Final Machine Description

Throughout this entire semester we have been working diligently on completing our machine while devising strategies and eventually creating a module and design in solidworks which had the purpose of executing our strategy. The competition was this past Thursday and after only watching a few machines in the competition it was clear what the best strategy would have been in this competition. Our strategy was to retrieve as many of the four black squash balls as we could from the wave field. This strategy is both time consuming and inprecise. Our vehicle has an arm while not mechanical was able to achieve our goal of knocking two black squash balls off the wavefield. The best strategy would have been going for the red sand balls from the perches of the tower by use of an arm to dislodge the balls and then a funnel or tube to catch those balls. Our vehicle had two phases: one was to move the ball and the second was to secure it, but with this new improved strategy you can dislodge and secure the ball in one step.

Our final vehicle was smaller compared to most of the other vehicles in the competition. Our base and all of our walls were built out of aluminum. We used a double gear box with a gear ratio of 115:1. This gave us more than enough torque considering we only needed our vehicle to move and knock down a few balls from the wave field. Our vehicle was also faster than most vehicles in the competition. At opposite ends of our gearbox we have two shafts which were connected to two axles (which connected to the wheels) by flexible tubing. We were originally going to use 4'' diameter wheels but we realized the weight distribution of our vehicle might be thrown off and also the front compartment of vehicle would be unable to capture balls because it would be too high off the ground. So we used the wheels provided to us by the supply box. We also had two small arms at the back of both ends of our vehicle behind our wheels. The purpose of these arms was to move and/or capture any balls by the back of our vehicle. While good in concept, the arms did not prove much actual use considering their size and range.

Our control box was secured on top of our arm by velcro. We were originally going to put the control box and battery pack underneath the arm but this interferes with the arm so we decided to secure it to the top of the arm. Also putting the control box in this location also helps to even out the weight distribution of our vehicle. After what happened in the competition, we would definitely have made the walls of our vehicle higher in order to protect the wires of the motor and control box. In one of our games in the competition another team was able to pull apart the connection of one our wires which connects the control box to the motor and effectively made it so we could no longer move. To prevent this we should have made higher walls.

Overall our wheels provided very good traction with the use of sand paper. We had no problem turning and it was not difficult to dislodge the balls from the wave field because our vehicle was precise in its handling and maneuverability. This is one aspect of our machine that actually worked out better than we planned. Our vehicle was quite small so we could have increased its size without sacrificing too much speed so we wouldn't have been pushed around as much in the competition.

Our vehicle has 3 walls and a base plate. There are two walls on the right and left side of the base plate which extend past the front of the base plate and serve as the compartment for captured balls. Also there is a back plate which sits between the two side plates. Attached to this back plate is a hinge and this hinge connects our arm to the back plate. Our arm was made from the 1'' aluminum hollow stock. Attached the end of this arm was a prong which was also made from the 1'' aluminum hollow stock. The prong is secured to the arm by two plates on either side which overlap the two pieces. The arm was secured (in addition to the hinge) by a support beam which is secured to the base plate by two blocks on either side of the support beam. The arm as can be seen in the pictures rests on the support beam. The final parts of our vehicle were three bent aluminum pieces which rested underneath our base plate with purpose of pushing the black squash balls forward. Since our baseplate was above the ground when we tried to drive the vehicle without this innovation the vehicle would simply squish the black squash ball and be unable to move but this small altercation pushes the ball forward without letting it get stuck underneath the base plate.

After having a full design complete we painted the walls of our vehicle black and also adorned it with various decorative images. One of which was a Herman Cain Train wording on our arm as well as a Yes We Cain! slogan on the side of our arm. We also have a picture of two American flags on the back of our backarms as well as two pictures of Herman Cain our name sake on the base plate of our vehicle. Our design worked very well for the strategy we designed, but our strategy had limits, such as being unable to get red sand filled balls. Overall we were very happy our vehicle worked as we intended, but we now all realize even more so just how important selecting a strategy is and can result in you ending up with a vehicle that is limited in what in can do or a vehicle that can achieve all that you hoped for and more.