DACS Robot Team
Mission Impossible 8: Rogue Plushies, second place winners
The mechanical design of the robot consisted of five distinct components: chassis, arm, claw, scissor lift and zipline basket. The robot was designed with modularity in mind such that each component could be built and tested to a certain degree separately.
Each component was first designed in Onshape, a free to use cloud based CAD software that operates in your web browser. Check out the team Onshape page here to view all of the CAD models.
Chassis
The chassis was built using recycled particle board that was laser cut and press-fitted or glued together. There are also sheet metal braces bolted onto the main hull to provide greater structural integrity and increase rigidity.
Arm
The arm members were built out of laser cut particle board with sheet metal cross-members bolted in between to provide support. The base of the arm sits on a ball-bearing swivel plate and is driven by a 270-degree servo motor. The first arm member is driven by a DC motor and worm gear, using a potentiometer to track its angle relative to the base. Finally, the second arm member is driven by a 180-degree servo motor.
Claw
The claw was made out of waterjet cut sheet metal aluminium and was fastened together using bolts. The arms of the claw were driven using a servo motor. An infrared light sensor was mounted inside the claw to detect if an object was within grabbing range. To verify that the object was successfully grabbed, the current to the servo was measured to determine if the servo was stalling.
Scissor Lift
The scissor lift was constructed out of laser cut particle board with a threaded metal shaft and a polycarbonate insert as the lift mechanism. The lift members had cylindrical shafts placed through their ends and centers with lock nuts to hold them in place.
Zipline Basket
The basket was made of laser cut particle board and the hook was made of two pieces of waterjet cut sheet metal aluminum epoxied to a piece of polycarbonate. This gave the hook both lateral and vertical strength. The hook brace was also made of sheet metal aluminum.
