Glossary

From DEW Robotics
Revision as of 03:41, 27 May 2010 by Gdeaver (talk | contribs) (oblongater)

Jump to: navigation, search

We are engineers and robot builders. A lot of the time we use jargon and sometimes we use a big word that means exactly one thing. This is a quick glossary to words and terms that may not be a part of everyday life. (Well unless you are some big shot full time robotics engineer, then you use these words all the time!)

B

Backlash

Backlash refers to the angular differential within a gearbox or drive-train during which the driven axle is un-powered when the drive axle changes drive direction. Backlash is the result of normal tolerances and clearances between meshing gear teeth and slack within drive chain and belt elements.

BOM

Bill of Materials, usually generated from CAD. Required for FIRST inspections. Also used to calculate robot weight and resources, and because it's surprisingly helpful to know what's on a robot after it ships.

C

CIM

CCL Industrial Motor Limited - the company that makes the high powered motors for our robot. Their motors are called CIMs. At one point FIRST gave out two different sized CIM motors and they are referred to has Big CIM and Little CIM. Only the little CIMs are part of the KOP so we now just call them CIMs

Clippard

These are the Stainless Steel cylinders that are mounted on the robot to hold quantities of compressed air. They are made by the Clippard Company, hence the name.

D

DEWBOT

Downingtown East-West Robot (formerly spelled DEWBot), denoting the two campuses of Downingtown High School where our program started. This term primarily refers to the FRC Team 1640's robots, though it can also refer to the program as a whole (despite its inclusion of more schools). Also appears as DEW Robotics.

dressing

Putting cables and or pneumatic tubing in nice neat bundles and tie wrapping them. This keeps them out of the gears, wheels, etc. It also makes the robot look neater and it's easier to trace connections.

E

easy peasy

An English (UK) expression meaning very easy (short for easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and sometimes said as easy peasy puddin'n'pie!) Except that Team 1640 uses it backwards. When someone says "That's easy peasy" they are really saying "That's a lot of work, but I'll do it".

K

KOP

Kit of Parts (sometimes written KoP). At the beginning of the season FIRST gives every team a starting set of parts with a frame, wheels, motors, gear boxes, etc. This initial Kit of Parts has everything needed to build a rudimentary robot.

L

lubricous

Means having an oily smoothness. We use this word to refer to plastics that we use for bearing surfaces that have a slippery feel. Plastics like HDPE or Teflon are used on our robots on a regular basis.

O

oblongater

A tool to take round holes and make them oblong in shape. This is done to allow bolts to fit through parts. Most teams don't have this tool, they take the approach of drilling holes in the right place. We find that the use of the oblongater gives us the ability to adjust parts in many directions. We primarily use a dremel to oblongate. My son turned me on to a great power oblongater. Take a round chain saw file and put it in a Sawzall. Now you can do some serious oblongation.

R

roboteer

roboteers are our robotics students, but that takes too long to say, so we are roboteers!

Rolling Thunder

A powerhouse robotics team from Penfield New York. We have some inside ties to them so we pick their brains when ever possible [Rolling Thunder]

S

Schedule 40

Schedule specifies the wall thickness of pipe as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Schedule 40 pipe has normal wall thickness. Schedule 40 is also the thinnest-wall pipe generally available for inexpensive materials like steel and PVC (Schedules 5, 10 and 20 are available for austinetic stainless steels and more exotic materials). Schedules 80 and higher pipes are also available (heavy wall). To know the actual wall thickness of a pipe, you need to know both the nominal diameter and the Schedule number. You also need a pipe schedule table. The internal diameter of Schedule 40 pipe is in most cases approximately (and occassionally exactly) the nominal diameter. Tubing, by the way, is specified in a completely different (and sensible) way.

Schedule 40 PVC pipe is a rigid plastic pipe that comes in a variety of sizes. You most likely have some in your house, it's the white drainpipe. We use it for building mockups and temporary field components.

V

Velcro

Since the dawn of the space age, Velcro, that hooky-loopy stuff has been part of the builders toolkit. We use four kinds of Velcro, standard, wide, super-sticky and the nylon-ball style. Standard velcro is used for lightweight parts and it's sister wide can be found on robots, the giant screwdriver, etc. holding parts on. The super-sticky version has an adhesive back that can only be removed with acetone and much care. The nylon ball version is designed to keep heavy objects together. Small nylon balls interlock giving a much firmer grip. No, they don't make a super-sticky-nylon-ball version. If you need that, just bolt the two parts together.

W

wiki

A wiki is a kind of website that allows and encourages users to add and change material on the website. All of the mentors and roboteers can make changes to any page they need to. This keeps content grouing and inproves the quality of the site. Over 45 people have made changes to the site.