At the end of week five, I must say that I am exhausted! We all are. However, there are two more weeks to go in build (one until shipping) and all of the projects that have been going on in the shop are now coming together to form a formidable machine.
Having spent a good part of the last two weeks working on our tube-grabbing mechanism, I will start there. After four distinct prototypes with multiple testing versions in between, it is almost complete. Weighing in at about seven pounds, it can easily grab any type of tube in any orientation while still remaining light enough to not affect our maneuverability. It can do all of this at a wide range of speeds, from a crawl to our lightning top speed. It is currently being integrated into the robot, and in the next few days we will be making spares for competition.
On another note, our minibot has been consistently zipping up poles, and now has a working deployment mechanism that we feel confident about. As of Saturday, one of the “twins” is nearly complete, pending the installation of a working pneumatic solenoid. With the last few prototyping projects being finished up, Daisy X is looking to be a very well rounded machine – with a few surprises as well!
Having spent a lot of time in the shop, I have not been able to keep track of the rest of the progress with the other sections of our team. From what I have seen, CAD and animation have upped the ante this year and are creating stellar renderings. Art and imagery are busy with Chairman’s booth design, and the website is at its usual professional level. It’s almost Game Time!
