2025:Game Piece

Week 1 1/5/25-1/11/25 

After watching the Reefscape kickoff video, our sub team got right to prototyping. We split off into groups focused on prototyping Coral acquisition/scoring mechanisms, on prototyping Algae acquisition/scoring mechanisms, and mechanisms capable of acquiring/scoring both game pieces. We also ran material testing to see what would be best for handling and holding both the Coral and the Algae. Currently, we are planning to use an elevator mechanism, and as a result, our prototypes helped us analyze what mechanism would best mesh with our design and strategy parameters. Our prototypes are

• A passive Coral grabber with a ramp 

• An over-the-bumper Algae intake mechanism 

• A two-wheel Coral acquisition/scoring mechanism 

• A “Calgae” capable of acquiring and scoring both Coral and Algae

Current goal is to review and test prototypes that we have at our next meeting to settle on a "final" design to move forward with into CAD and fabrication

Week 2 1/12/25-1/18/25

1/14/25 The Decision

We have decided to go forth with an elevator mechanism. Had a meeting deciding between the following options after prototype testing

• "Calgae" mechanism: A mechanism with two external wheels and four coral intake rollers. This mechanism would have a wrist to change the vertical angle of the Calgae relative to the ground.
• A passive grabber with a ramp: With this mechanism, our robot would acquire coral directly from the Coral station. Coral would slide down the ramp into a holder where our passive grabber can pick it up. This grabber is designed specifically to pick up Coral, and along with this passive grabber we would have a separate over-the-bumper intake to acquire and score Algae.
• A Calgae with a ramp: A combination of the previous two ideas, except the Calgae is at a fixed angle (no wrist). The ramp is the same, so we would have to pick up Coral from the Coral Station, but with the "Calgae" mechanism we could be able to also manipulate Algae. 

Our sub team gathered to discuss pros and cons of all mechanism, and after reviewing our mind map produced by our strategy sub team we ultimately decided on the Calgae mechanism (without a ramp). Our plan for the rest of the week is to reevaluate the original Calgae CAD to reduce weight and determine if there are parts of the mechanism that need to be adjusted to better manipulate game pieces according to our design and game strategy parameters. In addition, we will continue to work with our Cage sub team to determine the best placement for our and other mechanisms on the robot.

Week 2 Summary

Our current order of operations for our mechanism design is to design our grabber, then our wrist mechanism, and finally our elevator and how it will attach to the drive base. This week, we created another iteration of our design focused on reducing weight. we ran into issues as we constructed it for testing because the belts we are using are both pulling it out of the hole the bearing sits in. We have fixed this for in the future

Currently, our grabber mechanism is in what we believe is almost its final stage and is 20 inches wide from orange wheel to orange wheel, it also currently weighs 12.2 pounds. The most recent iteration (pictured below) is planned to be our final with only some minor changes.

'Week 3 Summary 1/19/25-1/25/25'

This week we continued with CAD and did the following

• Built the wrist mechanism and connected it to the Calgae
• built 3 stage elevator with a carriage and connected the wrist to it
• narrowed the elevator to fit within the new narrower drive base because of CG
• current weight estimate for elevator, wrist, Calgae, and motors is 46.014LBS, plan to remove many unused holes and create cutouts to reduce weight
• un-extended elevator height is 38.125" max height is 110.388" (pictured right)
• finished the sensor mounts for both Calgae game piece sensors
• began rigging for the elevator
• current motor quantity: 1 NEO for wrist, 2 NEOs for the elevator, and 2 550s for the Calgae intake.

Week 4 Summary 1/26/25-2/1/25

our week began with efforts to reduce the weight of the mechanism. this included lightening holes, and adding pockets to our calgae mechanism. We then began developing how our planned Igus chain was going to fit into the mechanism. we also worked on the magnet sensors for the elevator and now have TWO sensors, one for up position, and one for down position, as requested by our coders, and also TWO magnets, one for each sensor. 

The Igus chain unfortunately was proving to be difficult, as a result, we are currently shifting gears into using the "slinky wire" where we discovered that the wires while coiled act almost like a loose spring or a slinky. We then had the idea to attatch the wires with zip ties to an actual giant slinky that will manage our wires for the mechanisms. As a result of this discovery, we have shifted the Igus chain to a back up option for now.