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Team Phoenix

Consisting Of: Ben Rothstein & Paul Hansen

Submitted On: 12/22/2011

Executive Summary: For our final project in Engineering 153 my partner and I had to design and build a robot using aluminum and other various materials. This goal was to make the robot follow a black line on a white track and transfer a golf ball to a partner robot that would then do the same thing until we had met our goal of four laps. Some challenges that this problem presented were getting the transfer device to consistently and accurately transfer the ball and for the ball to not fall out while the robot traversed the

course. Our team decided to create a swing arm with a bucket, that was tied to a mouse trap, which when pressed by the partner robot would jerk the arm and have the bucket fling the ball into the partner robot who would then go around the track while we reset the first bot and do the same thing again until we reached four laps. For our robot the motors cost 20$ each and so did the 12v battery. The aluminum is relatively cheap per pound and so is the abs plastic and mousetrap. The overall cost of our robot is about 75$ (40 for the motors 20$ for the battery 5$ for the aluminum and 10$ for the other miscellaneous pieces. Our robot h Our robots performance during the in class final was sub-par. The robot however ran the track beautifully, the golf ball swaying slightly in the bucket but none the less staying in place. The trouble for our robot during the final was the transfer of our golf ball, the first few runs the golf ball

flew out of the first bucket and slightly veered off course falling to the ground instead of into the basket. However that was not the only problem because one attempt the robot ran around the track and beautifully transferred the ball into the next robot However because of a flaw in the paperclip trigger mechanism, the bots were locked into place destroying our best run of the day.

Table Of Contents 1: Cover 2: Executive Summary 4: Table of Contents

5: Robot Operation 6: Robot Competition description and results 8: Team Dynamics 9: Project Assessment 10: Design and Fabrication

Robot Operation

The circuitry stops and starts the robot when their corresponding pushbutton is pressed. The pushbutton in the front stops the robot and the one in back starts it. The circuitry keeps the robot centered by using two sensors that are on either side of the tape. When one senor goes over the black tape its circuit breaks and it shuts off the motor on that side of the robot causing it to turn off. When the robot is over the perpendicular black tape both sensors are over black tape which doesnt affect the car or make a motor shut off. The ball is passed to the front robot by a swing arm tied to a mousetrap, which goes off when running into the trigger device on the back of both robots. Once the system is triggered one must reset the trap and return the swing arm to its original position. The robot the ball is transferred to has its swing arm in a ready position. When the robots come closer to each other the paperclip trigger system sets off the trap

causing the ball to be transferred. The transferring robot doesnt do anything to prepare for transfer.

Robot Competition Description and Results For our in class competition our score was based off of two things laps completed and design. Each lap was worth 15 points and an additional 15 more points for design. Our class scores are as shown

First Trial Team Name Land Shark Oh Snap! Team Carbon Swing and a Miss Perfect 10 Team Killington Lap s 2 2 2 1 1 1 Time( s) 0 0 0 0 0 0 Scor e 30 30 30 15 15 15

Second Trial Lap s 0 0 0 0 0 0 Tim e 0 0 0 0 0 0

Best Run

Desi gn

Overall

Scor Scor e e 0 30 0 30 0 0 0 0 30 15 15 15

Scor e (015)
12 13 14 12 12 12

Score
42 43 44 27 27 27

Team Dynamics For this project I worked mostly with my partner Ben and very little with the group that we raced with. There was no overall project manager and no sub groups since Ben and I were working together since our first day. On the first day of shop Ben and I started working on the robot and we decided to become a team after a few weeks of shop. We then started brainstorming with ideas for a

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transfer mechanism neglecting to pair up with another team. When we decided to pair up with another team there were no open groups so we had to latch on and become somewhat of a third wheel with an existing group. We then created a design and participated in the class competition. The most difficult task to complete for us would be the final presentation and paper since there are only two of us. For team Phoenix I feel that we are both equally valuable and we have contributed evenly throughout this entire project. The size of our team hindered us greatly, I feel if we had a set team with one other group we would have been much more effective because of the work distribution. We could have been more successful if we had spent more time brainstorming because we got into this idea and we didnt want to change it because we put work into it and we were running out of time.

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Project Assessment Our robots performance was again sub par when compared to the other robots in our class. Our idea that having a simpler mechanism would be easier to perfect and have less room for error turned out to be wrong when it comes to robots. If I were to repeat this project I would consider using a conveyor belt idea that I saw other teams using because of their hybrid of simplicity and effectiveness. Our best feature that other teams may desire to emulate would be a trigger device on the other robot that sets off the transfer in the first robot when it comes in contact with it. We used a specially shaped paperclip to set off the other cars trap. The components that added most cost to the robot would be the transfer arm made of solid aluminum with a custom printed ABS plastic bucket to hold the golf ball. A cheaper alternative to this would be a hollow arm made of a

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strong plastic with a bucket made of something like a cut plastic milk jug and duct tape. The money saved would be small overall but a decent amount when compared to the total cost of the robot. The new components used might be harder to find but they might actually improve the performance of our robot. The greatest strength of our design would be that it is simple and easy the weaknesses of the design are that it isnt reliable and only transferred the ball half the time. I feel that if I changed the bucket into something that was shaped correctly for easy transferring would greatly improve our design. It most likely would take a few hours and a couple dollars for the plastic but it would be well worth our time and money. Design and Fabrication: Chassis : First I created a rectangle and I extruded it. I then dimensioned the hole and created a pattern. To

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finish I filleted the corners. I first took the aluminum stock and cut off a piece. I then milled the sheet down to specs and programed the machine to drill all of my holes. Afterwards I beveled all of my holes. To finish I filleted the edges. Battery Plate: To design the plate I also took a rectangle dimensioned and extruded it. I then used hole wizard to drill the holes and I then dimensioned them. I then filleted the corners. To create this part I cut of a piece of stock. Milled it, edge found it and then drilled the holes. Brackets: To create the brackets in Solidworks I created a thin L shape and extruded it. I then put in the holes for each configuration. To create the part I cut off a piece of L shaped stock, Milled it to side and drilled its specific holes for each configuration. Swing arm. To create the swing arm I created a square, extruded it and used hole wizard to create the hole for

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the screw and the bucket. To create the part I cut of a piece of square stock, drilled the holes and filleted the corners on the screw side..