DEWBOT VI Mechanical

DEWBOT VI’s scoring strategy is focused on scoring soccer balls. Towards this, we should be able to:

• Herd up to 3 soccer balls and push these into the goal if playing in the alliance zone
• Herd balls with the robot side as well and also push into the goal using the side.
• Kick the ball towards the goal. We expect to be able to reliably score from Mid-field and to at least be able to reliably move balls from the opposing zone to the alliance zone with a single kick over both bumps. Bonus if we can reliably score from the opposing zone.
• Clear soccer balls from the tunnels

DEWBOT VI has no provisions to Elevate or Suspend.

Kicker

How do you move a soccer ball?

How do you get a soccer ball you can't pick up into a goal?

It's not a big surprise we ended up with a kicker on DEWBOT VI.

The Kicker is latex-tubing powered. Kicker is 15” wide and had a kicking face tangent to the ball at the contact point.

The Kicker will be cocked and fired pneumatically. A 2” bore, 4” stroke cylinder will drive a cocking arm to drive the Kicker into the Armed position, where it will be held by a Catch. Once the Kicker is Armed, the cocking arm will return to its rest position (it does not participate in the firing). To fire the Kicker, the Catch is released using a ¾” bore, ½” stroke trigger cylinder.

The Kicker power will not be adjustable during a match. It will be possible to adjust the latex tubing between matches to attenuate the Kicker’s power.

The Kicker is a robust, welded aluminum assembly supported by a substantive welded structure within the chassis. Firing the Kicker will release a great deal of stored energy.

Processor

The Processor consists of a 15" x 1-1/4" PVC pipe covered with grippy 1/16 neoprene rubber sheet shore 40 hardness. The roller is rotated by a Fisher Price motor attached to a Banes Bot 256:1 transmission. After initial testing it was very apparent that the rotation was to slow. During the snow storm, a stage of the Banes Bot transmission was epoxied and now has a reduction of 128:1. This speed may be adequate. Further testing is needed. The processor keeps the ball in position for the kicker and also prevents the soccer ball fro intruding past the frame perimeter more than 3". A 3 stage ring gear has been ordered from Banes Bots. Pictures to be posted later.

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