PRESEASON DESIGN CHALLENGE 1

 After a very successful 2018 season where we qualified for the World Championship, we are ready to kickoff a new season! This year we have 25 members, similar to last year. During this preseason, we have been refreshing old skills and training new members. This past week, our Robot Leads assigned the team with a Design Challenge. The challenge is meant to prepare the team for our upcoming season. The team did a game analysis of the 2013 game, Ultimate Ascent, to simulate what the team will be doing for the first few days after Kickoff. This week's challenge was to create an effective way to pick up a 12in ball. The team broke off into 3 separate groups, each with a different design.

Group One- Roller Intake (first picture):
       To hold the 12 inch ball, this group made a design with two parallel rotating rollers 14 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter. On the rollers will be gripped patches. The rollers will have pins going through them to connect to a hex shaft. The hex shaft will lead to a bag motor  fastened to a bracket that holds the roller. About 2 inches from the roller on each bracket, there will be surgical tubing bridging across the opposite rollers acting to provide tension. The brackets will be connected to a base allowing them to rotate freely. The base will then be attached to the theoretical robot. To intake the ball the whole assembly would come above the ball. Then both rollers would rotate inwards sort of sucking up the ball to intake it. To out take, the rollers would rotate outwards.

​Group Two- 45 Degrees of Freedom (second picture):
​       This group's design consists of two pivoting connection points to the robot frame. This has approximately 45 degrees of freedom. Two side plates hold a shaft with powered rotating wheels. These wheels will come in contact with the 12 inch ball, forcing it towards the robot. The reason for these degrees of freedom is so the entire intake can move with the changing height of the ball, to maintain constant contact with it. When the ball is pulled close enough to the robot, it is forced up a ramp into a containment well. The sides are protected by panels so the ball cannot roll out.

Group Three- too many wheels (third picture):
       This design incorporates a roller assembly on a hinge connected to the robot. Three sets of numerous rollers are driven by an electric motor. As the rollers are lifted, the ball is able to be pulled under the roller assembly . The wheels on the  intake will spin against the ball and push it into the robot for manipulation. The rollers continue spin to ensure that it will stay inside the robot and will not fall out.