumatics team mainly focused on understanding the electrical components behind the piston arm. They have been working on the design for the electrical panel, and how it works with the other electrical components. Our CAD team has been working on designing the robot arm. In the design process we came across many challenges, including the weight of the arm. Since the arm is the furthest out from the robot, there is a potential risk of the arm falling and breaking or damaging other parts of the robot. To help with this issue, we are using sprockets on the arm to create a stronger support and add additional gearing. We are currently working on reconstructing many parts of the arm with aluminum brackets to make the arm as strong as possible, while being as light as possible. Additionally, to grab cones and cubes in game, we are using a piston that can expand and retract to hold on to, and place down the items. We have also been working on the programming of the pneumatics system, which allows the piston to extend and retract. Our programmers have also finished the autonomous coding, which is necessary in the first 15 seconds of each round. To improve our robot, we replaced the chassis base with thicker and better tubes. We’re looking to finish the robot by next Saturday, so the remaining few weeks of build season can be dedicated to perfecting the code, and practice driving.
