Finishing the Drive Train!: Week 2

Week 2 is off to a great start after we began adding our mecanum wheels and motors to the drive trains structure. We were able to have some of our first in-person meetings this week, and progress began to come around much quicker.

A couple of our team members also picked up a new hobby: breaking chains! Our drive train uses chains to connect the motors to the wheels. This style prevents excess strain on the motors and wheels, but....modifying chains is hard work! These two have learned the best tips and tricks for handling the tiny pieces and taking chains apart and putting them back together quickly. With the chains broken, we were able to quickly finish attaching the motors and wheels to each other and the drive train structure.

Two of our team members take up the task of modifying chains for the drive train with the help of a YouTube video.

Our computer-aided design (CAD) for Sprocket (that's our robot's new name!) has also been developing over the past week. We have finalized the intake ramp design and created a design for a claw to grab the wobble goals with. This claw can be used in an up position to lift the wobble over the back wall during endgame or in a down position to move the wobble around the playing field. We will need to 3D print the claw pieces in the coming days to be able to build this new mechanism.

Our CAD for the wobble goal claw is finished. Time to start 3D printing the claw.

Our CAD for the ramp intake is also finished. Time to start building!

Building also advanced onto the ramp intake. We finished printing all of the wheels we needed to begin the build and got started straight away. With everyone on the team participating at our meetings, this got done in no time!

Three team members collaborate on building the intake ramp.

Two team members divide the tasks of finishing the drive train build and building the intake ramp.