Stronghold Meeting - 26-Jan-2016

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Competition Season Meeting

Meeting Date Meeting Time Location Attendees
26-January-2016 5:00-9:00PM TCHS Brandywine

CAD & Design

Final decision to use tracked tank drive had been made via email conference during the snowstorms. Mentor Andrew Weissman summarized the team's thinking an a 23-Jan email:

My thoughts on the drivetrain decision:
Based upon the evidence presented by both the video from 1635 and our modded kitbot, both are able to drive over Category B and D defenses. However, the 8WD bot showed considerable difficulty driving over the moat at a level consistent with what is required for this game (at least that was the impression I got driving over it). Also, while driving over some of the obstacles, the bounce experienced would be enough to potentially cause removal of a boulder from robot possession (depends on other mechanisms). This problem was exaggerated by the lightweight nature of the 8WD bot, but may still remain present with a fully loaded bot(mechanisms-pending). The tread drive appeared to climb over all Category B and D defenses without much issue (except the ramparts, but that was a design flaw with the robot they used with having too low of a bellypan).
I still believe that the treads pose a considerable risk, but the 8WD did not perform as well as required for this game with all B and D defenses, making the treads a better option for crossing the defenses.

Significant design effort took place during the snowstorm period and its aftermath. Major equipment has been ordered. Belts and Drive Sprockets are from Brecoflex and utilize TK10K13 belt pattern having a 10mm pitch. The belt is 1870mm long. Sprocket is 30 tooth.

The decision was made tonight to simplify manufacture by eliminating the planned 0.125" deep wells in he track side plates intended to support the idler axle ends. Idler axles will be supported by bolts (1/4-20 for large idlers - 10-32 for small idlers).

Mechanical

Nylon stock for drive idler pulleys arrived. Planning for how to machine the pulleys started.

Work started on downsizing the catapult.

Improved mock-up of ball pick-up assembled and tested.

Programming

-Over the snow break, we took home the raspberry pi so we could still work with it.

- We tried many things, such as new jar files and installing opencv.
- We had made some progress, however since GRIP is not officially supported for the raspbian operating system, we decided to investigate other options.

- We found that GRIP is supported on Ubuntu, so we decided to try loading Ubuntu Mate onto the raspberry pi.

- We finished loading the operating system today.
- We also need to expand the root partition. After doing some research, we installed gparted. We will test it tomorrow.

- We also completed a comprehensive test of the drive code.

- We tested all combination of drive code, including arcade, and tank.
- After a few final tweaks, they worked.

- We added a new form of drive code called Adaptive Arcade.

- This accounts for the limit of the motors to run from speeds -1 to 1.
- This allows the robot to turn faster, when it is moving forward at high speeds. A driver tested the robot and confirmed this.

Strategy

Field Elements

Other



Recorded by: Date: Journal Editor: Date:








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