Our Robot Journey 2019 - 2020
Murphy's Law
(Meet 1: Pattonville)
Our robot this year is similar to our robot from last year, but it has a 4-wheel drive with Mecanum wheels. It has an arm with a grabber at the end that we use to stack the game elements. We have plans for the arm to be on a scissor lift so we cam lift the game elements higher onto the build platform. We received new motors that are faster. Although the driver and autonomous programs had to be altered, the robot as a whole is much more efficient.
Murphy's Law
(Arm Animation)
Murphy's Law 2.0
(State Qualifier: STLCC Flo Valley)
After our first meet we got together and discussed what went well and what we needed to improve. Overall we were really happy with the results we had. We talked about ways to make the robot faster, how to make our programs more consistent, and finally how to stabilize the arm. In order to make the overall robot faster we were able to buy new motors which changed the gear box ratio from 60:1 to 20:1. Changing the motors provided several new problems. First we had to figure out how to secure the new motors to our current mounts, had to change all the autonomous programming to work with the new motors, and create new functions for the drivers. Lastly we stabilized the arm with different parts to prevent the arm from bending.
Murphy's Law 3.0
(Meet 2: Maryville University)
Since we only had a few days between our qualifier and our 2nd meet we decided not to make any major changes to the robot. We did add a few pieces for support on the arm. Despite a great run the week before, Murphy's Law struck again and during 3 of the matches the phone disconnected. We were able to run in all 5 matches winning 3 and losing 2.
Murphy's Law 4.0
(Missouri State Championships: University of Missouri S&T)
We went a long time between our final meet and the state competition. We tried several different arm mechanisms but ultimately went our grabber arm. We have now successfully stacked 6 blocks and are capable of capping at level 5.