Week 5 Update

Manufacturing went  into full swing this week, which required the effort of each team member. Machining, polishing, bolting, riveting, wiring, and  zip tying filled the entire week's schedule.

With the belly pans in from Treat Enterprises, assembly began for both the practice bot and the competition robot. With the ultimate goal of assembling the practice bot by the end of the week, work was hectic and fast-paced. By the end of the Wednesday meeting, much of the practice bot's base was assembled, and wiring of the motor controllers to the power distribution board was under way. The first set of powder coated parts came in from Star Finishes, so the competition bot was in the same state.

By the end of the week, many parts had been milled out, but many still had to be machined. Swerve modules on the practice bot were finally fully assembled, and the mast for the robot's elevator was further supported by the addition of front and back supports. The carriage, which is raised and lowered on the mast, was completed and put on the robot.

This week of all-out manufacturing was not without delays and issues. Several orders of parts were delayed, such as gears for the swerve and roborio (the control system of the robot). Though nothing could be done to work around the missing control system, the team did 3-D print gears to use until the shipment of swerve gears arrived.

System Spotlight: Human Player

Totes can be picked up in only two ways: from the field or from the human player. The human player will place totes in a closed chute before raising a door which will allow the tote to fall out onto the field.

In order to quickly get totes from the chute and ready for pickup, the team created an entire subsystem for this method of intaking totes. The human loader component is perhaps the simplest design on the bot. A ramp with guides is mounted on the back of the robot, which matches the inclined angle of the chute. Sets of wheels on the ramp pull the chute forward and down into the correct position for holding. To make the degree of incline correct, the ramp had to extend beyond the maximum dimensions of the robot. This issue was resolved by rotating the back end of the ramp up to fit within the allowed dimensions. A small gearbox mounted on the frame is powered to raise and lower the ramp.

Week 4 Update

The largest shift in team dynamics always occurs when prototyping ends, and manufacturing begins. Instead of testing an idea, students build a final model and tweak its fully fleshed out design. Instead of making runs to General Builder's Supply for screws and rivets, students unpack metal deliveries. And instead of discussing concepts and goals, students are hard at work cutting, drilling, and smoothing out parts for the robot. Madera's robots are constructed mostly of parts created within the school shop, so team members must be precise. Most pieces can only be off by five thousandths of an inch, and some must be even closer.

With the first set of parts finished, primarily for the swerve system, the team began to clean up and send out pieces to be anodized. Anodizing is a finishing process in which electric current is passed through a conductive water-based current which the part is submerged in. Oxygen forms on the part, which creates a thin layer of aluminum oxide which covers the surface. This new layer can be easily dyed, and prevents corrosion of the part. It also has the added benefit of creating a fashionable sleek black or blue finish.

Larger parts were also produced this week. Some students spent the week cutting and shaving down 2 inch by 1 inch aluminum tubing to the perfect length for the robots frame. These parts will be powder coated, where a dry powder is charged electrically to form a thicker layer of paint on a part. Some larger parts Are made by team sponsors, including the belly pan which was generously cut out for 1323 by Treat Enterprises, among other parts.

Despite the team's move from prototyping to manufacturing, several changes still had to be made to the robot. The intake for the tote box, which initially picked up only boxes, now had to be modified to pick up recycling containers as well. Even though not much had to be added to make it work, this addition took the team quite some time to figure out how to keep added parts from inhibiting other functions of the bot.