DEWBOT VII Build

Build season is the heart of the FRC year. It is the 45 days during which the team's students and mentors put their hearts, minds and hands into designing and building a great robot. Paradoxically, the time seems both far too short and much too long.

This page contains a day by day breakdown of what we did. Dates hyper-links go to the corresponding photo gallery.

On Saturday, January 8^th, team 1640 students, parents and mentors drove to Upper Darby High School on to watch the events from Dean Kamen’s home in New Hampshire, see the objectives of the 2011 game revealed, examine a mock-up of this year’s play pieces up close, and pick up our kit of parts.
We attended seminars immediately following the Logomotion Kickoff.
The Team returned to DRC following Kickoff for a read-through of Logomotion's rules.

Week One (1/9-1/15)

Sunday 9-January - Brainstorming

Siri Maley & Heather McKown inventoried the Kit-of-Parts (nothing missing) - KOP parts laid out for brainstorm "touch & feel".
Siri Maley, Heather McKown & Clem McKown set up a 1/7^th-scale mock-up field inclufing scale robots, bonus towers & game pieces
Strategy Brainstorm - well attended by 18 students and 14 mentors - we:

developed a large number of game-play ideas;
focus on what, not how;
consolidated, synthesized and built on ideas as teams;
presented team ideas;
simulated the game on the game table (mock-up field) - multiple itterations; and
consolidated , synthesized & built on ideas as a complete team

Monday 10-January (no photos to speak of)

FIRSTchoice parts ordered (FTC Kit, Solenoid Kit & Pressure Relief Valve)
Made key strategic decisions for DEWBOT VII

Tuesday 11-January - Meeting cancelled due to snow storm

Wednesday 12-January

Assembled Functions list - started to assign specifications
Arm analysis - started on arm design concepts
Started building the first scoring Tower
Started cutting Al for Pivots Sides
Welcome to new mentor, Juan Posada

Thursday 13-January

First Pivot sideplate has been machined - a thing of beauty!
Finished cutting Al stock for Pivot sides & tops
Continued practice field construction
Started prototyping and testing the claw
Started work on the Minibot
Defined teams and lead mentors for these teams
We have Internet!
Web-based colaboration file sharing initiated for CAD team
Functions and Specifications largely complete

Saturday 15-January

Continued claw prototyping
Cut stock for Pivot Tubes & Transfer axles
Continued to build field pieces
Started to play with Tetrix parts for Minibot
Specified belts & pulleys for drive-train
Started putting 4-linkage arm into Inventor
Organized shop & storage

DEWBOT VII Week One Build Season Photo Gallery

Week Two (1/16-1/21)

Sunday 16-January

We worked through & articulated our sensor strategy & requirements
Which required clearly articulating our autonomous strategy
Also provisionally worked through our motor needs
Final Pivot Drive stock cut
Cut a plane work area on the mill bed
4-bar arm entered into CAD (Molley)
Pivot drive pulleys & belts ordered
More arm prototype testing
Have a reasonable Minibot concept to develop

Monday 17-January

Siri's analysis of the 2-joint arm points out the need to manipulate the attitude of the Logo Piece - a strong argument for the 4-bar linkage arm
Prototyped the 4-bar linkage arm. It seems we should be able to score on the high targets. On the lower targets, however, we will need to approach the target grid at an angle to stay in the safe zone.
During prototyping, conceptualized a lighter variation on the 4-bar arm. Will test Wednesday.
Developed the 4-bar linkage arm in CAD
Chassis frame is developing in CAD
Minibot launch design started

Wednesday 19-January

Started improved jaw prototype
Started machining Pivot spacers on lathe
Building bonus tower
Establish material needs for bumpers

Thursday 20-January

Finished first bonus tower
Completed Pivot spacers
Started broaching keyways into miter gears and 9T sprockets

Saturday 22-January

Finished broaching keyways into the miter gears
Put together our first Minibot (certainly not our last) - did not take it for a vertical walk
Atarted cutting custom polycarbonate wheels on lathe
Chassis frame has been (somewhat) completed in CAD
CAD collaboration software is working - Andrew has Inventor 2011 running and is therefore in the running
Made significant progress on arm/claw

DEWBOT VII Week Two Build Season Photo Gallery

Week Three (1/23-1/29)

Sunday 23-January

Finished polycarbonate wheels with concave profile for the Minibot
1^st Minibot test
Chassis designed
Cut chassis frame pieces (not done)
Bored steering drive pulleys using lathe (done)
Bored steering driven pulleys using lathe (incomplete)
Tested improved claw with pneumatics

Monday 24-January

Finally finished boring drive-train pulleys
Pivot Module top & bottom plates complete
Drive-train Model has been adapted to the Minibot pole race. Some sample results are available. Light minibots rule, but there are additional (and more nuanced) lessons.
Help! My magnetic minibot has fallen off the pole and can't get up! What do I do? Find out here & (esp. for the geeks among us) do the math
Minibot gets up the pole now
We used the mill to cut lightening holes into the chassis longituninals - both accurate & efficient (not to mention cool)
FRP pultursion arrived. We plan to use for the arm.
We are, officially, in the groove!

Tuesday 25-January

The minibot climbs the pole with battery on-board in 4.5+ seconds - but not every time
Almost all chassis frame pieces are cut; weight reduction holes drilled & chamfered
Weight reduction holes are drilled in the wheel sprockets (all 8 at a time in the mill)
Wood cut for 2^nd bonus tower

Wednesday 26-January

Snow Storm - No Robotics tonight!
But designing continues

Thursday 27-January - No meeting - DRC parking lot not yet plowed

Friday 28-January

Assembled test Pivot tube/top using thermal interference. Need to reduce interference to 0.0025". Tortured this test assembly (successful!)
Assembled first Pivot tube/top assembly
Milled circular keyways in driven steering pulleys (3/16" round in 1" ID)
Broached keyways in 56T driven pulleys
Cut more frame pieces
Started work on frame assembly jig

Saturday 29-January

Assembled all Pivot tubes/tops (thermal interference)
Lubricated all BainBot P60 gearboxes, assembled with RS-540 motors onto the Pivot Module bottom plates
Assembled all Coaxial drive shafts/miter gears
Assembled all transfer axles
Pressed first 1" bearing into a Pivot Module bottom plate
Milled frame front/back welding template and cut alignment holes in frame pieces
Made a faster minibot - still under development
Arm design complete - ready to start fabrication
Have video feed working