Recap Week of March 23rd

         After spending numerous hours in the machine shop this week, we have successfully machined the parts for our most critical module. As you can see below, we have made the arm, prong and plate parts. The arm and prong pieces are each made from 1/4" aluminum square tube stock. We used the bandsaw to cut the larger piece down to approximate size, and used the endmill to achieve the exact size. For the plates we used 1/16" aluminum plate and used shears to cut it down to size. For all of the parts, we used the mill to drill the holes.
       We also decided this week that the wheels given in the kit would not be sufficient for our vehicle. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to search online to find new wheels that would better fit our size specifications. We found 4" wheels with a 3/8" through hole which was perfect for our vehicle. We also found a hinge that is necessary for the most critical module as well. It is a brass hinge with 1/4"diameter holes. Below, you can see some pictures of the parts we made as well as our team at work.
      The brand of the hinge is National Brand Hinge, and the wheels are made by McMaster-Carr

Parts of the Most Critical Module separated

The MCM completed

Week or March 12-16

This week, we continued our project by making our engineering designs and manufacturing plan for our most critical module. This weekend we will try to make the designs and plans for all of our other parts. Currently, we are looking online for the best hinge that fits for our project. We would like to find a 2 inch hinge to attach to the arm and the wall. This upcoming week will be a busy one because we have a lot of manufacturing to do in order to keep on schedule.

Schedule

The following link shows a constantly updated schedule we will follow to complete the building, testing and competition phases for our project.

http://goo.gl

Strategy and Concept

Strategy: We will begin by grabbing and scoring the yellow ball closest to our starting area, at the front of the table. Then we will proceed to knock off the 2 black balls from the wave field closest to our goal and then score them. Then we will proceed to the other wave field to knock off the other two black balls and then score them.

Concept: We will create a machine that knocks ball of the wave field using a long, stationary pronged arm. The machine will move towards the slope with the arm at the proper height and depth to knock the balls off. The machine will then turn, knocking one ball off the ledge. Next the machine will retrieve the ball and realign itself for another ball on the wave field.

Sketch Model

Solid Model 1

Solid Model 2