Essentially our findings concluded our teams would design a nearly identical drivetrain to Kwelaha from last year. We feel that a Sack Attack robot with these drive characteristics can be very effective. Zero turning radius, omni-directional capabilities, and familiarity for returning drivers and pit crew members all help us arrive at an easily-controlled, agile, maneuverable robot. We did have discussions about a shorter drivtrain to allow for a robot-wide accumulator later, but concerns over tipping with an arm elevated led us to build a full front 8-wheel H drive. We can always remove material and wheel later if we choose, but if we cut expensive aluminum now, it would cost us dearly to add back on later.
We also determined our Sack Attack robot drivetrains would have slightly different characteristics:
1. the chassis has to be as close to the floor as possible - not allowing sack under/in the wheels
2. we need more space in front of the front wheels to be able to add "angular encouragement" of sacks to the accumulator (should we keep the full front).
3. With three teams and the budget tight, we need to conserve parts even more so than we did last year.
With all of that in mind our teams worked hard, helping each other as needed and got three drivetrains more than 80% done. The tachquiwi concept is alive and well with this group!
We concluded the meeting with our engineering notebook entries - so far we're doing a MUCH better job at this than last year! Special thanks to our visitor Alex Arocho, a Temple Univ. engineering student who may be helping us out from time to time. Thanks, Alex!
We also uploaded all of our May meeting photos to our gallery, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uprobotics/sets/72157629999817456/ Enjoy.
We hope to have all three drivetrains running next week, so check back.
Great design review. Thanks for sharing
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