Engineering Design Iterations
How we designed, built and improved our robot
Overall, the theme of our engineering design process was one word: iteration. With continuous testing, analysis, and improvement of our robot, we made progress every month and created a stellar robot.
Chuck
1st place at League Meet 1
Sir Loin
4th place at League Meet 2
Brisket
4th place at League Meet 3
Our initial iteration - Chuck - used our previous year's framework, with a four stage Actobotics X-rail slide system. As this was the beginning of the year, parts acquisition was difficult; thankfully, Chuck was agreeable with our available supply. Though unable to reach the High Junction, Chuck was stable and familiar to the Drive team.
Amazingly, Chuck led to a 1st place finish at League Meet 1.
The second iteration, Sir Loin, was built from the ground up with goBILDA parts with a significantly more ambitious design. We planned on giving Sir Loin a 4-Stage Viper-Slide with rotating articulation at the base, allowing for faster cycles on High Junctions. However, Sir Loin (bless his heart) was quite bulky, not very maneuverable, difficult to code, and overall temperamental. As such, right before League Meet 2, we determined that it was not functional and reduced it to just a drivetrain - still, we managed to attain fourth place with our push-bot.
For the third iteration, Brisket, we learned from our past mistake of overcomplicating our design and approached with a simpler and cleaner plan.Brisket was to be small and lightweight, with wire management in mind. The new design featured a standard 4 Stage Viper-Slide without articulation at the base; although it lacks Sir Loin's arm maneuverability, Brisket's arm is much more stable.Easier to engineer, code, and drive, Brisket brought us 4th place at League Meet 3 and has been far more manageable than Sir Loin.