Charged Up

Our 2023 robot was named Mr. Grabs, after its prominent claw mechanism that was used to pick up cones and cubes. This robot was our most extensively designed robot with almost the entire robot designed via CAD before it was built. In order to fit nicely on the Charge Station during the end game, we had a very narrow robot (only 22" (0.56 m) wide). To accomplish this, we needed to keep very tight tolerances.

The most prominent feature of this robot is it's extendable arm. The arm could rotate from one side of the robot to the other, allowing cargo to be picked-up on one side and placed on a node on the other side. Controlling the rotation of the arm was a custom 213:1 gearbox that allowed the arm to move quickly from position to another. The arm extended 45" (1.1 m) from its starting position allowing game pieces to be placed on the high nodes. 

At the end of the arm was a rotoclaw mechanism. The jaws were made of poly-carbonate to provide flexibility for rough robot play. The wheels on each claw ensured rapid uptake of game pieces once. Reversing the wheels allowed the claw to "shoot" pieces for rapid placing. The rotoclaw was actuated by a pneumatic piston, symmetric motion was provided by 3D printed poly-carbonate gears. The entire claw mechanism could be rotated 180° by a pneumatic rotation device. 

All of this was driven by a tank-drive drivetrain that had a max speed of 20ft/sec (6 m/s) with custom build 5" (12.7 cm) aluminum wheels. To keep our center of gravity low, we included a 26 lb (12 kg) belly pan that significantly lowered our center of mass creating a very stable robot.